I did it.
I posted all 30 days of November, and I learned a few things along the way.
1. I don’t really enjoy posting every single day.
2. I am not entirely happy with what I have written for that day, but instead of just hitting “save” on the draft, I hit “publish” because, well, a post a day!
3. I don’t feel like I wrote more than I usually do; I just hit publish more often.
4. I found myself thinking “is this a blog post?” about everything…like I used to do.
5. I am still annoyed about the picture thing. Yes, there have been pictures but that is either with copy/paste or embedding via Flickr. Both are annoying stand in’s to what I should be able to do here.
6. I do still enjoy writing every day, and it’s not all bad to have some pressure to hit publish once in a while.
7. I’ve been more stumped for content because, I think, I’ve been holding back. No, I know I have. I have some stuff I really, really want to write about, but I am afraid of being controversial or whatever and I don’t have the energy to “deal with” the fall out. Or even the support. I know. That is sad.
8. Blogging every day has me somehow missing real people more than usual. I am still working this through my brain about what this even means.
9. I’ve become acutely aware of how much has changed since I was at the “height” of my blogging (stats-wise that is) in 2011/12. I didn’t care what other people were logging about or what had been said already. I was writing my own truth not trying to say something new. Now I feel like a small, repetitive voice in a sea of “been there, done that” type of writing.
10.. I made time to post, but I didn’t make enough time to read others, and I wish I had. I miss reading blogs just for fun. So to those of you who have popped over here, thank you. I know how big of a deal that is.
Will I do NaBloPoMo again next year? I don’t know. I didn’t know I was going to do it this year until I had posted on November one and decided to see if I could. So maybe?
I also know I am tired and tomorrow starts the three-week haul to Christmas break, so I am going to go grab some rest.
About Katie
You just said everything I felt about NaBloPoMo this year; especially, the “been there, done that” feeling. Congratulations and meeting the challenge!
I feel the same way. It seems to have gone so quickly, too. But three weeks until Christmas break! Omg.
Yay for finishing the month off!
I can’t blog daily either – I can write daily, but I think I’d rather save some stuff for later, to sit on, to edit, to just read and see how I feel about it.
I love your approach to NaBloPoMo wrap up. Congratulations on surviving it!!
The one time I tried posting every day, for a month, I ended up resenting blogging — it felt far too much like a chore . . . I admire those of you who did it, who got through, and maintained their “writing chops,” but, well, I knew, if I tried it again, after the first week, I’d be thinking about just plain turning off the blog.
As far as being “too controversial?” Eff-that . . . your readers truly want to read what you have to say.