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Wednesday, December 28, 2011

How to Fix Your Sex Life: AZ Challenge Reflections from Tina at Life Is Good

           Not only did Tina at Life Is Good provide a fun Reflections post, she probably added some search engine optimization clout with her title.  Thanks Tina!  By the way, Tina along with Shannon at The Warrior Muse valiantly kept up the memory of the April Challenge through the summer as they organized their own Post Challenge Challenge where they invited A-to-Z-ers to join them in visiting all of the April Challenge blogs.  They were a couple of Challenge heroes for sure. 


How to Fix Your Sex Life: AZ Challenge Reflections


I'm so blessed to have found the AZ Challenge through my bloggy-buddy Rayna at Coffee Rings EverywhereThis challenge, as I told you in my A ~ A New Beginning post, came at a pivotal point in my writing. And as I promised in my V ~ Very post, I'll now give you the full scoop of why participating in this challenge was, for me at least, like trying to fix your sex life.

Ah, I see I have your attention!  As my dear, faithful readers know, I'm a walking, talking, medical worst-case scenario. If health insurance was priced like car insurance, I'd be paying the just-got-out-of-juvie-drive-a-red-sports car-not-so-spectacular-grades-but-would-you-please-insure-me-anyway rate. I go to a lot of doctor's appointments. (Just try my nifty search gadget in the side-bar and type “doctor” to get more stories.)

So I'm in a waiting room, forgot my book, and am therefore paging through, oh, probably Family Circle or Good Housekeeping or some other such magazine. In this issue, the regular marriage counseling  article is about long-married couples trying to recapture the spark in their sex life. There were three case studies. Yes, you get to hear them all because strangely enough, I think that each of these solutions can be applied to struggling writers. 

One couple decided that they'd take turns initiating sex. To writers, this translates as, “You give me a prompt, we'll both write something. Then next time, I'll give the prompt, and again, we both have to participate.” You still with me?

Another couple decided that they would only make-out. For a week. Then they'd see what happened after that week of, ahem, restraint. Writers: If I start to feel the beginning of a slowly smoldering fire,  I'll have to wait to write.  Until next week.  Anticipation makes everything sweeter.  No fair scribbling notes on napkins or jotting down ideas in your notes app. You have to WAIT to write.  Waiting makes the want grow fonder.

The last couple solved their, um, issues, with the equivalent of the AZ Challenge. Sex every 24 hours, come hell or high water or up the creek without a paddle. Once. Every 24 hours. If some unforeseen complication prevented this, then they had to do it twice in another 24 hour period. I probably don't need to translate this one...because...

That last scenario is what happened to me in this challenge. I hadn't foreseen it, but like what I read in the article, knowing that I had to put SOMETHING up every day just kinda freed my brain and my inhibitions. I was thinking, “Well OK, it just has to be something. It doesn't have to be perfect. It doesn't have to be long.” Some days all I managed was just a quick couple of observations, but then on other days, I was in the mood for a longer story. Some days I wrote about something I'd already written about. One day, I had no time time to write at all. To complete the challenge, I wrote two posts on the last day. I'll leave the translation from writing to sex up to you on this one :-)

Big thanks to my 27 new followers. I am honored. Also thanks to all who stopped by and left their footprints. My intent was to visit all of you in return, but if I missed you, please let me know. I really do want to meet you. As for the flip-side, I'm now following 23 more blogs, and I'm looking forward to continuing to build more inspiring bloggy relationships. I had a blast doing this, and hope our faithful and seemingly tireless hosts are willing to do it again. I knew I couldn't homeschool, write a post each day, and get to each of the 1282 bloggers participating during this event. It's like Santa.  Not really realistic.  But as long as the linky is alive, I will keep going until I hit 1282. I'm just too damn stubborn, not to mention competitive, to back down now.

This post was prompted by our challenge sponsors.  They asked all of us  to reflect on this month of writing, and then link up back at Tossing It Out, our host blog.  AND, last but not least...I got the groovy badge over there in the sidebar for completing the challenge.  Go me!  (I'm such a dork...)





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12 comments:

RHYTHM AND RHYME said...

I did enjoy your post, I think the A to Z is great, next year will be my third, hope to see you there.

Yvonne.

Alex J. Cavanaugh said...

I remember Tina's post!
And I admired her attempts to continue visiting everyone and complete the list. That was amazing.

Dominik said...

Great post!

Really excellent written

:-) Dominik

Arlee Bird said...

Tina, looking forward to the surprises you have in store for us this year!

Lee

Sylvia Ney said...

I'm looking forward to the 2012 "A to Z" challenge and reading more from you.

Sylvia
http://www.writinginwonderland.blogspot.com/

Pearson Report said...

Tina - this made me laugh. I felt a similar frustration as the end neared. Not to mention the last few letters of the alphabet, at the best of times, are difficult.

This year...I'm hoping to be a wee bit more organized!

Cheers,
Jenny @ PEARSON REPORT

Hilary Melton-Butcher said...

Hi Tina .. I wonder how many sex-theme's you've spawned?!

Great post and fun analogies .. loved it - Happy New Year .. and see you in 2012 .. Hilary

Tina said...

Thanks to all of you for stopping by and for your kind comments. My internet is now up again, so I'll be visiting each of you very soon to say hello and follow your blogs.

Tina @ Life is Good

Brian Miller said...

it is amazing how the consistancy and comraderie will fuel you...way to go tina...

Tasha Seegmiller said...

Okay, this post now has me looking forward to the challenge. Great job!

MISH said...

Thanks for the fun post, Tina! I look forward to reading your posts in the 2012 A to Z Challenge!

Shannon Lawrence said...

I do so enjoy this post. I'm sure more than one person has felt writing was like sex, in one form or another. We'll get 'em this year!