Sunday, October 31, 2010

Day the Last: Thought on Writing a Blog Post Every Day

Well, I did it.  We did it.  Woohooo!!!! All rigght!!!!! Break it down!!!!! 

*Pause for celebratory butt-shaking.*

Now, let's get down to brass tacks.  In list form, because it's what I do best, people.

  1. Many, many of us wrote every day, which is awesome.  (No, I didn't count because I was busy making Halloween costumes yesterday and today my dining room is covered up in chopped up khaki pants and green gauze and checking on the posting stats of 70-plus blogs seems crazyface.)  Many, many of us wrote ALMOST every day or at least three times a week, and that's awesome, too. Not quite as awesome as the posting every day thing, but you catch my drift.  In case you DIDN'T catch my drift, here it is:  writing every day when you also have life going on can be hard.  But when writing every day becomes PART of your life, then it isn't quite as hard and makes you realize that if you put in even a tiny bit of effort, you can write more.  I hope that regardless of how much you wrote (or didn't write), you learned something about yourself as a writer.
  2. Having said that, I must be honest and admit that there were a few days when I wrote complete garbage.  I can safely say that there were eight entries that had no value at all, or so little value that it's pretty hard for me to understand why I even wrote them at all.  At the same time, those entries are in some ways even MORE valuable to me, because they signal that I was committed to doing this thing and I did it, no matter how time-constrained or tired or worried I was.  See, I'm a planner.  I have a million plans and very few of them come to fruition because I fail to work at them, even a little bit.  So even the tiny bit of effort it took to write a post like this signals something more:  commitment to a project.  I NEED that affirmation, so I'm totally going to claim it.
  3. Because of the bigger scope of NaBloWriMo this year, I did a craptastic job of reading your posts.  Or writing my other blog.  Or writing THIS blog, because I was too busy writing my own and reading as many of yours as I could.  I definitely think that next year, we'll try to have a different system set up (if Amy's okay with it) that will involve some categorization of some kind that will make it easier to be readers of blogs.  Not sure what to do about the other blog or any other projects that come along, although I think that my November resolution of staying off of FB so much and working on WRITING instead will help with this.
  4. BTW, good luck to all of you who are attempting NaNoWriMo this year.  May your 50,000 words come easy and be good.
  5. About posting every day (wheeeee!  Welcome to my Stream of Consciousness!):  I think that I'll keep trying to do this on INH, but instead of writing crap, I'll post pictures.  Believe me when I say that I have so many pictures on my computer that it's pretty ridiculous for me NOT to post them.  And I think that posting pictures not only brings your readers "in," it also allows for some great creativity.
  6. I'm wondering if any of you would like to have a monthly (or weekly) NaBloWriMo "reunion."  Maybe every Wednesday or the tenth of every  month, we can write a post specifically dedicated to blogging or writing.  (This would be cheating for me, as I already try to write about writing every Wednesday.)  Let me know what you think, mkay?
That's all, folks.  I'm editing Halloween pictures right now for my I'm Not Hannah post for today and will spend the rest of the day digging out my dining room, shopping, and baking for the month ahead.  I'll miss seeing some of you and look forward to reading more of some of you. 

Thanks for this month.  It has been a beautiful learning experience.

8 comments:

Mary@GigglesandGuns said...

I'm thankful that I tried this at the urging of some blogger friends. It taught me discipline and gave me direction (plus a few headaches).
Overall a very enjoyable experience.
Thanks!

Golden Eagle said...

NaBloWriMo was a fun challenge! I'm very glad I decided to join in on it. I know I wrote a few not-so-great posts too . . . :P But it was definitely worth it!

Alex J. Cavanaugh said...

I'd done it before for Arlee Bird's A - Z Challenge in April, so I was ready for this month. (And I used the same approach of weekend posts counting as one.) Since my book was also released this month, with accompanying virtual tour, I had no problem coming up with post ideas and usually had posts scheduled a week in advance. Of course, I was also unable to visit many of those participating outside of the bloggers I already follow, but I did try!

Astrid said...

A reunion sounds great! I look forward to hearing what you decide :)

Danette said...

Hmmm... not sure what what you mean by reunion but I am game. Fun as always! Thanks tons for rounding everyone up!!!!

Lisa Galek said...

I had fun this month! And you're right, I did enjoy writing every day (or almost every day). Thanks for hosting this!

I like the idea of a monthly get together about blogging, too.

Aleta said...

I'm all for a reunion idea :) I was thinking how I'll actually miss the drive to do the NaBloWriMo every day. I'm was thinking about doing a "post a day" for November and the theme is "Grateful for".... kind of going with the "giving thanks" feel of Thanksgiving.

I wish I was doing the NaNoWriMo. I can't get a story idea together :(

Tina said...

Found you through Rayna at Coffee Rings Everywhere. This is a great idea and I'm totally in for next year!