NaPoWriMo - sticking it out

I am pleased to say that I stuck out the whole month of NaPoWriMo (National Poetry Writing Month). I was worried that I would lose interest after the first week or so - especially as I didn't make it through the whole of novel writing month last year. However writing poetry is a little different to writing a novel, for a start you can write lots of poems on different themes so you don't need to worry about getting stuck with your plot. A poem is generally much shorter as well, so you don't have to write thousands of words a day. Thirdly the NaPoWriMo website had a writing prompt every day, and although they were nowhere near as good as Jo Bell's 52 prompts, it did give me a kick starter if I needed it. I not only managed a poem a day, but somedays I wrote several. Only time will tell, of course, whether any of them are any good, but I suspect there may be two or three worth keeping.

Submissions and Inspiration

I am making a concerted effort this month to make at least one poetry submission per week - it doesn't sound like much I know but it is far more than i have been doing. I realised that I had let things go woefully on the submissions front when a few weeks ago I decided that maybe it was time to submit to The Rialto again - after all a few months had passed since I last submitted. I was shocked to discover that the last time I submitted work to the journal was actually 2012! It was a real wake-up call. I knew I had been slacking on the submissions front - and even more so since I finished my collection last year. I think the lack of movement on that front has made me lose my enthusiasm somewhat - as well as for some months quashing my creativity altogether. I am pleased to say that I am now back in the writing saddle - in part due to Jo Bell's 52 Blog - every week she posts a writing prompt and links to poems around that week's themes. It has been surprisingly inspiring - and somehow once you start writing again more and more comes. Now I just need to man up and ask the publisher who has had some of my poems for eight months to make a decision.