Monday, November 8, 2010

Would I Do it Again? Absolutely!

Regina, Jen, Darci, Me
Thank you to everyone who stopped by and viewed me and my writing group's NaNo lunacy on Saturday. I hope you got to see some of the good stuff while you were here.

For those of you who couldn't stop by or found us only during concentrated writing times here's what you missed:

The Zucchini Genie and Jen were definitely the stars of the show. The Zucchini Genie was the name given by Darci to one of the giant zucchini my husband and I accidentally let grow to a massive size in our backyard garden. See, my husband and I just switched out our summer garden for a winter garden but left one healthy giant zucchini plant. But because the winter veggies are still young and not producing, we sometimes forget to go outside to check on the zucchinis. Thus, we have been growing prize winning zucchini. What better way to enjoy a giant zucchini than to incorporate in into a 16-hour NaNo writing day? Zucchinis are extremely versitile veggies, not to be underestimated in any way. It came in handy for exercising with, passing it around for a game of hot potato, stroking it for inspiration, dancing with it, singing into it, trying to fit it into the Writer's Block Box (a box with prompts to get the thoughts flowing again), and for doing other kinds of R-rated things with.  Ha! Shhhh!  In the end, Jen got to take the Zucchini Genie home as a prize for writing the most words throughout the day although I would have just given it to her for her excellent impersonation of the Risky Business slide across the floor, that was hilarious!

Elton John
I went into that day hoping to come out of it with an extra 10,000 words of which I only completed 5,990. Boo! That's okay. I have a list of excuses for that: My husband got free tickets from an old work partner to see Elton John the day before my 16-hour day.  Let me tell you something, if you haven't ever seen Elton in concert, run out and get some tickets in a hurry.  The show was amazing. My only advice is to see him alone or with an equally popular singer, like Billy Joel. We saw him with Leon Russell who wasn't that great of a live performer. But when Leon wasn't on stage Elton was incredible. He was standing on speaker at the front of the stage, he did a hand stand on the keyboard before plopping onto his bench. Awesome!  However, we didn't get home until after midnight and I had to wake up early since my girls were expected to arrive at 6:30am for breakfast so I started my day tired.

That's not my only excuse. My writing group girls and the two regional NaNo girls were so much fun to hang around that I lost my focus just on the dancing, ass-smacking, pillow fights, back rubs, laughing, story telling, LiveStream chatting, etc.

I have a special thanks to Quinn of seeing, dreaming. . .writing, Michael (my drill sergeant) over at In Time. . ., Christy of erica and christy, my long distance writing group member, Nicole, and Katie my new writing group friend, for chatting with us on LiveStream. To Quinn especially for being there when we woke up and came back at the end to see us through to the finish. Also, to Michael for getting my butt in gear from before the camera turned on to the end. This part of the event was so much fun. Without all of you on chat, we would have been falling asleep or taking naps on the couch in the living room. You kept us pumped up and excited to be writing (goofing off) for 16-hours.

Another special thanks goes out to everyone who came by and left a comment on my blog in show of support. All the comments went to my inbox and immediately inspired us to keep on writing.

Most importantly, thanks to my husband, James, for feeding us and taking care of us all day long and to my Write-A-Tat-Tat girls for agreeing to such lunacy: Regina (my sister and blogger at Middle Distance Runners), Jen, Darci, Nicole and our two new NaNo friends, Katie and Susan.

I was tired all of Sunday, and I have a feeling I will be a little tired for the rest of the week but the writing continues. As a matter of fact, I'm on my way back to writing my NaNo story just as soon as I publish this post.  Write on Writers!!!

How is NaNo going for you? Are you asleep at the wheel or cruising at altitude?

7 comments:

  1. I'm blushing! Even the sergeant is speechless for the first time in his life!

    M

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  2. It was such a fun day, Patty! Thanks for putting it on for us. I haven't laughed that hard in so long, and even though I didn't attain my word goal, I did do more than I would have normally. Just being with such fun friends having a great time made it all worth it!

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  3. I just wish i could have been there for the whole thing, writing along with you. Maybe next year :)

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  4. You did awesome! And you all looked like you were having a great time when I popped in! I must say, though, I never imagined what fun a zuchinni could be! ;)

    Your word count is about what I'm behind right now - gah! On the plus side, my procrastination on the nano novel has resulted in revamping my blog and working on two websites to launch in the New Year. Still procrastination, sure, but a least I wasn't just watching TV! lol Have a great week - and good luck on the rest of nano!

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  5. Well done! :D And seeing Elton John in concert sounds like great fun!

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  6. You are the most festive, insane, fun, giant-zucchini-growing writer I know! :)

    I'm so glad you exist.

    *hugs*

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  7. I wanted to come back again to see more. Sorry I didn't! Glad you got lots written even if it wasn't your goal! I got nothing done on Saturday but wrote one or two k on Sunday...and nothing since. Oh well! Happy writing. Keep it up! christy

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