On this 30th day of March, we find ourselves only two days away from National Poetry Writing Month, during which we creative types are encouraged to compose a poem a day every day for the entire month of April. I can safely (but humbly) brag about the fact that I have completed this task ofContinue reading “Two Days Until National Poetry Writing Month: Ekphrastic Fest?”
Tag Archives: National Novel Writing Month
NaNoWriMo 2024: Adjusting My Expectations
The point of any kind of forced creativity experience or challenge is to simply do the creative thing you want to be doing but perhaps wouldn’t be doing otherwise. I am all for it. I’ve done more than a decade worth of a poem every day in April, I’ve participated in songwriting challenges that resultedContinue reading “NaNoWriMo 2024: Adjusting My Expectations”
It’s National Novel Writing Month!
Here we are on the precipice of another year of attempting to write 50,000 words in a single month for the ritual of NaNoWriMo. This will be my third effort. I go into it this year with a bit of trepidation. I worry that the politics of the nation will be too much of aContinue reading “It’s National Novel Writing Month!”
I’m Thinking About Giving Up on Writing Fiction on the Cusp of Another NANOWRIMO
In both Novembers of 2022 and 2023 I wrote 50,000 words for the National Novel Writing Month challenge. The results were two sloppy, hastily written rough drafts of novels. I would expect nothing less from such a challenge, the purpose of which is not to write a masterpiece, but to spill out as quickly asContinue reading “I’m Thinking About Giving Up on Writing Fiction on the Cusp of Another NANOWRIMO”
On the Tenth Day of 2024: Please Excuse Michael’s Absence
On the tenth day of 2024, after setting up a pattern of daily blogging, while admitting that he was not sure how long he could keep it up, Michael Jarmer Writer Guy neglected to post a blog entry. It appears that everyone survived the catastrophe. There were no angry comments, no demands for a fullContinue reading “On the Tenth Day of 2024: Please Excuse Michael’s Absence”
16 Days into a Dry November, 30,000 Words into NaNoWriMo
I had my last drink of alcohol on October 30th before attempting a dry November and embarking on my second effort two years in a row at writing 50,000 words of fiction for National Novel Writing Month. As of this morning, exactly one half of the way through the month, I reached 30,000 words. IContinue reading “16 Days into a Dry November, 30,000 Words into NaNoWriMo”
It’s Been A Long Time . . .
. . .since we rock and rolled. So long, in fact, that my hair color has changed from purple to blue and then to silver. Apologies to anyone who might have missed me. It was April the last time I posted something new. I’m not including July’s essay “Reflections on 37 Years of Marriage” becauseContinue reading “It’s Been A Long Time . . .”
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”
On My First Attempt at NaNoWriMo: Writing a Novel in 30 Days
It seems crazy, doesn’t it? I completed my first novel over an entire decade. I finished my second novel over the next decade. It took me eight years to write a novella. Granted, during the composition of all three of these pieces I was employed as a full-time public school English teacher–which may have beenContinue reading “On My First Attempt at NaNoWriMo: Writing a Novel in 30 Days”
#368: It’s Friday
It’s Friday at the end of the second weirdest teaching week in history and I’m not going to write a poem about a piece of fruit. In my resistance to writing about fruit, in addition to a number of diversions today, I almost neglected to write a poem at all. My impulse today was toContinue reading “#368: It’s Friday”
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