Sunday, October 21, 2007

BWO and NaBloPoMo

The other day, I linked to a blog that led me to another blog where I read about "Blogging Without Obligation." I like the idea of blogging with obligation.


When I started this blog three years ago, I thought that it would be easy to write a little something a couple of times a week and keep up the pace. Since then, I've found that it's really difficult some weeks. For instance, the end of the school year last May left me completely drained. I had no energy, but more than that, I didn't know what I was going to write about. Should I write about the hundreds (literally) of tests that I was grading and how sick I was of bad English? Should I write about my soul sucking commute to The Hague?

So BWO fits in to my "take it easy" philosophy of blogging. I'm all for it. Read more about it at the website where I found this nice little button. There are a lot of great reasons on his site as to why one should not feel obligated to blog all the time. I don't think he'll mind my quoting him on one of his reasons for starting the BWO "movement."

* Because for most of us blogging is just a hobby. A way to express yourself and connect with others. You should not have to apologize for lapses in posts. Just take a step back and enjoy life, not everything you do has to be "bloggable".

Amen to that.

Now talking out the other side of my mouth, I have just signed up for NaBloPoMo (National Blog Posting Month). When I saw this, I knew it was a shameless rip off of NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month). (There's also NaNoSweMo - National Sweater Knitting Month. Now dat's shameless.) I have always wanted to do NaNoWriMo, but it conflicts with my annual pilgrimage to Wyoming, Ohio where I have celebrated Thanksgiving with the Mannings for the past seven years. They are a wonderful family that I am grateful to be a part of. I know that pumping out 50,000 words for NaNoWriMo would mean that I would be less fun than I normally am and I would be there doing something other than being there, which is the whole point.

However, I think I can do the blog posting thing. I'm sure of it. It might get a little challenging and it might get a little bit into the detail of "watched two episodes of Scrubs and ate chocolate before taking a nap," but I am willing to see if I can't find something more exciting to write about than my television habits for an entire month. Plus, there's fabulous prizes.

In fact, here's the button, which doesn't work here. I signed up about a week ago. I'm number 1322, as if that matters.

So check back frequently in November to see what I've managed to come up with. And if you are a blogger, I encourage you to: a) not feel obligated to post all the time, and b) challenge yourself to post every day in November. (Such a strange month to choose, imho.)

Not sure why my lines here are so squished up. Any ideas, please comment. Thanks.

2 comments:

Elemmaciltur said...

I never look at blogging as an obligation. Of course, I love to read other people's blog and get a bit *meh* when they go on hiatus.

But you better blog during the NaBloPoMo! :-p

Mama Mojo said...

It's true. There is some pressure to "post." Keep it going. Make a success of your blog. Certainly, your blog is quite successful! :-) How do you do it?!