I am on a journey, and I would be pleased to have your company on the way.

We’re all on our own journeys, separate, and at times together. #madwriting is about sharing some strength when you have some to give, taking some when you need some.

 What is #madwriting? 30 minute writing sprints, report your word count, or other measure of productivity at the end.

That’s the tweet.

Madwriting is something we’re doing on twitter. “We” is defined as anyone who wants to join in.

I can describe what it is for me, but what it is for someone else may be completely different. I can describe where it came from for me, but feel free to bring to it whatever is useful to you. It’s a community. It’s motivation, focus, productivity—and at the end of each 30 minute session, it is output.

My project, at the moment, is my PhD thesis. It’s almost there. There are other things I want to write, and I need to finish the thesis before I can take on other projects. This post is a brief interlude while I’m resting.

At some point, I would love to have a place where people can post the work they have produced, and where many people can contribute. For now, I’m staying focused, and not distracting myself with building websites (but someone has secured a domain name for us, so if you want to contribute, let me know). For now, feel free to link to your work in the comments.

How does this work? Follow the #madwriting hashtag on twitter, and you’ll see people starting up their own writing sessions whenever they feel the need. It has been going around the clock, around the globe. If you don’t see anyone writing, and you want some company, tweet with the hashtag and rally a few writers to join you.

Depending on where you are in your writing journey, madwriting can be different things. If you are stuck, it can be a way to get unstuck. If you have been writing all day, and you want to push yourself just a little bit more, it can be another half hour (or more) of productivity at the end of the day. It can be the motivation to start a little bit earlier than you might have otherwise.

If you have interruptions in your life, it can be a way to push everything aside and focus. Most things can wait for half an hour. We’re all beset by many demands. Madwriting can be a way to confine distractions to the time that you’re not writing, rather than letting them crop up just when the muse was whispering in your ear.

For me, this is a way of protecting my time. It also signals a commitment. For this time, for this next half hour, I commit to writing, and nothing else. And then I’ll do it again. And again, and again, and again.

There is no need to stop at the end of 30 minutes. Someone (sometimes several people at once) “hosts” a session, meaning that they rally the troops, fire the starting gun, and call time at the end. When it’s me, I usually stop to check in and see how everyone has done. This is one of the reasons I pass it around—If I’m not hosting, I  will keep going at the end of 30 minutes if things are working well. If they aren’t working so well—then I push myself to stay with it until the time period is up. And I always get a little more out of it than I thought I had in me.

I’m drawing on a number of things here. Lessons I learned when teaching writing, years of pushing myself beyond my own boundaries, and the joy of seeing other people accomplish their goals.

Madwriting shares a lot with marathon training. You don’t begin by running 26.2 miles. You begin with the first step. One training method is to do intervals. You gain distance by doing intervals. You gain speed by doing sprints. You don’t sprint for 26.2 miles, and you don’t run 26.2 miles in your first training session. But you push yourself. A little more each time. You push yourself when you don’t feel like doing it, when you’re tired, when you’ve gone as far as you thought you could go. And then you do a little more. One step at a time. One word at a time. Thirty minutes at a time.

Find us anytime you need some motivation, and share some of yours too.

And that’s time. How did you do?

Find me on twitter @nparmalee