Write Like It's November

 
Most writers know November is National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo, we say as if speaking an alien tongue).  The challenge: to write every day for the month to achieve a total of 50,000 words, a good chunk of a novel.


This is my third year participating, my second year participating as a poet (NaPoWriMo?) and the challenge is to write a poem every day for 30 days.

In 2011, I did it just to see if I could.  I'm not a prolific poet.  Sometimes an idea for a poem will run around in my brain for weeks before it finally comes to rest on paper.  The concept of generating a poem every day was daunting, but I followed the daily prompts from the Writer's Digest and persevered, ending the month with 30 poems.  It's Day 4 of the 2012 challenge and I've finished today's poem, and it's barely after 8pm here in Iowa.

I have learned a few things about writing a poem every day.

1. I can only do it at night, staring out a dark window.

2. The soundtrack to 'The Hours' is mandatory. 

3. Prompts are simply leaping off points, write whatever comes.

4. I ain't writing epics here.

5. And I ain't writing brilliant verse every time, but if I get one or two decent poems out of 30, and a handful of salvageable lines to be used in another poem one day, I have succeeded.

6. Whether you're writing a novel or 30 poems, just fucking write.