2007/11/01 11:37
Thirty Things You Can Do To Make It Through NaBloPoMo
1. Just write about it. No matter how asinine, no matter how much of an inside joke, open up your blog client and punch it in there. An infinite number of monkeys updating an infinite number of blogs for 30 days will eventually write something profound.
2. Keep a list of post topic ideas. Whenever you think of something that would make a good blog post, write it down so you don't forget later. I keep a list of ptoential topics on a white board next to my desk. If you're having a hard time thinking of ideas, go pick up a copy of No One Cares What You Had For Lunch or another similar collection of writing prompts.
3. Come up with a theme. It's easier to think of something new when you're confining yourself to a set genre. This is where I'd link to examples if my laptop was not the slowest thing in the entire state (and I am counting all the retirees driving around Florida in this statement).
4. Moblog. Rather than confining yourself to the computer, write what you're thinking as you're thinking it from wherever you are. A lot of services support e-mailed, text-messaged or even voice blog posts.
5. Read. The best writers are usually the most voracious readers. The more you take in, the more you can spew out.
6. Specifically, read Catch-22. Matthew Baldwin over at Defective Yeti has declared it his official NaNoReMo 2007 selection. Keep up with him and link back to his inevitably hilarious commentary. (As an added bonus, Catch-22 is a modern classic, and I've not yet read it.)
7. Watch TV. Whether you like the boob tube or not, eventually something will piss you off so much that you can't help but furiously type a screed for all to see.
8. Take pictures. There's nothing in the NaBloPoMo rules that says your posts have to contain words. It just says you have to update daily. Besides, a picture is technically worth a thousand words.
9. Go outside. Not everything worth posting about happens in the home or the workplace. See a game, see a concert, just see stuff.
10. Make some new friends. In general, no one cares about third-party friends, but if you participate in different activities with them you'll have blog fodder.
11. Keep up on the competition. Lots of people are participating, so there'll be lots of posts flying around the verges of the blogosphere and lots of ideas ripe for the harvesting. Start with the official NaBloPoMo Randomizer, and sooner or later you'll have a topic. Plus who knows -- you might even fulfill the previous suggestion.
12. Take a class. No one is so thoroughly knowledgeable that they could not stand to learn something new. Not even teenagers. Study something you've always wanted to know, and share with others who might also like to learn.
13. Make something else. When you're stunted at the keyboard, exercise your creativity in the kitchen, the garage, the garden, or that blank wall you've always wanted to do something about. And then write about it.
14. Clean out your closets. Figuratively or literally, everybody's got crap piled up that's just bogging them down. Clear it out. Get rid of that useless anger toward your spouse or that manual to your first cell phone. (Lose the phone itself, too, by the way. Your enormous Motorola flip phone didn't impress anyone then, and it's not scoring you any points now either.)
15. Make shit up. You've totally had an imaginary conversation with the hottie in line ahead of you at the supermarket or the jackhole riding your bumper in traffic. Put it in your blog. Or even invent a totally imaginary scene -- let the hottie and the jackhole duke it out, for instance.
16. Hilariously overestimate your capacity for inventing new ideas about posting blog entries.
17. ...
18. ... um ...
19. ...
29. Quit and save your sanity. You could post every day for thirty days, but is it worth the toll it'll take on your mental state? Go outside and play instead.
30. Make asinine "list" posts. Even if you're swamped for ideas, they take no effort to write, less to read, and when you get to the end you (NOTE: come up with good kicker phrase later)
2. Keep a list of post topic ideas. Whenever you think of something that would make a good blog post, write it down so you don't forget later. I keep a list of ptoential topics on a white board next to my desk. If you're having a hard time thinking of ideas, go pick up a copy of No One Cares What You Had For Lunch or another similar collection of writing prompts.
3. Come up with a theme. It's easier to think of something new when you're confining yourself to a set genre. This is where I'd link to examples if my laptop was not the slowest thing in the entire state (and I am counting all the retirees driving around Florida in this statement).
4. Moblog. Rather than confining yourself to the computer, write what you're thinking as you're thinking it from wherever you are. A lot of services support e-mailed, text-messaged or even voice blog posts.
5. Read. The best writers are usually the most voracious readers. The more you take in, the more you can spew out.
6. Specifically, read Catch-22. Matthew Baldwin over at Defective Yeti has declared it his official NaNoReMo 2007 selection. Keep up with him and link back to his inevitably hilarious commentary. (As an added bonus, Catch-22 is a modern classic, and I've not yet read it.)
7. Watch TV. Whether you like the boob tube or not, eventually something will piss you off so much that you can't help but furiously type a screed for all to see.
8. Take pictures. There's nothing in the NaBloPoMo rules that says your posts have to contain words. It just says you have to update daily. Besides, a picture is technically worth a thousand words.
9. Go outside. Not everything worth posting about happens in the home or the workplace. See a game, see a concert, just see stuff.
10. Make some new friends. In general, no one cares about third-party friends, but if you participate in different activities with them you'll have blog fodder.
11. Keep up on the competition. Lots of people are participating, so there'll be lots of posts flying around the verges of the blogosphere and lots of ideas ripe for the harvesting. Start with the official NaBloPoMo Randomizer, and sooner or later you'll have a topic. Plus who knows -- you might even fulfill the previous suggestion.
12. Take a class. No one is so thoroughly knowledgeable that they could not stand to learn something new. Not even teenagers. Study something you've always wanted to know, and share with others who might also like to learn.
13. Make something else. When you're stunted at the keyboard, exercise your creativity in the kitchen, the garage, the garden, or that blank wall you've always wanted to do something about. And then write about it.
14. Clean out your closets. Figuratively or literally, everybody's got crap piled up that's just bogging them down. Clear it out. Get rid of that useless anger toward your spouse or that manual to your first cell phone. (Lose the phone itself, too, by the way. Your enormous Motorola flip phone didn't impress anyone then, and it's not scoring you any points now either.)
15. Make shit up. You've totally had an imaginary conversation with the hottie in line ahead of you at the supermarket or the jackhole riding your bumper in traffic. Put it in your blog. Or even invent a totally imaginary scene -- let the hottie and the jackhole duke it out, for instance.
16. Hilariously overestimate your capacity for inventing new ideas about posting blog entries.
17. ...
18. ... um ...
19. ...
29. Quit and save your sanity. You could post every day for thirty days, but is it worth the toll it'll take on your mental state? Go outside and play instead.
30. Make asinine "list" posts. Even if you're swamped for ideas, they take no effort to write, less to read, and when you get to the end you (NOTE: come up with good kicker phrase later)
