30 Days & Done!

Hello December 1^st! I am so glad you arrived. I was beginning to feel slightly manic – and was even contemplating quitting my job so I could devote myself to NaBloPoMo. Whew! That was a close call.

So, what did I learn from this exercise?

• I NEED a proofreader! Even now when I go back and re-read some posts I notice typos. Everyone has been very kind – but it still bugs me none-the-less.

• What to write? It did not appear to be a problem to find something to write about. Instead I noticed these things creeping in:

  • Sometimes in the morning I had a topic, but by the time the end of the day rolled around, it was hard to recapture the excitement of the subject. I had no idea my mood, daily events, and mental fatigue could effect my writing so much.

  • Some things I wanted to write about, I didn’t, because I needed more time to do the ideas justice. My life is pretty hectic right now, (ok always), and I just didn’t have time to spend 3 to 4 hours of time on consecutive days developing the article. I have written down these ideas and will get to them as time allows.

  • It’s a good thing I’m a list maker! It was handy to have “go to” list for the days I didn’t think anything interesting, funny or inspiring happened to me.

• I was surprised at what a kick I got out of reading my own stories. Even though I knew how they turned out, some of them made me giggle, again and again. Others surprised me with how deeply they touched me after I’d written them.

• Having to post everyday felt like “homework”.

• I am pleased I was so disciplined in posting everyday.

• The obligation of writing led me to admit to several people about this project, and ordinarially I wouldn’t have.

• I learned how to write more quickly. Frequently I was composing the article in my head before I wrote it.

• I received some constructive feedback that has cause me to feel more positive about my skills.

• That feedback has emboldened me to be more serious about my writing.

• Writing has cut down on my reading time 

• Writing has kept me up WAY past my bedtime!

• I cannot write in the morning – not because I’m not awake enough, but because I am fatally tardy for work.

I had some goals for myself when I started this project. Here’s how I rate myself in achieving them.

• I’m not so worried about the structure of my writing

• We all have different descriptive styles. I want to work on mine now that I’m done with the 30 days. (Yes Wesley, I’ll get those 12 to you – hopefully sooner than later.)

• I try to look at people (physical characteristics) and the world differently. I ask myself, “how would you describe this?” “What’s interesting about this?”, “What’s funny about this?”, “What’s meaningful about this?” and let my writing flow from those observations.

• I wrote one piece from a point of view that isn’t mine. It worked, but it wasn’t easy. I struggled with “reporting” from that point of view instead of “feeling”. When I put myself in the role, like an actress would, I did much better.

• I’m not going to worry about brevity or story arcs unless I’m suddenly getting paid for what I write. (This doesn’t mean I don’t think I could prune/refine some of what I write. I just didn’t have the time in this situation.)

• In reviewing my stories I think I do well with the 3 main parts – Beginning, middle, end. I rarely had a problem bringing the writing to a close and summing it all up. I learned to not worry if I started with one title, then decided after the piece was written to change the title to more clearly reflect what I’d written.

• I have an idea for a short story. I hope to have something fleshed out by Christmas – we’ll see how far/well I do.

A list of my favorites: (But not in any order … just as they pop into my mind)

• Miss Cranky Pants

• Fruitcakes!

• Love Letter to San Francisco

• The beauty of numbers

• It’s a tough job, but someone has to do it.

• Monet

• The Anatomy of a Compliment

What surprised me and I didn’t expect

• All the encouragement I received from friends AND strangers

• The new friends I made along the way

• Someone pointed out that you’re considered a “writer” not because you’re paid to do it, but because you LOVE doing it. I’ve added “writer” to the list of adjectives I use to describe myself in the future.

• How fun it is to see someone laugh out loud at what you’ve written.

• I learned some basic HTML – and think I’d like to take a community college level intro class.

Over all, I’m glad I took the challenge and will look forward to November 2007 to see how I’ve grown in a year.

A final note. I am SOOO glad this ended tonight, as I’m getting on a plane in the morning for Nashville TN. I can’t imagine the stress of client entertaining, attending a conference AND trying to write each night. So hang in there – I’ll be back. My goal now is a minimum post of 4 days out of the week for December. We’ll see how it goes.