Rather than call it something negative, like NaNo-No, which I did jokingly in a previous post, I'd love this to be a positive, fun, relaxed, 30-day creativity-enriching experience, so I'm dubbing it:
NaBalWriMo
National Balanced Writers Month
More creativity, less guilt!
National Balanced Writers Month
More creativity, less guilt!
If you're up for it, please take a moment to think about places in your life that feel out of balance, and share your list of a few simple things you'd like to try to regain sanity and creative joy this month. We can cheer each other on! I'll go first.
My November goals:
-To be more emotionally present, especially to family
-To have more energy
-To recharge spiritually and emotionally
-To explore deeply some themes that I care about
-To rediscover the joy of creating
-To offer encouragement to other writers
-To maintain momentum with querying
And my "action items"
(to steal from boring corporate training I've sat through):
-Write one page a day of memories or notes or wordplay
-Watch lots of movies
-Read widely and with relish
-Have coffee with a friend
-Do a messy craft with hobbit girl weekly
-Walk the dog 4x week on the hiking trails nearby
-Blog some journal explorations and fun stuff
-Cheer on my NaNoWriMo, NaNoWraMo and NaNoRevMo pals
-Query 10 more agents
Anyone up for designing a badge? Let me know that you did and I'll send folks over to copy it and display with pride.
What do you think of the concept? Let me know if you're planning to join in NaBalWriMo!
What a great idea!
ReplyDeleteOk so NaNoRevMo is revision, I'm guessing. What's NaNoWraMo?
ReplyDeleteI'm in! I was thinking along these lines just this evening. Great minds think alike!
ReplyDeleteAngela: glad you like it. Less guilt is always good in my book.
ReplyDeleteKristal: NaNoWraMo is wrap up up an work in progress. There's a link in my previous post.
Nicole: Cool! Look forward to seeing your thoughts on how to help one's creativity flourish.
Ah! Myself, I'm going to be doing a NaNoFiMo, which means I'm going to finish my first draft. Or to my friend, finish her second draft. "_
ReplyDeleteI'll be doing a NaNoFiMo this month as well...
ReplyDeleteThe idea of 'less guilt, more creativity,' is innovative and nice, nevertheless I think the whole idea of NaNoWriMo is to push us to word counts which will bring satisfactory smiles on our lips. I don't think it should push anyone to guilt if indeed they tried their best. Have fun on NaBalWriMo :)
I'm with you, Laurel. I will definitely be striving for a better balance between creativity, productivity, and connection. Thanks for hosting!
ReplyDeleteThis is great, laurel. I need to focus on balancing a lot of things in my life. Kick out the guilt.
ReplyDeleteI'm revising and hope to finish my first round of revisions by the new year.
We will see.
Good luck and you can do it.
Jaycee: NaNo simply isn't the best fit for everyone, and does tend to induce guilt in some, like it or not. Best of luck with finishing your draft.
ReplyDeleteJenna: Looking forward to hearing about your goals for the month.
Christine: I get the feeling it's us moms who need this kind of month most. Revision, I've found, takes a lot of problem-solving creativity, so I hope NaBalWriMo will be helpful there too.