NaPoWriMo 2014 ~ Final Thoughts

I’m delighted that I participated in NaPoWriMo 2014. It’s my third year in a row.

I followed the NaPoWriMo prompts one year. That year I found the prompts to be interesting and challenging; I definitely stretched my capabilities as a poet and writer.

This year I decided that I would use my own prompts. More importantly, I decided I would choose a subject I would write all the poems on, or the bulk of poems on.

I chose to write about Padden Creek, a small creek here on the southerly side of the city, and its surroundings.

I’m happy with my output of poems: thirty-five or so poems in thirty days, all Padden Creek-related! I’m generally happy with the quality of these poems, too.

(Additionally, I have several more poem starts to work with — later!)

Whatever series of prompts we use, NaPoWriMo is valuable. It allows us to revisit and renew our commitment to our writing on a daily basis. NaPoWriMo is a valuable strategy in defeating writer’s block. The quantity of work we produce during NaPoWriMo
is valuable, too: we have a block of new poems that we can and should return to for editing, revising, and rewriting.

If we post our NaPoWriMo poems on our blogs or other blogs, we must then exercise care in identifying literary journals and editors interested in publishing this work.

One literary journal I admire greatly doesn’t consider work published on personal blogs or any work previously published electronically. I was quite disappointed, because a couple of my NaPoWriMo poems (“Easter Service” and “An Easter Poem”) seemed to be a good fit — until I examined the journal’s submission guidelines.

(This is why I decided NOT to post my Day 32 poem, “Birding Along Padden Creek,” on my blog. It’s one of my favorites from this month; I’d like to work on it some more and find a good home for it. A good home — not here!)

We should not work for NaPoWriMo; NaPoWriMo should work for us, and it should work for us in meeting our writing goals.

Thank you to everyone who read my NaPoWriMo poems and my blog. I’m especially grateful for your comments and feedback.

Do you write? What inspires you as you write?

Press on with YOUR writing! See you next year!

Cheers, Andy