evaluating the NaBloPoMo experience

i've been meaning to post a few thoughts about National Blog Posting Month (NaBloPoMo), which, in case you missed it, was simply a challenge to post something on your blog every day for the month of november. and there are two days left in the month.

i first heard about it in another friend's blog, and i thought, hey! cool. now i can blog every day and have a "real" reason to do so. (as if my other reasons are invalid, like blogging for personal expression, blogging for fun, blogging as a creative outlet, blogging to communicate with family & friends, etc. sometimes i think i need a reason to post what i want to rather than just do it and have fun with it. it's not like it's a graded assignment. but "why blog?" is a different topic and i'm not going to go into it now.)

i learned something about my blogging self the first week in: when the job is to post every day, my creativity gets stilted. there were a few days when i'd sit at the computer for over an hour looking for a topic to write about that tickled my fancy. i even googled "memes" and scrolled through dozens of prompts trying to be inspired. then i'd think, "well, that's a good topic, but there's probably a better one! let's keep looking!" like it was my last blog post ever. then the kids would wake up from their (sometimes simultaneous) naps and my window of blogging time would slam shut. "shoot! i guess i'll post something about candy!!" yeah, that's brilliant! and that was only DAY TWO! :)

i have discovered through this process that it'd be more fun if i had approached it with a goal or plan in mind before it began. you may have already read that i prefer to be organized in the nerdiest of ways (visions of monica geller with her label-maker dance through my head). maybe blog about family on mondays, and movies on tuesdays, photography on wednesdays, you get the idea. or post 30 different "favorites", one for each day. there are a lot of creative ways i could have approached it. but never having done it before, i just jumped in without a map, and did the best i could. there's nothing wrong with that method either.

i look forward to blogging as frequently as my creativity or impulse tells me to, which is still pretty frequent (2-3 times a week). i'll post when i have an idea, rather than look for something to post about. the burden of obligation will no longer be there (blogging will not be a daily "duty").

next year, will i do it again? i don't know, maybe. probably. and you should too, just to see where the experience takes you. i'm sure i could have gotten more out of the experience if i had engaged in the NaBloPoMo community more, and if i had had more time in general. the whole thing seems like an unwritten chapter out of Writing Down the Bones, a really cool book by Natalie Goldberg. you talented writers out there know exactly what i'm talking about.

cheers to all of you who participated, and to you, dear readers, for skimming through and commenting on some of my posts this past month. it was fun! (i don't mean to make this sound like some kind of farewell post to my blog, 'cause it's not! never fear!)

continuing what we started earlier this week regarding my loneliness

i wrote this as a response comment on a post below, but thought it'd be better to post it here as a followup:

thanks everyone for your comments and encouragement, and your prayers! there was a specific event that occurred this week that was kind of like the proverbial "straw that broke the camel's back" (not that i truly understand that proverb) - - and that situation, while painful and hurtful, was necessary and stretching, and it is being worked out. it was just an outer circumstance that kept pointing to these inner feelings that i'd been keeping bottled up. thanks for giving me room to express them. some days are hard, you know? but i have other really wonderful days, too. i'm grateful for new friendships here, and grateful for the cherished ones i've made over the years with all of you.

with love,

dawn