NaBloPoMo Post-Mortem
Posted on | November 30, 2007 at 7:58 am | 4 Comments
Freedom, sweet freedom! Well, I did it. Here we are at Day 30 of National Blog Posting Month. Hooray for me! What do I get? Isn’t there a medal or a badge or something? Even though it was a bit of a struggle at times, I had no doubt I could accomplish it. Of course, it helped that I had done a month or more of daily postings before. But it was a slightly different experience doing it because of some semi-outside-imposed goal. Anyway, here are some post-mission analysis and observations:
- It was a lot easier in the beginning than at the end. At the start of the project, I was all full of vim and vigor and purpose and ideas. By the end, I was tired, drunk, creatively bankrupt, and actually praying to deities for just one more idea.
- I’m awfully disappointed that Sue gave up, but I understand. She had a lot going on, what with all the moving into a new house and all that.
- There’s always something to write about. I think some of my more interesting posts happened when I had not a single idea and just sat down at the keyboard and started babbling. It really forces you to think outside the box.
- I really like including a picture with entries and wished I could’ve done it with every one.
- Daily blog posting really cuts into my TV watching time.
- There was a possibility I was going to be away on a short trip away from easy Internet access for part of the month, and I wondered what I was going to do. Believe me, you don’t want to see entries I posted from my cell phone (my last resort).
- Posting my current weight in a public forum every day does not, in fact, help me to lose weight. Nor does posting what I had for lunch. However, posting whether I not I ran that day does marginally make me more likely to run. That might have more to do with posting the song list though.
- I have pretty eclectic musical tastes (as evidenced by my random iPod jogging playlist), but not as eclectic as some of my friends.
- A tip for bloggers who want to attempt this kind of thing in the future: When you’re on a writing jag and you’ve just written a post that you think is pretty good, don’t stop. Write a few more posts and save them as drafts. You’ll thank yourself later on those days when just don’t feel like writing anything or when you don’t have the time. I didn’t actually do much advance writing this month, and most of it was near the beginning of the month. But it’s proven to be a very useful technique.
- Uttering the phrase “I can’t come over tonight; I still have to do my daily blog posting” doesn’t win you any relationship brownie points.
- I don’t understand why all of these “do something in a month” things have to happen in November. The only good thing about the month is that there’s only 30 days in it. I don’t know if I could’ve made it to that 31st day! Although technically I’ve done 32 days worth of posts in a row here. With Thanksgiving and the start of the holiday season, it’s difficult to find time to post every day. It could be worse though – I don’t think I’d be able to do this in December, which is probably the busiest month for anyone. I think next year it should be January. 2009, not 2008.
On that last note, I’m probably going to be slowing down now that December is here and I’m no longer “forced” to post every day. But don’t be surprised if I get back into the daily habit after the holidays. Or do be surprised. I might be surprised too.
If I don’t “see” you until January, have some Happy Holidays!
Jogged Today: Yes (@ 22°F)
Songs That Came Up On The iPod While Jogging:
- “Dirty Mind” (The Pipettes)
- “The Eighth Station of the Cross Kebab House” (Belle & Sebastian)
- “Make Her Day” (The Go-Betweens)
- “Sally (demo)” (Blue Öyster Cult)
- “Chance” (Act)
- “Gone” (Mind Reels)
- “The Spirit of Giving” (The New Pornographers)
Today’s Weight: 163.2 lbs
Lunch Yesterday: A Reuben sandwich (with sliced tomatoes instead of fries) at Racines.
Pet Peeve of the Day: My car is dirty again due to the recent snowstorm, and I just washed it a couple of days ago.
Latre.
Comments
4 Responses to “NaBloPoMo Post-Mortem”
November 30th, 2007 @ 1:56 pm
If you signed up with Mrs. Kennedy, you’re eligible to win fabulous prizes.
December 1st, 2007 @ 6:50 am
You also get to add a silly graphic to your blog. I can’t wait.
Your report pretty much mirrored my experience and takes a lot of the wind of my sails for my own wrap-up. It got grueling at the end, and there were posts I wish I could have taken more time on.
December 1st, 2007 @ 10:06 am
I keep saying, if you just ditch this preoccupation with quality the stress of daily posting would go way down.
Congratulations on a month of not giving in to mediocrity.
December 3rd, 2007 @ 8:09 am
One more tip I forgot about: If you get an idea for a blog post sometime during the day, WRITE IT DOWN IMMEDIATELY. You always think, “I’ll remember that!” But then you don’t. And you end up writing posts with clever titles and no content instead.