NaBloPoMo... Wha?

Today is the start of NaBloPoMo, or National Blog Posting Month. It's based on NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) and the object is to Po to your Blo every day for the Mo of November. I'm not sure why everyone chooses November for this. It would make more sense for it to be a different month because for those who'd like to participate in both it's a bit much. Then again, writing for a living can be somewhat tortuous so perhaps the masochism angle works for people.

Having just finished writing a novel and not feeling completely masochistic today, I've decided to do the blog thing alone. So give me a bookmark, encourage me with comments, and I'll do my darnedest to keep to the program. And yes, that was a shameless and needy cry for attention; thank you for noticing.

I've never done NaNoWriMo. I'm a little afraid of it, I'll admit. As Ed said in his blog today, one of the tenets is that it's okay to write crap. I'd rather take a little more time and write non-crap.

Unlike Ed, I'm very competitive so I'm hoping that will keep me to the blogging schedule that I signed up for. It's not like we're all competing against each other. It's more like I'm competing against myself. Oddly enough, that's my favorite kind of competition. I like challenging myself, always have. When I was young, I worked in a fiberglass factory as a finisher. I used to try to break my own records of how many skids I could do in a night (I worked 3rd shift). It kept me engaged in the work. My boss must've loved me, right? Nope. She kept telling me to slow down because she was afraid the factory would run out of work and we'd all get laid off. Since I was only working there to save money for a trip to Europe, she knew I didn't have to worry about being laid off. Perhaps she thought I was a ringer sent in by management. Anyway, I slowed down and I hated it. No more personal challenges meant just doing the 'thrilling' work. If it weren't for the nightly poker game during breaks, I would've hated that job.

Anyway, here's hoping you'll join me this Mo as I Po to my Blo!