NaBloPo: I'm Out!

True confession: "I'm Out!" was the original title for my November 3rd post.  It was a hectic day and it was after dinner and I had no post.  I wrote that yes it was a nice thought to jump in on NaBloPo at the last minute but it was already too stressful to get it done.  And then I started blabbing about my day to give an example and before I knew it I had a post so I took out the "I can't do this" intro.

True confession: "I'm Out!" was the original title for my November 4th post.  I recycled the intro about how writing is hard and the problem wasn't that I didn't have ideas but that I didn't have time to develop them.  And then I started blabbing about my day and suddenly I had a post after all, so I kept the "it's hard" part and took out the "I can't do this" part.

And that's the last time that I started a post with the title "I'm Out!" until today.  But it's the last day of NaBloPo, so it's OK to be out.

For all things NaBloPo head over to The Inbetween in Mine 

From an early age, it seemed like writing was my talent.  As a kid I wrote little stories, kept a diary, and wrote letters to anyone who gave me their address.  I had lists of ideas for Great Novels, but when I sat down to try and write the Great Novels I ran into a snag.  I discovered that writing is hard.  Like pounding your head against a wall, it feels good when you stop. 

Pro tip: while it is hard to write the Great Novel, writing is a great career - because it is hard and no one wants to do it.  I used to be a technical writer.  My writing style had a certain flair that you don't often get in technical manuals "hey I'm new at this too!!!  Let's get in there and figure out how to use this industrial lab testing equipment!!!"  The downside was that it took me forever to complete a project and I was always behind on updates because well...that writing thing is really hard, especially when you're writing about industrial lab testing equipment.  Luckily no one else wanted to do it, so I got away with late and missed deadlines galore until I was able to transition to accounting which is just so much less stressful and much easier to get the work done on time.

Let me repeat that: writing is a great career because no one else wants to do it.  You don't have to be good, talented, or in any way competent.  No matter what you do for a living, there are things about your work that need to be written down, and you can get major brownie points for doing so.

I'm not sure what point I'm trying to make with this.  Writing is hard, I went to great lengths to get out of it as a profession, and my hobby is writing a food blog?  Whatever.

Anyhoo, a few years ago I found San's blog which is where I heard about NaBloPo.  The first year I appreciated getting a post from her every day, and since then I've watched the circle grow and enjoyed the goodies.  Like I said, I was tempted but ruled out joining in this year since I ain't got time for that, and yet here we are.

Thoughts on NaBloPo

• Dude, just do it.  The worst that is going to happen is that you'll miss some days or won't finish.  Just sayin, there are no NaBloPo Police.
  
• A long, long, long, long time ago I came across the phrase "real artists ship" which has always stuck with me.  It may not be this exact post but it was Seth Godin so here's as close as I can get to the original source.  Quantity isn't the same as quality but it's a good place to start.
• Of course I had the fear that all I would produce is quantity and yes some days that was true, but I'd argue that we've seen some high quality stuff coming out of the NaBloPo posts in general.
• I can't keep writing a post everyday but hopefully I'll do more than just a weekly post going forward.  There were a handful of topics that I wanted to write about but needed more time than I had, and hopefully I'll get those out in the next few weeks.  BTW my best blogging tip is not to stockpile post ideas - get 'em written and get 'em shipped.  I have a graveyard of post ideas that I wanted to wait on for whatever reason and then they just got stale and moldy.  Hopefully that won't happen with my latest stack.
  
• I regret that I wasn't able to keep up with all the NaBloPo blogs...in real time that is.  I'll be going back to check things out!
• I don't know if I'll do NaBloPo next year...but if I do I'll plan ahead and get more of the work set up in advance.
• Worth noting: November is kinda a blah month.  It gets cold and dark and I start feeling the onset of winter.  NaBloPo was a great distraction.
  
• Yes NaBloPo is hazardous to your TV watching.  I've got no solution for that.
  

Thank You Team NaBloPo and THANK YOU SAN!!!!

Stuff I'd like to hear if you'd like to tell me: have you ever done NaBloPo?  More than once? Were you ever a daily blogger?  How long would you say it takes you to write a blog post?  For me it takes for flippin' ever.