NaBloPoMo, NaNoWriMo, and We'reOnStrike,Yo

November is a special month for bloggers and writers, for various reasons.

First there was NaNoWriMo - National Novel Writing Month. Now, the notion of writing a novel in a single month seems a little...odd to me. To me, a novel is an organic thing, a creation that is grown and nourished and carefully developed and torn from the very soul of the author. Compare Frank Herbert's masterpiece Dune - which was the end product of many years of careful crafting and conceptual layering, and is a complex and multi-layered feast that can be read and re-read over and over again with new nuances and meanings being gleaned each time - to, say, Dune Messiah, which reads like a sequel that was knocked off in a hurry. So the idea of just sitting down and writing a novel from scratch in thirty days seems unlikely to produce many truly readable final products. But I could be wrong, and I definitely do not want to discourage anyone from trying to achieve this goal.

Inspired by NaNoWriMo, some brave souls have come up with the concept of NaBloPoMo - National Blog Posting Month. The idea here is to encourage bloggers to post once a day (at least) every day for the month of November. Now, some of us have been posting at least once a day every day for...well, it feels like forever, though I know I've missed a day here and there. But I didn't sign up for NaBloPoMo for two reasons: One, I'm a chronic non-joiner, and always have been. And Two, I'm planning to travel for a few days in a week and a half, and there's a real chance that I'll be unable to write a post on some of those days.

I know a handful of people who have signed up for NaBloPoMo, and two who are - or were - participating in NaNoWriMo. Anne from Almost Quintessence is in, which is a refreshing change of pace from her recent once-every-few-months schedule of postings. Ashley from Ink On Paper is trying to accomplish the goals of both NaBloPoMo and NaNoWriMo, but she has recently come to the realization that a novel that is an act of love and inspiration and effort is not something that should be rushed out in thirty days. Tiffany from If I Were Queen of the World is doing NaBloPoMo, and her friend Aimee from Aimeepalooza is on board with NaNoWriMo. Best of luck to everyone! Please visit them and encourage them to continue writing and/or blogging!

(Now, one obvious question springs to mind: why is NaBloPoMo the same month as NaNoWriMo? I'm sure someone thought this was a good idea at the time, but to me it seems that you would want to think about the people who might want to participate in both endeavors. If it were up to me, I would move NaNoWriMo to a longer month, one with 31 days - January, March, May, July, August, October or...well, maybe not December. And NaBloPoMo should be moved to February. Posting once a day for 28 days (29 in leap years) is a lot more doable than 30 days.)

And as you are probably aware, the Writers' Strike is on. Author, television writer, and blogger Adam Felber from Fanatical Apathy gives some background here and here. Check out what he's written and learn a bit more on this topic.

Oddly enough, as the first rumblings of the strike began this weekend, Adam's site went offline, and many of the regular commentors from Fanatical Apathy streamed across the border into the blog of Wait Wait Don't Tell Me host Peter Sagal. Fanatical Apathy is back online now - turns out it was a hosting glitch. Thanks for sheltering us during our refugee days, Peter!