Guilt may have started my NaBloPoMo journey, but I ended up really enjoying it. I didn't always use the prompts, but they were a nice crutch on days I was feeling less than creative. With today's post, I managed 34 posts in November. Please ignore me for a moment as I dance around my desk.
I'm back, and a bit winded from my dancing display. As I was saying... the prompts allowed me to bring a new flavor to this blog, answer more personal questions and show my readers a different side of me. The pièce de résistance, my 6 Ways to Best Use Time post was named the featured NaBloPoMo post on Monday, November 28. Please excuse one more round of dancing.
I'm a firm believer that writing begets writing. The more you write, the better you write. Writing is a muscle, it needs to be exercised and fed creative juices. If you wait for the muse, she may leave you hanging. There are days I write 1000 words and ax 800 of them, but it stimulates creativity which is never a bad thing. I've written whole posts only to keep a sentence or two. Sometimes, I'll write a post and feel insecure about it and let it sit. The post I mentioned above sat for almost a month before I used it. Sometimes a post will generate three posts. It's a crap shoot, but you'll never know what might happen unless you play.
All this being said, I ponied up and signed up to do December's NaBloPoMo. My plan, swing for the fence. I entered 2011 and the blogging world with a whisper, I'm going out with a bang. From Thanksgiving to Christmas is such a blur, I figured if I could blog daily in December, I could do it anytime. Wish me luck!Now to my A Round of Words in 80 Days update:
First of all, a huge congrats to my ROW80 NaNo buddies. You guys have rocked it and inspired me to do my first NaNo in 2012. Knowing I'll have the support of my writing community and ROW80 team is exactly what I need to try my hand at such a challenge.
Quick question: Is the Camp NaNoWriMo the same challenge just in the summer?
Writing: The reason I like to write something daily on my manuscript... it keeps the juices flowing. Taking off for Thanksgiving, and not writing a single word from Thursday through Sunday last week, did nothing for my rhythm. I only wrote 500 words since Sunday on my young adult novel. 500 words. Sad.
Will the #ROW80 wordsprints continue after NaNo? They were such a good force-my-butt-in-the-chair-and-write motivator.
Blogging: Thanks to NaBloPoMo, I blogged daily here with no problem. Mom in Love with Fiction even saw posts the last two days. At least it's some writing.
Miscellaneous: I've been a bad, bad social media girl lately. I hope you all know I'm rooting for you even when I don't comment. I need to catch up on a lot of blog reading. I read and reviewed two books in the last two weeks and am finally making some headway on Stephen King's On Writing. I've never read King before, but this book has convinced me to change that. I love his ballsy, no bs writing style and the raw way he presents his thoughts, at least in this format.
Exercise: So far, so good. I am getting in 45 minute workouts at least 4 to 5 times a week and still avoiding sugar. I've actually lost 8 pounds in just over three weeks. *woot*
Raising my water, wishing it was wine, to all the NaNo participants. *clink*
14 comments:
Congrats with NaBloPoMo!! I entered NaNoWriMo this year and it was a blast :) Hope you join us next year! I didn't hit 50,000 words but hey, it was fun.
I've got a ton of blogs to catch up with as well! I've hardly blogged at ALL in November, and on top of that I've got to finish editing my novel! Good luck in December :)
Nice work on NaBloPoMo! It sounds like an interesting challenge, and the moment I type that, my brain starts yelling at me that I have enough challenges right now, thank you very much! But maybe I'll have to check it out...eventually.
I couldn't agree more with you on the idea that writing begets writing. It's always when I spend more time writing that I get more ideas, more inspiration, more everything, and then those days I don't get to do it, everything falls a little flat.
I haven't read On Writing, but maybe I should. I love King's non-fiction, his no-bs style as you put it, so maybe I'll have to pick it up.
Great post, great update, great work. :) Keep it up!
Congrats! Thirty-four posts in November - wow!
My blogging (and blog reading) took a serious hit with my participating in NaNoWriMo, but I am back in the saddle once again.
You're just a blogging fiend aren't you? ;) Camp NaNo has the same goals as the one in November but it's not quite as fleshed out. Good luck with the next round of blogging!
I really appreciate you all stopping by. I have been quite the challenge girl lately. I need to get back to writing on my WIP, but the blogging keeps the juices flowing.
Plus, I've got to get my rhythm back. Hoping it will happen soon.
Thanks for all the encouragement!
I don't think I can keep up with the acronyms, but what a bunch of accomplishments! Congratulations! I also believe you have to practice writing to improve writing. I pretty much write every day in some form or another, mostly because I enjoy it. But I also have a compulsion about it. Anyone else feel that?
Absolutely, Jackie. This is where my, pardon another acronym, OCD kicks in. Now I feel weird to go too long between posts. It's like walking past the plate of brownies, I just can't do it. ;-)
Thanks for stopping by!
Congrats on featured blog post! I do the same with blogging - writing some in a day and others I sit on for days or weeks.
I had not read any Stephen King so I picked up a recent short story collection of his. Horror is clearly not my genre. I put it down pretty quickly because it seriously creeped me out. I have heard that On Writing is excellent. It's on my TBR list.
Happy December blogging!
Wow - congrats on NaBloPoMo and al the success - woot woot! That's fantastic!
I post 5 days a week and although it's tough sometimes, I do find the steady rhythm works to my advantage.
Great work on your goals. I am sure you'll get your mojo back this week as you settle back into things. It's hard to get that routine going again, eh?!
And 8 pounds in 3 weeks - I am sooo insanely jealous - that's FABBBBB!!! Keep up the amazing work...
BTW, totally LOVE LOVE LOVE your blog!!!
Thanks, Julie & Natalie! Nothing motivates me more than knowing you all have my back!
Yay! Good work on the blog challenge. I was bad during NaNo. I totally slacked on hopping around to the blog posts. But I'm back, and it's great to catch up with everyone. I hope the sprints keep going. They are oh so encouraging.
Wendy, Thanks! I appreciate you stopping by and hope you are enjoying your renewed hopping around adventures. ;-)
Woot! Congrats on your blogging! Like Ryan said, Camp NaNo is the same and they didn't have the forums like regular NaNo does. You get cabins. You can either do a luck of the draw and get random people or if you know of friends doing it, you can pick them.
The cabins were fun and you had a little box to put some text to your fellow cabin mates.
I guess if you ask for sprints on Twitter or some such thing, there might be one or two people. I know they might pop up once in a while. Like the #1k1hr peeps.
Oh..and I know what you mean about writing a lot and then axing most of it. I'm trying to work on a short story and it just broke the 20k mark. And has a lot of background fluff that I don't think will remain in the story when I do trim.
-Nellie
Nellie, Thanks for more CampNaNo information. I don't know if it's crazier to think I could do a summer writing challenge with all three of my kids home. I might have to wait until November. 2012's my year!
Thanks for stopping by!
Post a Comment