Monday Meeting, First Annual TOUR DE WRITING

Yes, I know, I need another distraction like I need... well, a dog in the peloton.  I have three kids at home for the summer (yay!), family in town this whole week (yay!), and a self-imposed(?!) deadline to finish a revision before an awesome on-line conference (yay!).  And, I'm still unpacking from visiting my grandparents (oh, and Tina!) in Chicago.  There is a lot going on. (<--look at my gift for understatement.)

Including the Tour de France. You mention words like:  peloton, king of the mountain, and stage winner, and my blood gets pumping.  If I had my druthers, the first 25ish days of July would contain only references to yellow, white, green and polka-dotted jerseys.  Oh, and my birthday (July 13th in case you want to get a jump on things).  Sitting down and watching 4 plus hours of guys on bikes is my idea of perfection.  Actually, it would be perfection if women raced too, but, oh well. It's awesome, anyway.

I thought that it would be too much fun(!) if we had our own Tour de Writing in the month before WriteOnCon, since it's great to have fun competition, and since the conference is a good deadline.  I'm still figuring out the details, but, there will be points and jerseys, stage winners each week, and four overall winners. AND PRIZES. You do not need to participate in writeoncon (although it's FREE) to win a prize here.  You also do not need to watch the Tour de France, although it is THEBESTTHINGEVER! 

You just have to write. Competitively.

Move over NANOWRIMO.  The TOUR DE WRITING has come to town.

There will be prizes, but I haven't decided what they will be (pretty sure they'll be bookish.) I'll post what they are this Wednesday. Here are the breakdowns of the competitive categories.

Tour de Writing Jerseys:

photo courtesy of www.kbk.in

Green Jersey: This is awarded to the person with the most sprint points.  I will award sprint writing points for shear number of new words accumulated in The Practice Room between now and writeoncon.  This is a competition for drafters.  Please email me if you need help with The Practice Room procedures (it's fairly easy).    TPR is a blog of Tina's where you go, sign in, write "unplugged" for an hour, and then come back and chat about what you've written.  It's great to talk to other writers about writing (and other things) in real time.  Keep track your word tallys for the week, and post them in a comment on my Monday post.  (I'll be at the Practice Room when I can as well.)

Polka-dot Jersey: King of the Mountain!!  This will be awarded for most progress on a revision.  Subjective, I know.  Post your challenging goals here each Monday, and I will award the Jersey to the person best able to stick to or surpass their grueling revision goals.  Tell me each Monday Meeting posts why you think you have earned the coveted polka-dot jersey.  And it has to be more than:  I deserve the polka-dot jersey because I revised a page even though a kitten was sitting on my keyboard. (If that were the only criteria, I would WIN EVERY WEEK.)

White Jersey: Novice Writer jersey.  If you are relatively new to writing--if it is your first (or even second) attempt at drafting, or revising, you can qualify for this one.  Let me know your goals, and how you are sticking to them, in the Monday Meeting Posts.

Yellow Jersey:  Overall front runner.  This will be awarded to a writer, whether drafting or revising, who makes the most overall progress during the four weeks.  This is the BIG WINNER of the Tour de Writing.

How it Works:  Post goals and progress here every Monday.  Show up in The Practice Room, if you are going for the Green Jersey.  Every Wednesday, I will post who is ahead in each category, and who gets the jersey that week.  You get to "wear" your jersey until someone unseats you.  The person who ultimately wins the jerseys (and awesome surprise prizes) will be the person "wearing" that jersey on August 10th, at the start of writeoncon.

Think you are the Levi Leipheimer, Evan Basso, Alberto Contador,  or even Lance Armstrong of writing? Put your written words where your mouth is, and join in the Tour de Writing!!


My entry into The Tour de Writing:

This week's goals: To piece together the first fourth of my revision--I have to pull stuff from earlier drafts, move parts around and continue revising.  
My overall goals for the month: TO FINISH THIS REVISION (gasp!!)

Leave your goals for The Tour de Writing in the comments.  RACE ON!!

Stay tuned for Wednesday's post about prizes.  And, if you are utterly confused, email me: hegkelly (at) gmail.com.  Really?! A TOUR DE WRITING?!  Can't Heather do anything simple and not ridiculously involved?  Can't she just give stuff away for the sake of giving stuff away? The answer is, no.  No, she can't.

Happy racing, everyone!  Good luck.  I'm hoping for no major crashes (especially none involving Jon's sweetheart Belle)!!