NaBloPoMo or What Doesn't Kill Mommy Makes Her A Better Blogger

November 30, 2006

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Hi everybody,

Ever feel like it would take someone holding a gun to your head to get you to write every day?

This November many of us found that special someone in Eden Kennedy of Fussy.org.

Mrs. Kennedy did just that for thousands of bloggers in November -- and with no days off, not even weekends. I'm talking about her invention, NaBloPoMo or National Blog Posting Month, which she launched 30 (heartless? fingernumbing? godforsaken?) days ago today. She explained herself thusly at the outset:

What is it?

It's National Blog Posting Month!

"Why the hell would I want to do that?

You started a blog to make yourself write more often?

NaBloPoMo is an alternative to November's NaNoWriMo, National Novel Writing Month, the program wherein you crank out a novel in thirty days.

Some of us lack the imagination, stamina, and self-destructive impulses required to write a novel that quickly, but, by Grabthar's Hammer, we can update our blogs every day for a month!

Rules
Post every day for the month of November. That's it. No cheating and backdating posts, either. You're on your honor.

....No matter what you post - pictures, poems, observations, critiques, or bald-faced lies -- the hope is that the act of putting something of yourself out for the world to see every single day will make writing become a more fluid, natural, and integral part of your day."

For a shorter definition of this initiative, I recommend Leah of A Girl and A Boy. She lists NaBloPoMo under the header "Masochism." Hurts so good, I say. Because look what happened: Thirty days later, thousands of bloggers have a successful, daily, editorial grind under their belts. In my opinion, many posts are of a quality that they are akin to writing opinion columns for any daily media outlet -- be it a newspaper, television show, radio newshour or, yes, a blog.

This is a massive accomplishment -- a gift that Eden has equipped those of us who participated to give to ourselves. We needed it, too: As Lynne d. Johnson and I described in our BlogHer '06 writing class, many women bloggers we encounter are shy about calling themselves writers.Blogger after blogger has said to me, "I would never call myself a writer but..."

With NaBloPoMo, you don't need me or anyone else to say "yes you are a writer" -- especially if you hit a majority of the writing deadline days of November 2006. Post every day you did, as NaBloPoMo Poster Boy Yoda might say. Bravo to all of you who muscled through -- through kids, colds, house work, work-outside-the-house, Election Day, Thanksgiving Day, triptophan and other hangovers, holiday relatives and, for some of us, the unspeakable horror that is The Fountain. Jakeelliesmom nails her accomplishment:

"It's day 29 of NaBloPoMo and for today, my well has run dry. I think they call this "writer's block," so now, I shall call myself a writer so I can use the term properly....Tune in tomorrow for an exciting wrap-up of my participation in this delightful contest!"

Mrs. Kennedy has maintained a list of official NaBloPoMo participants that is too long to do it proper justice (see bottom of this page). But I was particularly inspired by these three posts:

Stupid Is As Stupid Does
"This one is for all you husbands out there – a cautionary tale, if you will. If you ever see your bleary-eyed wife stumbling into the living room of your grandparents’ home at midnight accompanied by the wails of your 23-month-old, do not ask this question: “Is something wrong?”
....The correct action to take when presented with this scenario is to enter the room where the crying child is located and remove her from the area, thus allowing the woman who has watched “The Little Mermaid” for five straight hours in the back seat of a minivan to get some sleep before she has to get up and entertain said toddler in a house where everything is breakable and there are only three toys from which to choose..." ~ Mrs. Chicken of Chicken and Cheese

hot chocolate - stat
"Our power just came on after five nights without. We have no fire, so no heat and we are on a well, so no water or toilets, when the power is out. It has been a long, cold week. Without the help of friends i'm not sure how we would have made it. It has reminded me of all the things that are important in life and how during times of crisis love isn't all you need. Heat and water are necessities of life. I will never take them for granted again. I will also never take for granted hot showers, clean clothes, my pillow, my bed, the internet, coffee first thing in the morning and warm hands - especially parkers on my belly in the morning. Our power is set to go out again at any moment. It is snowing again and the temperature is dropping and the trees are weeping from the weight of it all...." ~ posted by drowning in kids by the blogger of the same name.

"The mile-long to do list vs. me

"The to do list is winning. Not that anyone is surprised. I have been keeping up with NaBloPoMo and NoBloShoeMo, however. Also on the positive side, I may have my holiday shopping finished, with very few exceptions (you know those relatives who are impossible to buy for, so you try to forget they exist for a while?). As a tip - if you want to have a short list, try not to come from a divorced & remarried family, and then marry someone who also has several families. We work hard to keep the list short, but even keeping it to close family and just a couple friends it becomes unwieldy pretty quickly..." Rachel from A Gaggle of Girls

Did you have a favorite NaBloPoMo post -- including yours? I'd love to read it and share it with everyone else -- please post it here at the bottom of this newsletter.

Again -- congratulations everybody. Even if you only got to Nov. 10 like me and were forced to quit.

Hey, we can all start again tomorrow.

Best,
Lisa

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P.S. We apologize if you received the a second copy of our last Mommy & Family newsletter! The following explanation is excruciatingly technical, so try to follow me: We changed the timing date in the thingy so that we could test whether we have newsletter superpowers and turns out we DO only they're different ones than we thought. Got that? So...we won't do that again. Our bad. ~ Lisa
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