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Official DU NaPoWriMo 2020 Discussion Thread

JohnnyBlaze
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Ahavati said:As for the rest of you, April can be the cruelest month, particularly in the second week, when the excitement is gone and the hill is steep ( those who heard me refer to that on the podcast should've been expecting this ).  But, once you hit that halfway mark ( in less than a week! ), your energy will renew because it's downhill from there.  

This challenge teaches you that there is poetry in everything from a cup of black coffee to a leaf on the sidewalk. April is the month most things spring come to life and inspire.  And while this April seems a bit crueller with Covid-19 lurking about, nature hasn't changed; in fact, she's gotten more beautiful, particularly in certain places.

Did you know photographers in India are shooting the himalayan mountains for the first time in decades because of the pollution decrease.  Venice's famous canals have never been cleaner!  Virtual bird watching is officially a thing! But, most importantly, we have time. And time is one of the most important gifts we could ever be given, any grieving family member during this time will confirm that.

In essence, there are so many things to write about that you probably hadn't considered writing about.  My personal tip? Read and research.  Does it for me never-fails every single time. Anyone who loves knowledge and words will be inspired by something they read and research.  

It's a given.

A few more things:

In reference to writing from the scar and not the wound. . .it doesn't apply during NaPo!  I posted a quote recently that stressed that you can edit a written page, but not a blank one. If you are feeling inspired or the need to write, WRITE.  You can always edit later, once you've gotten it out.

Also, while writing on the day of the challenge is a part of NaPo, so is editing.  if you are feeling inspired to write, by gosh, WRITE. You would deny a poem birth because you feel you need to wait until tomorrow to write it?  You've very well missed out on an inspired poem once the inspiration passes.

You can always edit and revise the next day.  You ARE writing every day, if you write every day—inspired or not.  Just because you may write five poems in one day doesn't mean they'll all be posted; however, at least you'll have five poems to review and edit later.

Hang tough, Cadets, you can do this!


If only we could Reading List KICK ASS forum posts . . .

DaisyGrace
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Ahavati said:

In reference to writing from the scar and not the wound. . .it doesn't apply during NaPo!  I posted a quote recently that stressed that you can edit a written page, but not a blank one. If you are feeling inspired or the need to write, WRITE.  You can always edit later, once you've gotten it out.

Also, while writing on the day of the challenge is a part of NaPo, so is editing.  if you are feeling inspired to write, by gosh, WRITE. You would deny a poem birth because you feel you need to wait until tomorrow to write it?  You've very well missed out on an inspired poem once the inspiration passes.

You can always edit and revise the next day.  You ARE writing every day, if you write every day—inspired or not.  Just because you may write five poems in one day doesn't mean they'll all be posted; however, at least you'll have five poems to review and edit later.

Hang tough, Cadets, you can do this!


I'm not sure I agree with you about writing from the scar and not the wound NOT applying to NaPo. I think it could apply to any time you sit down to express yourself. in whatever way you choose to express yourself. writing, painting, making music, etc. like i said in other posts in the thread, i would never discourage people from writing/creating/expressing their feelings while they are in the thick of them.

But I would encourage them to maybe....

you know what. i think my opinion on this might be better just left in my head.

carry on!

Ahavati
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DaisyGrace said:

I'm not sure I agree with you about writing from the scar and not the wound NOT applying to NaPo. I think it could apply to any time you sit down to express yourself. in whatever way you choose to express yourself. writing, painting, making music, etc. like i said in other posts in the thread, i would never discourage people from writing/creating/expressing their feelings while they are in the thick of them.

But I would encourage them to maybe....

you know what. i think my opinion on this might be better just left in my head.

carry on!


. . .maybe think hard before publishing?

I'm human; I understand what you're saying, and am not disagreeing with you in general. It's solid advice.  But, a wound takes time to heal, and thus scar.  We don't have much time in April for a wound to heal; that's what I was saying.  

Writing doesn't mean you publish it.  It just means writing it out.  Writer's block can come from withholding expression.  And some of the most beautiful confessional poetry comes from the depth of the wound; just read Sylvia Plath. . .

I often wonder just how much they were edited.

Anway, carry on indeed! I'm sure you've left something baking in the oven!

JohnnyBlaze
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DaisyGrace said:

I'm not sure I agree with you about writing from the scar and not the wound NOT applying to NaPo. I think it could apply to any time you sit down to express yourself. in whatever way you choose to express yourself. writing, painting, making music, etc. like i said in other posts in the thread, i would never discourage people from writing/creating/expressing their feelings while they are in the thick of them.

But I would encourage them to maybe....

you know what. i think my opinion on this might be better just left in my head.

carry on!


I think what Ahavati is saying is write from wound or scar while you can if either or neither speak. You can edit it outside the challenge tomorrow or later down the road.

Yes, to write from the wound may result in more well thought out verse, but NaPo is more about getting verse out of your thoughts.

EDIT

Of course she beat me to it LOL

DaisyGrace
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Ahavati said:

. . .maybe think hard before publishing?

I'm human; I understand what you're saying, and am not disagreeing with you in general. It's solid advice.  But, a wound takes time to heal, and thus scar.  We don't have much time in April for a wound to heal; that's what I was saying.  

Writing doesn't mean you publish it.  It just means writing it out.  Writer's block can come from withholding expression.  And some of the most beautiful confessional poetry comes from the depth of the wound; just read Sylvia Plath. . .

I often wonder just how much they were edited.


Anway, carry on indeed! I'm sure you've left something baking in the oven!


i often wonder this about her as well. especially work that came out after her death. ted hughes had control of her work then and who knows what all he did to it.

it can be argued that she was in constant distress/trauma/mental break. so she had no choice but to write from the wound. my argument would be: did she write from her current wound or one in the past that had scarred/healed.

so my advice for NaPo (or any challenge that has you writing and publishing daily), write about past emotions/experiences/wounds that have had time to scar and heal. those are the ones you can actually look at from all angles.

