The second time, I didn't use the official site (https://nanowrimo.org/) to keep track, but I had a buddy (shout out to Noah who kept me motivated, or just competitive) to keep me on track. Again, I reached the 50,000 word goal, but I did not finish the novel. It began to change as I wrote it and I plan to go back and clean it up for an official first draft in the upcoming months. Maybe stating this will keep me accountable, because I'm terrible at finishing projects because of busyness, struggle focusing on one project, and doubt.
This time, I knew I did not have the mindset to write a completely new novel with all the photography projects that I picked up and all the other stuff going on in my life. So instead, I decided to work on a poetry book. I've written poetry for years. I'm not saying any of it was good poetry, but I've been trying to grow my voice and had a focus for this book unlike poetry projects in the past. I have not been as focused as in previous NaNoWriMo projects, but I wanted this as an opportunity to write more and organize this project which I certainly have. I'm not keeping an official word count because most of my time is editing what I have. But I do have a word count for one of the two notebooks I've completely filled with new poems which is currently at 9,805 words.
Anyone else doing NaNo? How is your month going? Remember, it's about encouraging writers to dive into their practice and overcome the fear of putting just anything on the page.
My project title is Sure of the Aperture because I've been trying to incorporate poetry and photography both in word art and visual art. The nice thing about doing all the writing in one month is that all the poems match a time in your life, meaning they generally have a similar tone. But that can also be limiting and challenging to find inspiration and have it not sound repetitive. Also, a tricky thing about poetry is keeping a synonymous style guide. For some of my poems, I don't like capitalization, in others I let capital letters anchor each line. That was/is hard for picking a style while trying to mix long and short poems. Here are a few of my results, and if you follow me on instagram sorry for some repeats.
i took all your pictures down now my walls feel as empty as i felt when we were together |
| The Ferris Wheel the two of us, in cages blue round and round we go never knowing what to do. we look back at the city, we look out to the lake. i reach out for your hand scared that we will break. and ‘cause i keep facts the way others keep photographs i say, the first time they turned the old wheel on hammers, nails, and wrenches flew everywhere they didn’t believe that it would run creating a deadly scare. you ask, is that what happened the first time i kissed you, were you so surprised, you mistook it for falling apart, too? everything turned in my head, and suddenly i was at the top, scared of the knot in my guts as i look down from where we stopped. your blue cage eyes were glued to me and i wanted desperately to meet their gaze, but all i could do was squeeze your hand in thanks for these perfect final days. |
when you caved in you took the earth right out from under my feet -brokenness spread |
i said it to shock you like angry outlets with the cord yanked i wanted to linger on your fingertips even if you pulled away |
- Remember the difference between journaling and writing; journaling is making sense of feelings while writing is creating something others can connect to and means something important to you
- Have a writing warm up: I listened to Sylvia Plath read her poems on YouTube, wrote crappy poems to throw away before setting up on real poems like doing layups before a basketball game, and tried to get out of the house a little bit to have something to write about
- Get it down on the page, you can't edit nothing (a cliché, I know)
- Learn when you write the best, for me it's in low lighting with a warm mug of coffee or tea in my hands
- Consult professionals, not me. Try: Elements of Style by Strunk & White, On Writing by Stephen King, Writing Tools by Roy Peter Clark
- Read content similar to your voice. I read Milk and Honey by Rupi Kaur, Pillow Thoughts by Courtney Peppernell, Nocturnal by Wilder, Early Poems by Robert Frost, and The Prettiest Star by Andre Darlington.