Notes On My First Attempt at NaNoWriMo: Writing a Novel in 30 Days

It has been five days since I reached the goal of writing 50,000 words, a draft of a novel, in a single month. I wrote, to be precise (sort of), 50,139 words during the month of November, and according to my goal tracking page on Novelpad (an online novel writing application I discovered through theContinue reading “Notes On My First Attempt at NaNoWriMo: Writing a Novel in 30 Days”

Back At It To Celebrate National Poetry Month

Dear readers, fellow bloggers and poets, friends, Romans, countrymen, Lend me your ears and eyes, if you would. Every year there is a dry spell, a fallow period for yours truly in which almost nothing gets written. The last time I posted, it was December, 2021. This year that fallow period was way longer thanContinue reading “Back At It To Celebrate National Poetry Month”

Congratulations: You’ve Written Another 30 Poems. Now What?

May 1st and May 2nd I spent all day both days not writing a poem. I continued not writing poetry on the 3rd, 4th, and 5th. It turns out, no poetry was written into the days and the week ahead, so that today, on the 10th of May, I have written not a single poem.Continue reading “Congratulations: You’ve Written Another 30 Poems. Now What?”

Gearing Up for NaPoWriMo 2018

In six days I will embark once again (for the fifth year in a row!) on the endeavor to write a poem a day each day for the entire month of April. Won’t you join me? I will post every single one of these things, the good, the bad, and the ugly, right here upContinue reading “Gearing Up for NaPoWriMo 2018”

Embarking On Yet Another Forced Creativity Experience

Happy National Poetry Month! Beginning tomorrow (this is no April Fool’s joke), I will attempt for the second year in a row to participate in the NaPoWriMo challenge of writing a poem a day for the entire month and publishing each poem here on the blog site. I promise, no cheating; I will not be publishingContinue reading “Embarking On Yet Another Forced Creativity Experience”

Forced Creativity Experiences (Only the Bad and the Ugly)

In my last blog entry, I waxed lovingly about the benefits and the necessary prerequisites to submitting oneself to a Forced Creativity Experience such as the National Novel or Poetry Writing Months in November and April, respectively, and my experience in a songwriting circle that does a similar thing in the musical realm.  I subtitledContinue reading “Forced Creativity Experiences (Only the Bad and the Ugly)”

Forced Creativity Experiences (The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly)

April concludes and the new month begins with my successful participation in the National Poetry Month challenge of writing a poem a day for 30 days.  I’m happy to say that I missed not a single day and that all 30 poems are posted here at michaeljarmer.com for your reading pleasure.  I thought I wouldContinue reading “Forced Creativity Experiences (The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly)”

It’s April: National Poetry Writing Month!

Wasn’t it T.S. Eliot who wrote that April is the cruelest month?  Of course it was;  it’s the first line, and perhaps the most famous line* from The Wasteland.  What’s so cruel about April, T.S. Eliot? He must have known something about National Poetry Writing Month. But there is something considerably less cruel in my estimationContinue reading “It’s April: National Poetry Writing Month!”