NaBloPoMo: The Wrap-Up

Well, it's November 30, and time to look back on the month. Yes, it appears that I have successfully posted every day, and not only once. This is, in fact, the 47th post of the month, so I've done about three posts every two days, so that's actually quite an achievement as far as I'm concerned.

Was it worth it? For me, yes. For you? Well, maybe. After all, when you check in, there is always something new to read. Usually. Maybe, depending on when I post and when you read. For me? I get the benefit of pushing myself to notice my own life, to see it as it happens in terms of storytelling, and then to create it and shape it into the form of a post. It's a daily discipline, and those of you who have read either Natalie Goldberg's Writing Down The Bones or done Julia Cameron's The Artist's Way know how important daily writing is.

It's also much more manageable than NaNoWriMo in it's size and level of commitment. I tried, this year, to do NaNoWriMo as a stealth deal. I didn't announce it anywhere, and I didn't sign up or join any websites, figuring that it was hard enough to just do the writing, without adding any obligation to report or support other writers into the bargain. And I did pretty well for the first half of the month, until I missed a couple of days and the wheels just came off that train. Still, I found that the more I wrote, the easier it became to write.

The advantage of such a project is also that if I set a goal of 1700 words a day, I didn't have to change it. I mean, if you are lifting weights, or running, or some other dreary physical exercise, once you reach your goal and it becomes easy, you have to increase your reps, or your distance, or speed, or something. But with writing 1700 words, you can stay at 1700 even after it gets really easy. I think I'll have to pick up that goal again.

In my own defense, while I didn't manage to keep up the novel writing, I am doing some interesting handmade craft/art work, so I'm still trying to be creative on a daily basis.

At the very least, I'd like to keep trying to post daily here on the blog, if only because it makes me feel better when I do.

So, there we go--November is over, or will be in a couple of hours. Creativity is the goal for December, and I fully believe that Christmas decorating and present wrapping fall into the category of "creative!"