Alas, dear friends and followers, National Poetry Writing Month is no more! Thirty poems were written in thirty days, through the arduous efforts of a trusty biro and the wracking of brains to produce something new each day. Ok, so a couple of them may have delivered a little late, but I’m only human after all! I thoroughly enjoyed taking on the challenge, and here’s why:
1. PERSPECTIVE
I’ve been writing poetry for a while now, but have never produced so much in such a short space of time. I was constantly viewing the world through a new perspective; considering how my experience of ordinary situations or emotions could be worked into words. It really opened my eyes to the way I use language and form, and how this can be moulded to create the effect I desire.
2. ONE THING LEAD TO ANOTHER
When I first started writing for NaPoWriMo, I was slightly worried that I’d quickly run dry of inspiration. In actually fact, though, the complete opposite happened! I found myself writing one poem, sparking an idea for the next, and having to stop half way through to capture all these others ideas zipping about in my head. I think my record was writing five poems in the space of two hours when I couldn’t sleep one night! Just goes to show that shouldn’t be afraid to try something daunting, as it will most likely be a venture in the right direction.
3. GOOD OLD INSPIRATION
As much as I did have some very successful days, others were not so easy. There was definitely a couple of them where I felt like I was running head first into a glass window; I could see the ideas on the other side, but couldn’t break through by any means. So, on these occasions, I had a flick through old note books and have included some previously started-but-never-quite-finished pieces, and a couple of re-workings of things I’d written before. A little inspiration from the past was all I needed to really get things going again.
4. FRIENDS AND FOLLOWERS
Since taking on the challenge I’ve gained quite a few new followers (thank you everyone!) and have also had a lot of my friends reading my work after telling them about the project. I’ve had a lot of positive feedback which is really encouraging, and it’s nice to know that more and more people are reading and enjoying what I write, making it all the more worthwhile!
5. FINDING MY STYLE
Because of the sheer amount I’ve been writing lately (not only for NaPoWriMo, but also in short stories and essay work), I’m beginning to recognise the way I work best. Night time is preferable, with handwritten copies first, followed by re-drafted typed versions. My poetry seems to naturally fall into it’s own familiar pattern now, so it was a bit more of a challenge to try different forms. I did enjoy experimenting and playing about with it a little though, such as the acrostic poem ‘Happiness (?)’ I wrote right at the start of the month. I hadn’t actually written one of those since primary school, so revisiting once familiar forms to produce new work was all good fun.
So, there we have it, NaPoWriMo is most definitely complete. Now I’m just waiting to find another project to stuck in to!
