Posted by on Dec 29, 2010 in #janathon, running, writing challenges | 7 Comments

Challenges for writers

I have signed up for Janathon. It’s a challenge that runs through the month of January (hence Jan) and is based on running (as in (mar)athon) therefore Janathon. Those who undertake the challenge will try to run, or take some other form of exercise, every day for a month, and blog about it.

Even before I signed up I knew that I would log the least mileage of all the runners – even the ones who get injured on 1 January will probably have covered more distance in their first run than I will in a month. But that’s not the point, as least for me.

I’m doing it to force myself to blog daily for a month, to exercise daily, for a month and to prioritise those two aspects of my life for a month that, frankly, I loathe. January is a great time to try new things, but I shy away from making resolutions, never having kept one, so far. I do like going for challenges though, and as long as I’m allowed to bend the rules almost to breaking point, I generally enjoy taking part in group-based ones.

So in the month ahead you can expect lots of musings on the relationship between exercise and writing, some thoughts on how I use running to solve plot problems, sidelong meanders into the world of the Runner’s High and its relationship to the production of good erotica, and brief updates on my actual running process – I might even manage to find my old Garmin and start logging how many miles I run!

7 Comments

  1. Bunny
    29th December 2010

    Good luck on them both. Then again, you’re not 20 stone and a crap writer, so you shouldn’t find it impossible 🙂 I’m back on 100words.com for January plus _52 Weeks to Conscious Contact_ with Melody Beattie. We are so alike, it’s uncanny.

    Reply
  2. Katrina
    29th December 2010

    I bet I’ll beat you into first place for the ‘who has run the least miles’ position!! I too am crap at resolutions, and January always holds lots of promise….but my lack of enthusiasm puts pay to most resolutions by 5th Jan!!!
    Good luck and keep in touch xx

    Reply
  3. Natalie Bowers
    29th December 2010

    I’m Janathoning for the same reasons as you: to make myself exercise every day and to make myself blog every day. I wishing you all the best!

    Natalie x

    (A fellow Janathoner)

    Reply
  4. Tribeless
    31st December 2010

    I’m over new year resolutions ever since I successfully gave up smoking on one then put on 6 stone.

    I’ve Googled ‘jogging’ and have to say I still don’t quite understand the concept, as in, ‘why would you …’ 🙂 I’ll track your progress, but for myself will stick to walking the pooch, sedately.

    All the best for the New Year.

    Mark Hubbard

    Oh, my vegetable garden; get it going again. Perhaps a resolution after all.

    Reply
  5. Kay Sexton
    31st December 2010

    Bunny – it’s really uncanny, you’re like the me I want to be.

    Katrina – wow, we have a battle on our hands then!

    Natalie – right, we shall keep each other company. Thanks for dropping by.

    Mark – get that garden back into productivity! I shall send you some seeds if you zmail me your postal address …

    Reply
  6. buryblue
    31st December 2010

    Good luck with Janathon. Some of my best ideas come when I am in a dream state only to be forgotten to often when I wake up. In the same way some of my best runs have been when I have switched off into a day time fantasy where I solve problems with ease

    Reply
  7. Tribeless
    1st January 2011

    I’d love to take you up on the offer of the seeds, Kay, which is, as ever, very kind, however, New Zealand’s bio-security laws are now so tough I suspect we’d both end up in trouble.

    Rest assured, though, I shall be planting heritage seeds from here: http://www.koanga.org.nz/

    Reply

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