In which the word "I" is preponderant, and some musings about discipline etc.

After the first few hours, when I was moping and sulking and MAD! AT! MYSELF! for blowing NaBloPoMo, I was gifted with an amazing feeling of freedom and relief.

No more looming deadlines!  No more watching the clock!  No more muttering to myself as I trekked through my daily routine, "Hmmm...is that a good subject?" or "Omigod, I don't have a post today!  What am I going to do?!"

At first, I was starting the posts the day before, tweaking and adding things the next morning and then *BLAM* posting them.

Then I went down the hill to visit OmegaGranny for the evening, and that pleasant, relaxing, well-ahead-of-the-curve style of posting went out the window (but it was worth it!).  Suddenly, it was much more pressure than before.

I've always wisted a bit after having a daily column in a newspaper somewhere.  As a result of this exercise, I think all NaBloPoMo-ers have a better understanding of just how difficult it can be to keep at it, every day.  Now I just want a column every three days.  That's doable!

I had resolved not to do fluff posts.  No lists for me!  No memes!  No post-a-pics!  Not one word about the project itself!  No "here's my obligatory NaBloPoMo post for the day" hit-and-runs.  Which I did manage to do.  But it's damned hard to have that deadline and that pressure--blogging has been mostly a work of love (and self-indulgence) for me.

All that said, here's to all the NaBloPoMo-ers!  Keep on keeping on, guys & gals, and may you enjoy yourselves and learn something from the exercise.

In the end, the question of how to pronounce NaBloPoMo.  At first, I was reading it as "Nah-blow-poe-moe", which is intensely awkward.  But suddenly, one day, I looked at it as a word, and realized how it's really pronounced:  "Nah-BLOP-ah-moe".  I leave my fellow NaBloPoMo-ers with that gift.

Technorati: NaBloPoMo, dropout