Because I woke up this morning about an hour and a half before my alarm was set, I am very sleepy (I have been drifting off here and there between poems), so this will be short.

This was my second time participating—and it was much easier this time. Last year, I hit kind of a wall with Hour Three, and struggled for the next three or four hours. This year, my latest post was at 45 minutes into the hour (vs. 58 last year), but that included about 15 minutes to get the right quote to use for the golden shovel poem.

What helped me this year:

1. My writing challenge this month is eight-word poems. When I sit down to write them, I usually write several in a row. Though very short, this gave me a few days of practice writing several poems in a day.
2. I worked from all of the prompts. That saved me a lot of time coming up with something different to write about.
3. Except for a bagel run after I posted my Hour One poem, I did my grocery shopping yesterday (so I had food and beverage on hand), and did my meal prep (crock pot chicken!) last night.
4. I allowed myself to stop thinking about poems after posting each entry. That meant far less pressure to produce.

Now that this half-marathon is done (though I may check out some of the later prompts for fun), it’s nap time!

(5 August 2017)