On Sunday April 15th I took part in a Writing Marathon as sponsored by the UNC-Charlotte branch of the National Writing Project. There is no hard and fast rule on how a writing marathon should be set up but Lacy Manship did a great job!

We started out at Amelie’s French Bakery in the NoDa area of Charlotte (which I always get lost getting to – which became something I wrote about during the marathon!). There were at least two dozen people who came to meet up. After a snack we all “wrote into the marathon” on the topic of our choice before grouping up to head out to a new location. I drafted a poem idea that came to me on the drive over. I’m hoping to post it tomorrow for Make Friday Write.

We wrote for about 15-20 minutes and then shared within our tables since there were so many people. The group I was with then decided we would head to The Last Word Bookstore. You were also supposed to say to someone when you arrived at your location: I’m a writer, but we didn’t all do that. Instead we wrote and shared and then picked another location to go to.

The group I was with decided to finish up at Ikea which made me happy! I LOVE ikea and when I had heard previous writing marathon participants had written there I just knew I had to be one of those people.

But, no, no one bought meatballs this time It was great to hear what other people were writing and how we could help each other yet keep our work individualized. There was such great energy amongst the participants. I hope to do this again and I wonder if I can figure out a way to do something like this with my students? I had them write a journal about it after I got back to see what they thought a writing marathon would be. They had terrific ideas as well.

Our last stop was to the Wine Vault where, despite the loud music, we had an open mike type share. I left my house at about Noon and I was home by about 5pm. This was well worth my afternoon. If you ever hear of anyone holding a writing marathon you should definitely consider going. Or, why not try one yourself? If there is enough interest, and we can find a good date and time, I think it’d be fun to host one here via the blog or via a twitter hashtag soon? Any takers?

Write on