Well, I am definitely a glutton for punishment. I decided to pick up the gauntlet and accept the National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) challenge. To make matters a little more difficult, I also plan to complete the National Blog Posting Month (NaBloPoMo) challenge. I’m not sure if I will be successful because I will be on the road quite a bit during this month, but I will try.
NaNoWriMo
So, what did I get myself into? First, let me talk about the NaNoWriMo. This is an activity held every November when writers around the world try to write a novel, book, or 50,000 words during the month. The idea is to get the first draft of a book written and ready for editing.
Well, I’m not necessarily writing a novel; instead, I will be writing chapters for three different books. One book is on the history of Civil Air Patrol as reflected in the annual reports to Congress. The second book is a leadership book explaining how to be a good Civil Air Patrol unit commander. The third book is a book that I’ve been working on for some time, and I decided that I’m going to use this month to see if I can finish it. It is on informal learning strategies.
NaBloPoMo
NaBloPoMo occurs also during November. All I have to do for NaBloPoMo is write a blog post every single day for the month of November. Yesterday, I started and I put out my newsletter for Tubarks Consulting which got posted to Facebook so I will claim that as a blog post because it did go out and you can find it on the web. The odds of completing 30 blog posts is good because I am maintaining three different blogs: Tubarks, Tubarks Consulting, and the SUNY JCC TEI blog.
So far, in the two days, I’ve been writing, I have put over 3,200 words to paper. Still, a long ways to go.
Obstacles in the Way
What will make this a little more challenging is that I will be on the road. Tomorrow evening, I leave for Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama to do some Civil Air Patrol work. I expect to be back Sunday. During the time that I’m gone, I will have to figure out how to put some energy into the books, as well as, knockout a blog post each day. I am going to try a couple different strategies such as dictate my blog post while I’m driving. I’ve had mixed results doing this, but I’ll see if I can find a process that works.
Two weeks later, I will be going to a conference for 3 days. It is time spent in a hotel and at the conference. I will need to find some writing time. Writing blog posts should not be a problem because I typically write about my events at conferences. What will be more challenging is trying to do some book writing. For the rest of the month, I don’t see it being so much of a challenge especially with Thanksgiving holiday thrown in. Lots of time to write.
I will keep you informed of my progress.
If you are a writer it’s not too late to jump into these challenges. If you do let me know, I’d like to cheer you on as I hope you cheer me on.
