November Expectations

Writober Recap

This Writober was a huge success. Thank you everyone who participated, linking up their images, poems, and stories. Your work was intriguing, thought provoking, entertaining, and fun. And you kept me inspired to keep working every day.

Congratulations to Circe of Baldacchino di Perla, ladyleemanila, Carol anne at Therapy Bits, and A.M. Moscoso at My Enduring Bones for the scary amount of great work they posted during Writober. Click on the links and check out their sites. Circe is hosting an Autumnal daily poetry prompt for November.

The High Points

There was so much to enjoy about this Writober. First, I completed my challenge: 31 poem drafts, 31 flash fiction drafts, 31 new photos, some sewing, and some music. I’m really excited to look back on everything I created.

Favorite Image: Fear of Predators

The Low Points

The main low point was that I was working on the prompt posts almost the whole month. I couldn’t seem to get ahead, and that took away from the energy and time I had to respond to the prompts. So I’m going to create next year’s prompts this winter while I’m still in the Halloween mood.

I think my responses to Fear of Separation were my least favorite. Though I really enjoyed taking my camera for a walk around the neighborhood, I don’t think my work got to the feeling of fear of separation in any interesting way.

Least favorite image: Separated
Least favorite poem: Lost in the Forest
Least favorite story: Lost in the Forest

The other low point was that the huge interest on Day 1 immediately dropped off. And then continued to drop off. So I’m wondering what people were looking for that I didn’t provide.

Suggestions?

I would really love some feedback. How can I improve the prompts, the activities, the information, the site, so that Writober is a ton of fun for everyone. Please leave suggestions and comments in the chat. Or if you would rather shoot me a private note, send it to mariaberg@experiencewriting.com. Thank you.

Next Steps

During Writober we enforced our daily writing habit with warm-ups like word collecting, sensory detail phrases, and sensory detail questions. We also explored activities to fight fear of the page, and learned about the basic building blocks of writing. There’s no reason to drop all of that because October is over. As Dorianne Laux wrote in Finger Exercises for Poets, “My instrument is the immensity of language,” and like any instrument, we need to practice to play well.

Now that the rush of Writober is over, you can come back and visit the posts at your leisure whenever you have the time. Just scroll to the bottom of these posts and in the Select Month box choose October 2024. They’ll come up last post first, but just click to the final page and start at the beginning. You can also select Octobers from previous years and see how Writober has evolved here at Experience Writing.

In November I like to keep the momentum of Writober going with more daily writing challenges. I write a novel draft for NaNoWriMo, do the NovPAD daily poetry challenge, and create a daily photography challenge.

I want to get back to my contradictory abstract noun study. So this November, I’m going to look over my Writober word list and pick out all the abstract nouns, or abstract nouns that I connect with my favorite words, and put the abstract nouns and their opposites in my calendar, attempting to cluster them into the five universal fears. Each day I’ll attempt to photograph the abstract noun in it’s opposite, and the opposite in the abstract noun. For example “Find the hope in despair, and the despair in hope.” That’s the statement that launched my study I’ve been enjoying for years.

2024 November PAD Chapbook Challenge

Robert Lee Brewer at Writers Digest provides daily poetry prompts in November. Then poets are challenged to edit and compile their poems into a Chapbook. This is a great opportunity to continue our daily writing habit and explore the techniques we learned during Writober.

Today’s prompt is to write a “before you leave” poem.

Or Leave

I have a special painting
on my mantel many would
consider folk art
or outsider art
or kitsch that
says “Be Nice or Leave”

I earned that piece
with its Abita bottle cap
frame from Dr. Bob himself
for playing my songs in a loft
of a barn for a benefit
for kids learning
and it survived the hurricane

It has a place of honor
and like mismatched socks
once you notice it,
you can’t stop talking about it

So before you leave
know you weren’t nice
and wonder why you couldn’t be
That sign survived
when so many of my friends
and places didn’t
but you stood by

November Novel Writing

I thought I had decided to continue my full focus on poetry through the rest of the year and start my new novel in January, but then I looked at the NaNoWriMo site and realized that it’s my tenth NaNoWriMo in a row and I’m not ready to break that streak.

I didn’t finish the first draft of my horror novel last year, so this year, I’m going review what I did write last year and using the universal fear study, and Novel writing prompts from Writober, attempt to finish a very frightening first draft.

I’ll be looking back through previous years’ Novembers for prompts and inspiration. Last year I bought a Clue board game with the intent to invent a word crawl to go with the board game. Hopefully I’ll figure it out this year and can share it with you.

I’m also excited that I finished my spooky pockets for my calendar quilt, so I can rearrange it for November, and put Halloween candy, stickers, and positive messages in the pockets to reward myself when I meet my goals.

I look forward to hearing what you are all up to this November. Write On!