Ahavati
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DaisyGrace said:

i often wonder this about her as well. especially work that came out after her death. ted hughes had control of her work then and who knows what all he did to it.

it can be argued that she was in constant distress/trauma/mental break. so she had no choice but to write from the wound. my argument would be: did she write from her current wound or one in the past that had scarred/healed.

so my advice for NaPo (or any challenge that has you writing and publishing daily), write about past emotions/experiences/wounds that have had time to scar and heal. those are the ones you can actually look at from all angles.


I don't want to argue ( not referring to you but general ) about something that will probably never be proven either way; however, being her given mental state, I'm unsure she healed from anything, and thus took her own life.  Her writing certainly seems to come from a "now" perspective. But, then so can others months or years down the line.

I'd say just write; get it out of the way, set it aside, burn it, whatever. But get it out and allow the new to flow so it doesn't block or consume you.  You can always go back after the wound heals and rewrite, or edit what you've written.  

"[Poems] are written, never meaning to send." ~Moody Blues

JohnnyBlaze said:

I think what Ahavati is saying is write from wound or scar while you can if either or neither speak. You can edit it outside the challenge tomorrow or later down the road.

Yes, to write from the wound may result in more well thought out verse, but NaPo is more about getting verse out of your thoughts.

EDIT

Of course she beat me to it LOL


I absolutely did. You know me well. I wish everyone could understand me the way you do!

JohnnyBlaze
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Ahavati said:

I absolutely did. You know me well. I wish everyone could understand me the way you do!


It's a gift.

SweetOblivion
Tyrant of Words
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Ahavati said: when the excitement is gone  


I could write lots on
that, but I might just end up
near the naughty  step

(16 unique words)

Sweet O

Ahavati
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Joined 11th Apr 2015
Forum Posts: 14273

SweetOblivion said:

I could write lots on
that, but I might just end up
near the naughty  step

(16 unique words)

Sweet O



JohnnyBlaze
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Joined 20th Mar 2015
Forum Posts: 5572

Ahavati said:Also, while writing on the day of the challenge is a part of NaPo, so is editing.  if you are feeling inspired to write, by gosh, WRITE. You would deny a poem birth because you feel you need to wait until tomorrow to write it?  You've very well missed out on an inspired poem once the inspiration passes.

You can always edit and revise the next day.  You ARE writing every day, if you write every day—inspired or not.  Just because you may write five poems in one day doesn't mean they'll all be posted; however, at least you'll have five poems to review and edit later.



I want to touch upon this further.

We have the Rules we have for good reasons.

If you write ahead of schedule, you will have at least a few poems at the ready to post in the event of an emergency that prevents you from writing. For example, you won't have to panic write several poems in a day to catch up if you were prevented from writing for two days.

As Ahavati said, you will still be writing every day, if you are writing something every day that you can write.

During NaPo 2017, I was constantly writing. I had about 18 poems completed by the end of Day 1. I had a queue going in which I jumped from one to the next to the next until I hit the end of the batch and started all over at the beginning. I went through them all in cycle after cycle after cycle. The finished poems, I removed. New ideas, I added.

Family obligations with Easter came along and I had zero opportunity to write for an entire weekend.  Nor did I have any poems banked up to pop in for a minute and post on either of those two days. So I needed to have 15 poems completed by the end of the following Monday! 20 by the end of Teusday!

I participated with 5 accounts and by God I did it - not to show off, but to prove that given the opportunity, there was no end to what YOU [ he said to no one in particular ] could write about. There is always something there, even if you don't feel inspired.

brokentitanium
k.
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I'm enjoying (hm, not sure that's quite the right word) being forced to just put something on the page every day. I quickly got over worrying whether it's complete shite. Even if most of it is, hopefully I'll find a gem or two in the dung heap by the end of the month. A wise friend once said to me "if you want to write good songs, first you have to write a lot of bad songs." I suppose poetry (or any art) is the same.

I've been posting all my entries to my account, and I'm genuinely surprised at which things do & don't resonate with people. The amount of time or effort or inspiration I feel about a poem does not seem to correlate with the response it gets from readers. Go figure! Poetry is a delicious mystery.

SatInUGal
Kumar
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All well said my friend

LunaGreyhawk
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brokentitanium said:I'm enjoying (hm, not sure that's quite the right word) being forced to just put something on the page every day. I quickly got over worrying whether it's complete shite. Even if most of it is, hopefully I'll find a gem or two in the dung heap by the end of the month. A wise friend once said to me "if you want to write good songs, first you have to write a lot of bad songs." I suppose poetry (or any art) is the same.

I've been posting all my entries to my account, and I'm genuinely surprised at which things do & don't resonate with people. The amount of time or effort or inspiration I feel about a poem does not seem to correlate with the response it gets from readers. Go figure! Poetry is a delicious mystery.


Agreed; all very well said.  

PoetsRevenge
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Tallen said:

SUPER creative!!  & i ain't just saying this because You've included SPAM (Food) in the write    


I agree, this was the funniest episode so far, though they've all been funny, I've never seen so many clever plays on words in anything I've read.  It has a certain Saturday Night Live feel, I mean just this episode

Will we bord the smorgas dressed as war pigs?  I can't wait to find out, I'll bring my cast iron skillet along..

calamitygin
Jennifer Michael McCurry
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I just want to say I'm so proud of everyone. I can't keep up!
My RL is bursting. It's awwwesome.
Thank you all ....team napo...for working so so hard.

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