Friends, it’s November 1st and you know what that means: It’s National Blog Posting Month!
(And National Novel Writing Month, so if you’re one of those people trying to write 50,000 words of your novel this month, I’m cheering you on as well!)
This is my fourth year doing NaBloPoMo and I have to admit that I wasn’t sure if I wanted to do it again. It’s a lot of work, writing a blog post every single day of November, and there’s a lot to keep up with on the blog reading and commenting front. I also feel a little bad about clogging up everyone’s feeds with my blog posts (typical enneagram 9 here). Alas, I decided that I love this challenge too much to sit on the sidelines this year. Plus, I’m going to need something to distract me as we wait to find out the results of the presidential election (who else is breathing into a paper bag right now?). Hopefully, I won’t also need something to distract me from shitty results if those come in.
My goal for NaBloPoMo 2024 is to write short posts. This is not exactly my strong suit as I love writing long, thoughtful posts (in 2023, my average words per post was close to 900), but I’m going to challenge myself to write as many posts under 500 words as possible. I know you guys have a lot of blog posts to read and I have a lot of blog posts to write so keeping things short and sweet is advisable. That’s not to say all my posts will be short, but I like this challenge of figuring out how to write more concisely.
What else can you expect to see from me this month? Well, I will of course be tackling Week in the Life again. This will be my 8th time doing WitL and it’s so fun for me to go back and read my posts from previous years. There’s 2014 when I was still living at home with my mom. There’s 2015 when I was living in Tampa with Bri. There’s 2017 when I was sick for most of the week and dealing with a senior dog who was getting very, very difficult to handle on my own. There’s 2020 when we were 8 months into COVID. It’s wild to look back on each of these years and see how much things have changed for me.
I also plan on using the super-cool spreadsheet that Sarah and Engie dreamed up, which has topic ideas to get us through 30 days of blogging. (It’s not too late to add some ideas!) I’ll probably use some of my normal blogging series, like Currently, Three Things Thursday, etc. Oh! And I want to write some follow-up posts to “Where Do You Keep That?” based on the posts Elisabeth has published on her blog.
Okay, I’m already close to 500 words (see? I like to be wordy!) so I probably should wrap up this post. Happy NaBloPoMo!
I love that you are giving yourself a challenge within the challenge to make it under 500 words. I think many of us trying to do shorter and more fun posts to ease on the reading front. But I know some of my best and deepest posts have been bubbling up while doing NaBloPo so who nows what is happening.
I think it is my eighth year… only two haven’t been done completely I think. I need to check.
We’ll see how well I do at writing posts under 500 words. I do love a wordy blog post!
Good luck with this year’s attempt at NaBloPoMo. You sound organized. I did it twice and that was enough for me— of course, now that I think about it, I didn’t have the wonderful support of many bloggy friends like you do. What is Week in the Life? That’s new to me.
Week in the Life is just writing “day in the life” posts but you do it for a full week! It’s a lot of work but I really enjoy looking back on these weeks especially since I’ve been doing it for nearly a decade now!
Happy NaBloPoMo! I’m excited! I loved WITL when you did it last year. I’m also trying to keep my posts on the shorter side (when possible) but if you need to be wordy, I don’t mind!
WITL is one of my most favorite blog series so I’m excited to do it again!
I am terrible at writing short posts! I used to feel very guilty, but I’ve decided if people want to read that many words from me they can and if not I am 100% okay with them deciding they’re too wordy.
I cannot WAIT to see more of your Where Do You Keep That items.
I should care less about what people think of me – like my wordy blog posts! I love writing long posts but it will be good experiment for me to be more concise.
PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE CLOG UP MY FEED WITH YOUR BLOG POSTS!!!! And no need to stick to 500 words on my account! I have no idea how many words my typical post is, but I’m guessing that they’re on the long side. Actually it would be fun/interesting/challenging to limit myself to shorter posts as an experiment.
I love your support, Birchie! It means so much. <3 We'll see how well I can do with writing shorter posts.
Stephany, I am so glad you decided to do it again. I am doing it too, for the first time ever, and I think I haven’t done it because I am an enneagram 1, which means it has to be perfect, and an 8, I want to control my environment, and a 6, like to be prepared (you asked me once which I was and I never answered – so it’s 1 mostly, and 8, 5, 6), so I think it’s funny that you say that your 9 is causing you issues. I guess each one has it’s own issues!!!
Sometimes I’ll work on a post and spend lots of time writing it and it gets no traction. And then I throw together a 300-word post and it sparks a lot of talk and commenting. Maybe shorter posts will be amazing! I think it’s a fun experiment.
Short posts are so hard, right? I’m a wordy person and I feel like it takes me longer to write shorter (or edit down what my first pass ends up being). I love your NaBloPoMo posts and can’t wait to follow along throughout the month! PS: all the paper bag breathing over here, too, sigh….
Hi, Stephany, I have followed your blog for years, but I don’t think I have ever commented before; I enjoy all your posts, though your goal setting and tracking ones are some of the ones that pulled me in. And I, too, need happy distractions from this year’s election. I am looking forward to this month of having posts from you daily!
I don’t have a blog, but I have set my own goal this Nov. of actually commenting on the blogs that I read, so here’s to reaching 30 comments!
Gwen! I am so happy you commented. It means the world to know that people are reading my posts and enjoying them. <3 I love this goal of yours and will be cheering you on!
I’m excited to get to know you better by reading your daily posts! I recently found out that I’m an Enneagram 9, so it’s cool to know that you are too!
Oh, that’s so fun! Learning that I was an enneagram 9 helped me come to terms with SO MUCH in my life!
You have an excellent lan for the month– can’t wait to read along 🙂
I’m trying to keep my posts short this month, too. I’m looking forward to keeping up with everyone, though, glad you’re participating again!
Hi Stephany, nice to visit your blog! I’ve done NaBloPoMo about 5 times since 2007 (I know, a little lame…) but I’ve become nostalgic for old time blogging and the community I was a part of, a lot of whom have moved to FB. And wow NaNoWriMo too – that is phenomenal. I thought about it for half a second. My posts will likely be short, I just started a creative writing course too, just to make my life more stressful :). Looking forward to reading more here!
Hi Karen! Thanks for commenting. 🙂 I’m so glad you’re doing NaBloPoMo this year, and I think you’ll find that old-school blogging is alive and well with everyone participating.
Did I miss that WITL was announced or are you doing it on your own? I love that challenge and to document my every day life in photos. 💕
Cheers from Sweden & happy NaBloPoMo!
Nope – you didn’t miss anything! I just do WitL on my own. 🙂
Happy NaBloPoMo!
I was counting on you to join NaBloPoMo, Stephany and I am happy you don’t want to sit on the sidelines. I had the same idea as you though, and I will also attempt to keep things shorter. I have a crazy busy month ahead of me and will be happy to keep up with everything at all, so shorter posts will help me (and you).
I also need the distraction. I am definitely breathing into a paper bag over here when it comes to the election (4 more days).
Yay for shorter posts! We can do it. I like to be wordy so it will be a good exercise for me to try to keep things short and sweet.