NaBloPoMo Wrap-Up

Last November, I took part in National Novel Writing Month and managed to write over 50,000 words worth of novel (it's not finished yet) that month. It was a blast. I had fun with the friendly competition going with some of my writing buddies. And, yes, sometimes it was a totally pain-in-the-ass to come up with 1667 word a day when I was tired, out of ideas, or really really wanted to do something else. But it was so worth it. It really felt great to be writing everyday. NaNoWriMo is definitely something I will do again, starting with Camp NaNoWriMo this August (gotta finish my novel somehow), and possibly also this November, despite having schoolwork again.

This past April, I did Script Frenzy and wrote 100 pages of a screenplay (I've got about 10 to go). I have mixed feelings about it. While I did have fun working on the project, I found it kind of counter-intuitive. The three and a third pages as a daily goal wasn't all that challenging--during grad school I churned out far higher page counts than that--but normally when I'm writing a script, I try to keep structure and pacing in mind. The idea behind these writing month challenges, though, is to write as much as possible in a month. It really goes against how I've been taught to write in script format. For example, normally in screenwriting, it's not a good idea to let a scene drag on, but in Script Frenzy, you're kind of encouraged to do that to meet your page count. It's really too tempting to over describe things or to write pages and pages of useless dialogue. And, finally, I didn't quite enjoy myself as much this time because, though my friends showed a lot of support and interest, I wasn't "competing" against anyone this time. At the beginning of May, I wasn't sure whether or not I would participate in Script Frenzy again. And I probably won't make up my mind until around February or March when I get a really great idea for it.

In case you haven't noticed, this month I've been doing National Blog Posting Month, which is held every month, participants choosing which for their convenience. I haven't enjoyed it in the least. Whereas with NaNoWriMo and Script Frenzy writing everyday was, for the most part, fun, this has been a chore. When writing a novel or a script, sometimes it can be hard figuring out what to write for the day, but at least I know where I'm ultimately going, and can slog through till I hit some more inspiration. With NaBloPoMo, though, I have to come up with something completely new every single day. I wanted to get myself to post in my blog more often than once ever three months, but every day is too much. Nobody, not even the guy in the Dos Equis commercials, can come up with something truly interesting every single day. Yeah, sure, I could slap together a bunch of lists (which I did--fun though it was, it felt like copping out) or just talk about my life in general. There are a lot of people participating in NaBloPoMo who do so, and, sorry to hurt feelings here, but, unless you know them or have some reason to want to know what they're doing, that's pretty boring. If I remember right, when I started this blog, I swore that I would try to never be boring and also to have certain standards of quality for the writing I display here. That's another thing I don't like about NaBloPoMo. As with the other monthly writing challenges, it's quantity over quality. With NaNoWriMo and Script Frenzy, that's no problem because they're first drafts. Anyone would be a fool not to revise a first draft. But blogs are instantly published. That's why I like to take time to really craft something I wouldn't be ashamed to let others read, or, rather, feel like I have that time, whether or not I actually bother to do it. Because speed is of the essence, NaBloPoMo doesn't allow participants to do that. Finally, I find the NaBloPoMo site to be much harder and, frankly, less fun to use. Shouldn't there be some way of cross-posting your actual blog to the site, instead of having to copy and paste to their blog? And it does kind of suck that, unless you participate in November, there are no prizes--not even a winner's certificate or HTML badge for your blog. And as for the social aspect of it, well, the site has a kind of outdated feel to it, especially since the profiles look like their programming was based on MySpace. I don't think I'll be doing NaBloPoMo again.

Anyway, here's a hub for everything I've written this month:

Continuing Features
How to Get Into Doctor Who
How to Get Into The Beatles
British Actor of the Month: Petrolhead Edition
More Advice for the College Bound

New Features
50 Favorite Classic Rock Albums, Part 1
50 Favorite Classic Rock Albums, Part 2
50 Favorite Classic Rock Albums, Part 3
30 Days, 30 Movies in One Day
30 Days, 30 Songs in One Day
30 Days, 30 Books: For Bibliophiles
30 Days, 30 TV Shows

Other Music Topics
Defining the Concept Album
Classical Rock
Notes on Gaga

Movie Guides and Reviews
A Selective Guide to Bowie's Movies
"Well, There Was This Movie I Seen One Time..."
Scottish Cinema
80s Fantasy Round-Up
Review: Strange Psychokinetic Strategy

Other Pop Culture Topics
Alien Invasion Survival Kit
River Song Is--Spoilers!
Graphic Novels and the Tradition of Quality
The Venture Brothers Funniest Moments
Modern Vampires Suck

Writing
NaNoWriMo: An Excerpt
Writing Prompts

Serious
Being Serious for a Minute Here

Stupid
5 Random Things I Like
5 Random Things I Dislike