It’s finally here! I’ve been anxiously waiting for it since June. National Poetry Month 2014 fostered a tremendous growth spurt for me in the craft because of its crash course nature: You expose yourself to forms you may have never encountered before, but more importantly, you’re challenged to experiment in those forms.
Last April, I met half the challenge by writing fifteen poems from the thirty daily prompts. Only two of those grew into finished pieces which I’m actually pretty happy with. Of course, this year I’m aiming for a poem every single day, regardless of if it’s good or not. They’re all drafts. They can all be fixed. (Which reminds me: I’m almost finished reading Ted Kooser’s excellent Poetry Home Repair Manual. I highly recommend it for ALL writers.)
What really impressed me about last year’s challenge was how much easier it became to channel inspiration into poetic form the rest of the year. The exercise of jumping into a writing prompt just to get it done for the day does a lot to stifle your inner critic, empowering you to write whenever real inspiration strikes. In 2014, I completed an additional seven poems that I feel are submission-ready. That’s certainly not a big number, but for me, it’s a huge accomplishment.
I don’t think I’ll be posting anything I write during this challenge, but here’s where I’ll be getting my prompt options:
http://www.napowrimo.net/
http://www.writersdigest.com/editor-blogs/poetic-asides
I’ve got a new folder set up on my Onedrive and am working on a template for the daily prompts now. It’s actually kind of stupid how excited I am for this. Let the challenge commence!
BLOG OF RHIANNIMATOR 