Day 12 of 30 in our 2018 NaNoWriMo & November Poem-A-Day (NovPAD) challenges – almost halfway … but don’t let that start you from starting.

There are times I jumped into the NovPAD challenge in the latter part of November (due to life’s obstacles) and been proud of what I have written. And these are poems – usually less than a page; it’s easy – if you give yourself latitude to play with a prompt –  to do several days worth within a single day. They don’t even have to be good! The goal – like NaNoWriMo – is just to get in the habit of writing every day. Or- realistically- almost every day. Spending time with your muse. Making YOUR own development a priority in your life.

And I am starting to see some NaNo writers starting to state they should quit “because I’m so far behind” To that I answer –

  1. You still have most of the month; your inspired writing may just not have come yet (skip to “the fun part” – that writing will flow)
  2. That 50k word count is just A goal; there are other NaNoWiMo Goals – the primary one being just to finally treat yourself to writing the story you always wanted to write. What is YOUR goal for doing NaNoWriMo? Work on meeting that – not some stranger’goal of 50 K words.
  3. If you are going for 50 K words, don’t edit!  (Repeat after me- November is for writing, December is for editing) Backtrack if you must, rewrite if you must – but all those mistakes and detours can go a long way towards your 50K word count. This is the first draft, it IS going to unpolished – it is okay to keep what isn’t working, to record what not to do. Writing is a learning curve, this is part of the lesson on telling your story. It will, in future edits, be edited out.
  4. You’ll be amazed how much can be written over the last 4 days of the challenge- I once wrote the last 3rd act of a NaNo novel over a Thanksgiving weekend (and I was the one cooking!) That “deadline” is gold for motivating you to write, write, write!

I get it – Life happens. And life keeps happening even during November. Today’s post is late because “life happens” – but we gotta roll with the punches.  And personally – November challenges are FUN for me! With all the crisis that comes up – I NEED the fun and whimsy this month offers.  Maybe you do too? And at the end you will have something tangible – a novel, a chapbook – that you can work into an opportunity.

Okay – on to prompts …

While yesterday was the real Veterans Day today is also the day the US observes it AKA shuts down business & government to muse & meditate on our veterans, sacrifice.  So I am setting today’s prompt as “when you were gone”. Think of all the stories your family told about a relative being in one of the wars; there’s a poem in there.

Over at Robert Lee Brewer’s 2018 PAD Challenge, Day 10’s prompt to write a disaster poem.

Poetry Potion’s Poem-A-Day Challenge has posted “the old guard” for  Day11’s prompt.

For NaPoWriMo prompt, it reads “adverbs are fine, actually.”

Have fun writing …

And I had to pause and write – because “while you were gone” was getting a loud response from my muse. so my poem for today’s prompt …

While You Were Gone by Ariel

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My archive of blog’ poetry prompts is here.

You know I’m all about the prompts!

Ariel

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Cover image provided by NaNOWriMo 2018.