Well, by golly, I went and did it. Having not had much of a chance to try writing anything today, I thought I was going to have to either consider myself a failure or cheat at NaPoWriMo on the very first day by writing some lame midnight couplet just to scrape by. But an hour ago, I sat down and wrote something that’s not as crappy as I might have expected it to be. And then I did a (minor) second draft. I’m one thirtieth of the way there.
I am going to cheat at NaPoWriMo, I should warn you in advance. The usual drill with these things is that you showcase your work in some forum or on your blog. I’m too embarrassingly shy about the particulars of my interest in poetry to do any such thing. So you’ll be reading none of my stuff here (consider yourself spared the feeling of some obligation to compliment me whether you mean it or not). I rather doubt I’ll open up an anonymous blog to post the stuff at either. For me, this is about doing an exercise that’ll encourage me to write every day whether I feel like it or not and whether I have much to say or not. I should call this MyPoWriMo.
Part of the specatcle of NaPoWriMo is that you do it in public. Now, I’m like you, I don’t want everyone to see me tank. But NaPoWriMo is partially about accepting the fact that you WILL tank sometimes. At the very least, it asks you to enforce a discipline upon yourself and make public the fact that you have done so.
I’ve been blogging under a fake name, but a couple of other people are using the same blog for the same purpose, and they know who I am. I’m that much MORE accountable, I suppose.
So, find a way to share your poems, even if they don’t have your name on them. Make yourself do the work.