BloggyWriMo

Post-November Update

Aoife O'Riordan, , , , , , , , Leave a comment

What feels like a million years ago at the start of November I gave myself the (faintly ridiculous in retrospect) challenge to blog 50,000 words over the course of a month. I am almost certain that I didn’t, er, exactly make it to the magic 50k. I stopped counting about halfway through November when I was distracted by trips away and Pink Training and applying for jobs (siiigh) and the like.

I did publish 35 posts, though- not counting reblogs or guest posts. Buggered if I know what the word count was- WordPress doesn’t seem to have a nice handy “How many words did I write in November?” widget, and it turns out I’m not particularly keen on looking up each one individually. Probably a nice big number, though. More importantly, I got a really good idea of the things I like to do here, the things I want to pursue, and what I can (healthily) commit to.

Left to my own devices I would write every frickin’ hour of the day. The more I write, the more I think about writing and the more issues I want to write on and angles I want to explore. There is no way that I can get through all that and still have time to have a reasonably balanced life. Today I have 54 posts in my Drafts folder in various stages of completion. Fifty-four! If I didn’t have a single new idea for a post, I could keep blogging every single day for almost two months on that!

But that wouldn’t be fun. And the main things that I want to get out of this blog are engagement, community and fun. If it’s not fun for me (and you), there’s no point. So here’s what I’d like to do from here on. It’s not a commitment, it’s ideas. If there’s one thing that I’ve learned, it’s that when it comes to blogging, ideas are far more useful;

  • I’d like to stick to about five posts a week. I’m tempted- by FSM am I tempted- to write every day. But writing long posts every day is very time and energy-consuming. I like putting a lot of research into my posts. Posting about five times a week gives me a day off and gives me space to go off and research things. The chances that I’ll stick to this are, er, minimal.. but i’ll try and keep any other posts short ‘n’ sweet. 
  • I love, love, love bringing other people into my blog. I have plans for two different interviews with amazing artists in the next month or so, as well as two wonderful guest posts from one of them in that To-Be-Edited pile. I would love to share more brilliant people with you, and to bring in new perspectives on the things that I talk about.
  • Posts that aren’t just writing. Making drawings, lists and the like is fun. I like posting things in a format that isn’t just walls of text like this is. I’ve been mostly stuck with writing over the past while since the death of my MacBook Pro stuck me to things that my wee Eee PC netbook can do. After Christmas, though, I’ll have a brand-new (second-hand, one careful lady owner) MBP to play with. I foresee oodles more pictures, a return to recipes, and some vlogging on top of it all. Suffice to say that I’m counting the days until I can get my mitts on that gorgeous MBP and start making things.

All in all? Although I didn’t make it to 50,000 words, NaBloPoMo was a massive success. I’m really proud of my 35 posts. I’ve loved diving headfirst into writing and communicating. At the end of it, I have oodles of ideas for making the Tea Cosy even more awesome than it is. And- for the first time I can remember- I can’t wait until January. Not bad, eh?

And You Lot? Thanks, all of you, for showing up, reading, commenting, and supporting me on my bloggly endeavours. Go give yourselves a hug from me.

Related articles

 

Post-November Update
{advertisement}

Back in town, a Bloggy WriMo

Aoife O'Riordan, , , , , 1 Comment

Hey, all!

Coming up to NaNoWriMo as we are, I’m very aware of the fact that I don’t NoWri. I’ve never been one for making up stories. It’s something I admire greatly, the way that someone who can’t hold a note loves listening to great singers. So every November I watch all of the people who are good at making up stories making up their stories, and I think about how that is one hell of an awesome thing to do.

But while I don’t NoWri, I do appear to do a fair bit of BlogWri-ing. So in the spirit of the month, I’ve been thinking that I’d like to see if I can crank out 50k words of bloggitude throughout next month. I started thinking about this a few days ago. Then I mentioned it on my Facebook. Then I kept thinking about it. And as with most things I can’t stop thinking about, I decided that it’d be unlikely to actually kill myself or anyone else, so I might as well give it a go. Shure how bad can it be, like*? I think it’d be fun!

30 days. 50,000 words. Public.

I came up with some rules:

  • The only words that count are the ones I post publically. I can journal as much as I like, but it doesn’t go toward my word count unless I post it in my blog. Everything I write must at least get linked to from the Tea Cosy.
  • I can start thinking of ideas before November, but I can’t actually put posts together. No drafts, nada.
  • The only words that count are those that I write after I wake up on the morning of November 1st. None of this midnight malarkey. As a bit of a night owl, November starts when I wake up on the 1st and ends when I go to bed on the 30th.
  • Words can be about anything, privacy of people who aren’t me notwithstanding. It’s published words. Vlogs count, as long as I transcribe them. This is because I’d like to get back into that, and it’d be a nice change from walls of text.
  • Only my words, though. I don’t get to quote great big paragraphs of text and have that count. All that counts is what I write myself.
  • I don’t have to post the same amount every day, but I really should post something daily.
  • Oh, and if by some delightful happenstance I manage to get myself an excellent job which starts before the end of November and takes up oodles of my time, I am not allowed to feel bad if I need to quit or to tone it down. Because this is an awesome thing that I really want to do, but I get to prioritise awesome things that pay the bills over those that don’t.
Oh god oh god HELLLLLPPPPP

What I have dubbed BloggyWriMo** is, by the way, one of the main reasons you haven’t seen any posts from me this week. Any ideas I’ve had for blog posts have been squirrelled away onto draft titles and idea scribbles in notebooks. Because- not that this actually happens much at all- there is little scarier than having no idea what to write about.

I’ll be looking to talk about everything and anything. And everything in between. If there’s a topic you’d like to see what I have to say on, this is the time to let me know! I’m up for having a go at pretty much anything I know the slightest bit about. If there’s things I used to write about that I’ve forgotten about, topics you wish I’d talk about more, tell me! If, on the other hand, you want me to talk about something less… you might want to look elsewhere until at least December. Fair warning.

Oh, and if any of you want to join me in this challenge, or have your own writing challenges you’d like to give yourself, do share ’em! Nothing like a bit of solidarity in these things.

I think that’s about it? I AM SO NERVOUS! See y’all on Thursday for Day 1 of Consider The Tea Cosy’s BloggyWriMo!

*as the person said right before they took on something that turned out to be far harder than they thought it’d be.

** Is this a Thing that people do? Is there a proper name for it?

Back in town, a Bloggy WriMo