Po-NoWriMo

Brace yourselves, I've made a decision.

(Yeah. Big deal alert, right here!)

My first dance class being ended, I'm looking forward to a holiday season focusing on other activities I enjoy:

* Baking
* Decorating
* Spending time with family
* Reading
* Napping
* Sniffy pleasantly-smelly things**1
* Snuggling
* Watching cherished children's movies

But specifically, I will have a few moments to focus on something that tends to fall to the wayside in Real Life...
My writing.

(As noted by the fact that I haven't posted in fifteen days. Inexcusable is what that is.)

Friday, as you know, will be November the First.**2 That marks the first day of National Novel Writers' Month, also known as NaNoWriMo.

I've tried NaNoWriMo before, my friends.

It ended with 23,000 words and a feeling of defeat because, in the end, I couldn't meet the 50,000 word mark or even get a cohesive first draft pulled together.

So I set it aside, and now two years have passed.

And over those two years, something remarkable has happened...

I'm no longer the angsty, trapped-in-a-hell-hole admin that had so much snark to share before.

Which means that the fodder upon which my novel so delicately snacked has dried up, withered away, and died off.

So what, then, shall I call upon in times of creative surplus?

A challenge I am imposing upon myself, that's what.

This year, I am inventing for myself this challenge:

Po-NoWriMo.

That's right - I will be spending the month of November writing a Poetry-Novel.

How, then, does one do that?

Well...

Good question. I'm not quite sure.

What I've figured is this:

November lasts for thirty days.

NaNoWriMo calls for writers to write 50,000 words during those thirty days. No structure, just words to paper.

NaPoWriMo (National Poetry Writers' Month) - in April - calls for poets to write a poem every day for thirty days. No word count, just completed poetic pieces.

So to meld these, I will be pushing myself to write at least thirty poems in the thirty days, and the word count should total 50,000 words.

I will be focusing on free-form poetry, although I'm certain there will be days that even cobbling a haiku into order will be a momentus undertaking.

But, no matter what I write, there are certain word counts that I'll have to hit:

I could write one poem per day, each with 1,667 words. The total word count would be 50,010.

I could write two poems per day, each with 834 words. The total word count would be 50,040.

I could write one poem per week day and two each week-end, each with 1,283 words. The total word count would be 50,037.

Or I could make myself write any combination of these, allowing shorter poems some days and longer poems other days, and offering myself opportunities to bank poems just in case I get to Thanksgiving and find myself so stuffed with food that I cannot bring pen to paper for the writing part of my day. Opportunities will abound, and I look forward to this creative adventure.

No matter how it goes, and no matter where it takes me, I'll do my best to keep you involved and up to date on the excitement. Sounds like fun, doesn't it?

**1 Is there any better-smelling season than the holiday season? Between the cookies and pies, evergreens and spices, fresh-fallen snow and crisp cool air... I think not.

**2 Rabbit Rabbit. I've said it. I've banked it. Come Friday, consider yourself bested.