Proposal: The Month of Writing

So Jared's post at his personal blog got me thinking about writing. He summed up my thoughts about how I started blogging with the best of intentions to write more, and write more betterer, but I just haven't written as much as I wanted to write when I began writing on this writing blog.

My goal was to have a place where I could not only keep up with good friends (a goal that I think has been accomplished), but that would give me the opportunity and the impetus to write more personal essays and other creative writing endevours (maybe even a short story), and of course to improve my writing skills. Every once in awhile I get the urge to write something and I occasionally follow those urges, but not enough- and when I do write (especially when I make an effort to write well), the writing process exhausts me (which Jenny assures me is normal even for experienced writers).

One reason I don't do it more is because I don't have a schedule and don't have anyone expecting me to write anything. Why do I do homework? Its due on a certain day, and there are consequences for not doing it. Why not do the same thing with my personal writing? (without the consequences, of course)

So I propose that April be: THE MONTH OF WRITING. It would work like this:

IF you're interested (IE, you've wanted to write more stuff for awhile but haven't felt disciplined enough to sit down and do it), pick a day of the week and post which day of the week you choose here on this thread (if there are more than 7 of us interested, we can double up days). Then, starting April 1 (no, this is not a big april fools day prank), those who have chosen to participate will post once a week on their chosen day something substantive they have written. It can be anything, really: a personal essay, a memory, a family history, a poem, a short story, an expository essay, a piece of satire, creative non-fiction (whatever THAT is), ANYTHING- as long as it represents real creative effort. They can be long, or short (or even medium length), they can represent hours of work writing various drafts, or it can be something you throw together last minute (as I know a few of mine will be). If we happen to fill all seven days, then that will be one month of having a nice piece of creative writing we all get to read every day. Having a designated day will definitely motivate me to actually get it done.

If you don't want to, or don't feel qualified (which is a silly reason, really, I've read something personal and/or creative that I've enjoyed from everyone here), or whatever, don't feel pressured. Just sit back and enjoy the trainwre ... um, I mean, the beautiful spectacle of our writing. (But no salsa for you!)

I've got dibs on Sundays.