What is NaPoWriMo?

And, more to the point, I guess - how will I be doing it?

NaPoWriMo stands for National Poetry Writing Month, a corollary to NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month - 50,000 contiguous words in 30 days) but for poetry.  During the month of April, people from all over the world write new poems, daily.

The challenge is, basically, to produce 30 new poems during April.  They don't need to be amazing, but they do need to be finished.  Personally, I see May as NaPoEdMo (National Poetry Editing Month) - the idea behind NaPoWriMo is, like with its novel counterpart, that editing is minimal - we're seeking to get round that critical little voice in our heads that stops us before we get started and just write.

Just writing can be difficult, and we're all good at delaying tactics (is this the right pen? shouldn't I be doing something more worthy? I don't have time right now to do a proper poem. I'm sure I'll remember this line later - no need to write it down. I probably shouldn't write about this topic/ in this style/ be funny/ be serious/ be clever/ be dumb, etc. etc. etc.), so giving yourself an excuse to write can be very energising, as it can get you around that sticky morass of shoulds and shouldn'ts.  And getting past perfectionism is useful: celebrating the fact that you've finished a poem, rather than punishing yourself for it not being perfect. Yet.

For me, as well, I personally find this a great opportunity to push myself to try new styles and forms of poetry.  I tend to prefer free verse and performance-oriented work.  Deliberately stepping out of my comfort zone into structured forms can be both curiously liberating and a brilliant way of feeling achievement.  So expect clerihews, cinquains, terzanelles and sonnets to pepper my more usual free verse, internally-rhymed/ assonated flows and long-chained haiku/ senryū.

I will be posting my poems here when I'm ready to share them (I'll be cross-posting to a joint blog I'll be sharing with Daisy TG, Elaine Ewart, Emma Ormond, Leanne Moden, Nikki Marrone, and Russell J Turner as well), and I'll be aiming to produce 30 poems in 30 days rather than fretting over a strict daily writing basis - as long as I produce 30 poems over the course of the month, I'm golden.  I may or may not be following the "official" (or other) prompts - I generally take or leave them as inspiration is required or otherwise! :D

Come with me on a journey through rhyme and pace...