“Who’s up for NaPoWriMo?” asked Carrie Etter and I thought, “Why not?”
For those who don’t know National Poetry Writing Month is a promise, a pledge, a dare, a boast to write a poem a day throughout April – 30 poems in 30 days. Carrie has attempted to do this every April since 2008. She’s going to post updates on her blog throughout the month and she’s already posted a few writing prompts. There’s still time to add your name to her list of participants – you may well recognise a few of them – more details here.
I know that previous NaPoWriMo people have posted a poem daily – some folk start a separate blog for just this purpose – and will do the same this year. Some participants attempt to write a new poem, from scratch, every day. I won’t be doing either of these – it takes me a lot longer than one day to write a poem – but I will be working on a different poem, every day, in April.
I’ve looked through my notebooks and I’ve found, so far, at least 17 unfinished poems that I’m going to include in my 30 day project. I hope to be able to finish at least some of these, or to make progress with them. I also hope to start several new poems – if I manage to finish just one of these, I’ll be happy.
In the first week I’ll be on holiday in Devon with my family so I won’t be able to devote long hours to writing but being part of NaPoWriMo will, I hope, motivate me to write every day.
How about you? Have you already signed up? Did you do it last year? Are you tempted?!
Josephine Corcoran 
Thank you very much for sharing this. I will try to join too. 🙂
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Hello and welcome Little Ink Elf! That’s great news! 🙂
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Thanks for the prompt Josephine – I’d like to add my name to Carrie’s list but for some reason it won’t allow me to comment except with a Google account, which I don’t use for my poetry stuff – shame! Like you, I’ll be away for some of April so can’t commit to every day, plus as you know I’m a bit exhausted from doing a similar thing for Lent. However I like your idea of revisiting unfinished poems, and as I have rather a lot of them at the moment I may join you in that pledge.
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Hi Robin – I’ll include you in a tweet to Carrie so that she can add your name – yes, I think you are something of a poetry marathonist with your recent record of writing!
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Good luck with that! I’m concentrating on finishing my novel at the moment, but might try something like this later in the year. It’s a great idea to kick-start some creativity. Do let us know how it’s going.
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Thanks, Isabel! I’ll keep you posted and good luck with your novel.
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I’m compiling a list of prompts for poems, from a semi-random selection of words in books on my shelf, plus places remembered from recent travels. Hope it works.
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Hi Colin, I think it’s a smart move to do some forward planning – I love your idea of preparing a list of prompts. Please share your progress as the month progresses!
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[…] myself and that walking and cycling outdoors is very productive “thinking” time for me. As I’ve mentioned before, I’m taking part in NaPoWriMo this year (more about that in a later post) and I found that my […]
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Hi
I’m in, I did it last year and although some of my poems were a bit rubbishy, I had a good core of work, to edit and redraft throughout the rest of the year.
Anne
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Hi Anne! You might realise that you’ve replied to last year’s post but that doesn’t matter and thank you! I’ve done a post this year https://josephinecorcoran.wordpress.com/2014/03/30/poems-to-inspire-you-for-napowrimo/ but that is mainly to draw people’s attention to the many fantastic poems on And Other Poems (for inspiration, perhaps?). I’m trying to keep up with napowrimo2014 in between my day job. Good writing to you, Anne! 🙂
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