NaBloPoMo Wrap-Up

It’s the last day of November, which means it’s the last day of NaBloPoMo! Noooooo.

I am finding myself very sad to be ending this blogging challenge because I had so much fun with it. It was also fun to follow along with the other bloggers doing NaBloPoMo—it felt like we were all in this together! I’m really proud of myself for sticking with the challenge and publishing a blog post every day this month. And I am definitely ready to do it again next year.

Here are some of the things that I think helped me make it through NaBloPoMo:

• I was coming off a three-week blogging break.

Before November started, I hadn’t published a post on my blog since October 6th. I was more than ready to get back into my blogging habit. I decided to do NaBloPoMo on a whim, after seeing San post about it a few days before the challenge was set to begin, and I had a ton of blogging mojo built up.

• I planned out my entire month ahead of time.

This was probably the best thing I could have done for myself! Before NaBloPoMo started, I opened up Google Calendar and planned every blog post I would write in November. There was only one time when I nearly ran into the issue (the blog post I planned for, I didn’t end up wanting to write), but then I drew on inspiration from another blogger doing NaBloPoMo and used one of her post ideas as my own! (Thanks, NGS!)

• I set up recurring blog features four days a week.

On Mondays, I had “A Weekend in Pictures.” On Fridays, I had “TGIF.” On Saturdays, I had “Ask Stephany Anything.” And on Sundays, I had “Stream of Consciousness Sundays.” This meant that I only had to figure out blog topics for three days per week, which made planning out my posts much, much easier. I always keep a running list in my Notes app of blog post ideas so I just pulled from that list. I also utilized some of my semi-regular series, like Three Things Thursday, Snapshot of my Day, etc.

• I lessened the pressure I place on myself.

My normal blogging schedule is MWF and I really try to make each blog post a sensational one. If a blog post is under 500 words, I wonder if it’s really worth pushing publish on. I hold myself to a really high standard when it comes to the blog posts I publish, and I’m proud of that standard, but sometimes it can make me hold onto blog posts if they aren’t perfect. During NaBloPoMo, you can’t do that! You must publish a post every day, which means you just have to get it done. Telling myself that I didn’t have to publish long-winded blog posts and giving myself the grace to publish something even if it doesn’t meet my high standards helped me get through NaBloPoMo with my sanity intact. I’m hopeful that I can continue to lessen some of the pressure I have on myself when it comes to the blog posts I publish—it’s just a blog and it’s supposed to be something I’m doing for fun.

• I knew I wasn’t in this alone.

I think the most fun part of NaBloPoMo was doing it with a cohort of other bloggers. Some of them I didn’t know before the challenge began and others I had been following for a while but got to know much better during November. It felt like we were all in this together, working hard to publish original blog posts every day. And we did it!

I am so happy that I took on this challenge and I am forever grateful to San for organizing it and keeping all of us motivated. Thank you all for reading my many thousands of words this month and for cheering me on from afar. I can’t wait for November 2022 when I can do it all over again!