note: “holoblomo” stands for Horribly Local Blogging Month, my response to National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) that happens every November. The NaNoWriMo challenge asks writers to compose 50,000 words in a month; I chose 10,000 as my goal. Enjoy.
So here we are.
I guess that’s it. Horribly Local Blogging Month - or HoLoBloMo - is finally at an end. With this post, I have met my challenge of writing a daily post throughout November and hitting 10,000 words, and since I hit 13,612 words yesterday, I did it with at least a 36% word bonus to boot.
Have we learned anything?
I’ve learned that chest colds can take an entire month to run their course. But I suppose that lesson would have been learned regardless of HoLoBloMo.
And... hmm. I can’t think of anything else I learned that I didn’t already know.
Wow. Maybe nothing has been learned. Well, let’s look at the tote board:
Number of posts from October 31, 2010-October 31, 2011: 66
Number of posts from November 1, 2011-November 30, 2011: 30
So, wow. HoLoBloMo produced almost half a year’s worth of posts... and more important, half a year’s worth of topics to write about. No wonder my muse seems out of breath and looks like crap.
Number of words from October 31, 2010-October 31, 2011: 50,082 (an average of 4173 words a month)
Number of words from November 1-November 29, 2011: 13,612
Okay. Now it seems a bit lamer, but HoLoBloMo still brought you around 3.25 months’ worth of words. But it’s quality, not quantity, right?
Weight fluctuation between October 31, 2010-October 31, 2011: gained and lost and gained a few pounds
Weight fluctuation between November 1-November 30, 2011: lost 3 pounds
This may have had less to do with HoLoBloMo and more to do with my cold and all of the tea I have subsequently been tossing down my gullet, but so far it’s the most impressive statistic.
Even with the weight loss factor, I don’t know if I could do another HoLoBloMo next year. Oh, sure, I do love how catchy HoLoBloMo sounds, and it’s been good to challenge myself. But for all of the time, effort, and energy I put into it, I’m not sure how valuable my final product is. I just have a lot more of the same things I always write, and now they’re all old and archived. Maybe next November I should aim a little higher.
I’m still not going to tackle NaNoWriMo, but maybe I could create Horribly Local Monologue Month (HoLoMoMo) or Horribly Local Short Story Month (HoLoShoStoMo)... I could even really shake it up and try to write a full length play in 30 days, but the catchiest name I could come up with for that -- November Drama-Comedy Month (NoDra-CoMo) -- sounds more like a TV network promo during sweeps.
And as we all know, a catchy name is everything.
Anyway, a huge thanks to all of you who took the daily ride with me. Exit to the right of the vehicle, and make sure you haven’t left any personal items behind.
And that’s a grand total of 14,091 words.
Yes indeed. Welcome to me.
Dear Stephanie (am I allowed to call you Stephanie? I'm fine with Ms D'Abruzzo too, as it has a nice ring to it),
ReplyDeletecongratulations on reaching your goal! As I've said before in the comments (and you just made me blush by calling me sweet on the previous post, luckily I was alone in front of my laptop) I've really enjoyed reading your daily posts. I live in an other time zone (we're 8 hours before the US east coast), so every day in the morning before work I knew I've got something new to read on your HoLoBlMo posts next to my coffee/tee (I drink both) before work and somehow they always made me smile (or the more serious ones at least think about things I don't normally think about) and get up a little bit happier.
So, in addition to reach your goal just know that you also reached the "Make Chris get up easier in the morning with a good vibe" goal you didn't even know you had ;)
Anyway, I'll keep reading your blog posts no matter how (in)frequent they are again!
Chris
Fine work. And you were probably subconsciously cutting down on wheat. :)
ReplyDeleteErratum to my previous comment: It's 6 hours time difference, no idea why I wrote. 8...
ReplyDeleteChris, many thanks from across the pond, and yes, calling me Stephanie is more than fine. Don't blush, or you'll make me blush.
ReplyDeleteAnd Julie, this wheat-filled friend doffs her cap to you. The closest I came to cutting down on grains was just thinking about it. Imagining doing something is so much easier!
---Stephanie
Congratulations on not only reaching, but surpassing your goal - you over achiever you! ;)
ReplyDeleteLike Chris, I have to say reading your daily blog became part of my morning routine, and helped me through my own NaNo madness (And saved me from boredom on a broken down bus). And if you want to write a play, you can join Script Frenzy in April, which is run by the same literary do-gooders I owe my November to: The Office of Letters and Light.
ReplyDeleteI had just over 51,000 words by the end of November, and about the same number of calluses. Maybe my sentence structure didn't improve, and I still have 'journalistic tendancies', and the 'novel' isn't actually finished, or at all good, but it's something to work on. It's not solid poop; it's mostly poop, but at it's core lies a very little something, that, in the right light, if you squint, just might be mistaken for gold. Just maybe.
I learnt I can actually stick at something difficult, do something I love, enjoy writing, prioritise, keep up my grades, make money, avoid something I enjoy turning into a chore, and survive on energy drinks. And I'm looking forward to re-drafting it when it's finished. And to be cheesy: I had fun.
So maybe you didn't learn too much, or gain anything from it. Neither have I, not really, but this month has been very important to me. And it's something to put on a university entrance essay other than 'I like maths and science and stuff.'
CONGRATULATIONS! Now go procrastinate.
Freya