Failure, Success, and Realism

Two weeks in to this month of challenge, and I have to be honest about what I can and cannot do.  The advantage that NaNoWriMo has over NaBloPoMo is that you can catch up, or get ahead, at any time.  The only target is 50,000 words by the end of the month.  The NaBloPoMo challenge is rather more specific: make a new blog post every day.  This I have obviously failed to do.

And I'm not sorry.  I have managed to write something every day, but it has not been blog-worthy.  Writing the first draft of a novel is unlike any other creative process: it is a vital stage in the novel's development, but it may end up bearing little or no resemblance to the finished work.  A blog, on the other had, is a public platform from which to air your views, share interesting information and/or keep an incredibly non-private diary.  Blog posts are rarely edited after posting, and tend to be the finished product, rather than a creative first stage.

Keeping statistics is helping me, personally, to track my NaNo experience: to learn what works and what doesn't, and to draw encouragement from on bad days.  However, taking time out of my writing day to log on here and write up those stats is not helpful at all, neither for me or anyone else.

I know that NaBloPoMo is not for me, and unless I start a webcomic or a piece of serialised fiction, I'm pretty sure blogging isn't for me, either.  I don't write well off the cuff, it's stressful and awkward.  I prefer to let my prose marinate for a few months, then strain out the good bits and throw away the dross.

So unless and until I have something to report, I bid farewell to the challenge that is NaNbloPoMo.

Happy scribbling!