Fifty not out - not yet

Every January I write a list of goals. This year, I set the target of writing fifty blog posts. It was less than half of last year's output, but I had other things to do - like learning to play the banjo and finishing my creative writing degree. Still, I reckoned I'd manage it with time to spare.

If only real life was like the good intentions we have at New Year. 

As of yesterday and my total to date was a paltry 21 posts in ten months. There's only one solution I decided - NABLOPOMO.   I swore I'd never do it again, but needs must when the devil drives, and I reckon I've got just about enough in my head to stay the course of a month. 

It's also a good concept. We all have what I call periods of ability; times when the ideas and actions flow easily. But it is hard to sustain that level of creativity all year.  However, a few weeks of focused activity can open all sorts of new possibilities. Getting thousands of people writing, every day for a month, has got to be good thing. No doubt there will be lots of rubbish posted (including much on this blog I suspect) but if there are also a few gems, that seems to me to be a worthwhile project.

Last week I was on a course at the National Writing Centre in Wales. They run programmes covering virtually every writing genre; from fiction and poetry to script writing, nature and even health care.  And yet they have nothing on blogs. In fact, if you say you write blog, many participants will look at you askance and ask what one is , how exactly do you blog? being a typical question.

I have long argued that blogs are one of the most exciting developments for getting people writing. And NABLOPOMO is a great example - I wonder if there is any other writing promotion that has such a wide participation? And of course, every participant has their work published every day, another unique quality of blogs.

So you have me for a month.  My rules are a bit slacker than last year, because I'm going to allow up to two posts a week to be largely photographs. And if I complete it,  I'll have my fifty blog posts in the bag - you see, it was easy after all.