Yesterday was the first day of NaBloPoMo, or “National Blog Posting Month”. San has all the details on her blog, but it’s an annual thing in November where bloggers post everyday for 30 days.
I have never participated in this, though I did post almost daily during my early blogging days in 2020.
LOTS of the bloggers I read are doing NaBloPoMo2023, and I felt a little pull to try it! But, in reality, I have been blogging less than ever lately. I think in Feedly under my name it used to say “average 6 posts per week”, and it now says “2 posts per week”. Womp womp.
I had decided that I would not do it. It’s just another thing to fit in, and also, a happy yet complicated side effect of NaBloPoMo is that if everyone else is doing it, this means my Feedly is overflowing with new posts to read everyday!!! It can honestly be very challenging to keep up with reading all those posts, much less trying to comment/ engage with the writers.
(Fact: I have NOT been keeping up 100% with reading everyone’s posts lately as is! Still catching many/most, but not all. It’s just the reality of Puppy Life. I’m sorry, and I still love you all. ♥)
As Lisa said in a comment yesterday, “Leave it to me to get stressed out by a hobby!!” Hahaha! Yes, Lisa, I’m with you! 😆
So anyway, I decided not to do it.
But then….
I started feeling a little FOMO. And, I miss blogging more often!! When I don’t blog as often, I feel like I miss out on what I consider to be the best and most fun part of blogging: just sharing random, odd tidbits of my life. Things I like. A fun pic of the kids. Photos of my salads. You know, the important stuff. HAHA.
So then I thought I might actually like to do it after all.
I mulled it over and decided I would do it, but with a caveat: I will post everyday this month, but my posts CANNOT exceed 500 words.
One issue I have with blogging is that I tend to be…. excessively verbose. Which there is nothing inherently wrong with, but…. more words= more time to write, and more time for people to read!
I think temporarily forcing myself to stay under 500 words will be a win-win. Good practice at more concise writing & maybe more readable posts, and will be quicker for overwhelmed-NaBloPoMo readers to read, too.
Some days I may just pop in and share my daily gratitude and nothing more! And other days, a proper post. Maybe lots of random stuff coming your way soon. 😁 Writing “themed” posts doesn’t appeal to me, personally, so you’ll just get whatever’s on my mind.
Okay, already at 472 words! Time to wrap ‘er up!
Daily Gratitude:
For my work’s drive thru flu/covid shot clinic!
GRATEFUL KAE 
I know the FOMO so well! That’s how I ended up deciding to do NaBloPo last year on Nov 1st. It was fun. This year I have no regrets about sitting out, and I’m enjoying all of the goodies.
I really need to get back to a regular schedule of blogging and I will…soon.
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We’ll see how it goes! I think keeping the posts short and casual, no big pressure, will help a lot! Thanks for following along even though you aren’t officially doing it this year. 🙂
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I love your approach with limiting yourself to 500 words. I am sure your fellow NaBloPo Buddies will appreciate it once the days move on. I sure will. And I will try to sprinkle in short posts too as we are all very busy. It is a commitment.
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Exactly! Nothing at all against longer posts, but I know I tend to get wordier than I mean to sometimes. So this seems like a good excuse to just work on clarity and conciseness, anyway!
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I have given myself grace to not comment on every post every day because it is so stressful to open my Feedly to a gazillion new posts. But once I told myself to ENJOY the new posts and read them all, but that I didn’t have to say something if I didn’t have something to say, it made it less stressful.
Good luck with your word limit! I mean, you could just post a photo of your puppy and people would be happy, I bet.
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For sure! I don’t think anyone expects people to read and comment on every single post. That is a lot! I know what you mean about not “forcing” a comment. Sometimes posts are great to read but maybe you don’t have anything to directly contribute or comment. And that’s totally fine! I have been relaxing my standards on that, too. The most important thing to me is to just generally stay in touch with my blogger friends and just keep participating in this fun hobby.
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YAY! excited to read your posts everyday! They always make me smile! I think having shorter post and less elaborated is a good compromise, that’s what I do anyway… hahaha…..
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Yes, you are very good at keeping your posts concise! I’ve noticed that! 😉 Something I can work on. I just wouldn’t have time currently to write big, long posts every day, so I think right now it’s shorter or nothing!
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Ah, drat. I was all excited about the drive through clinic and… it’s just easier to go to Walgreens. (That location is OUT THERE, for real!)
Happy to see you here… you can always just post Charlie pics. 😉
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Aww, too bad drive thru didn’t work for you! For me where I live, the drive thru is quite close!! It’s been SO convenient. I’ve done all my covid shots there these last few years. love it!
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Yay! Welcome! I am doing this solely because of FOMO, so I get it. Also, I am always overly wordy so I feel you! But this is fun. And I figure if we miss reading some posts during the month, we’ll be able to come back to them in the long dreary winter months ahead!
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Good point!! I just did a clean out/ organize of my Feedly to hopefully keep track of new posts, ones I’ve marked to read later, etc. Hopefully that will help me out too!
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Haha, I was hoping some people would join NaBloPoMo becaus of FOMO … because of course there’s a little bit of peer pressure … although most of us are reading each others’ blogs no matter what.
I am excited that you’re joining us though and I think you have the perfect plan. I agree, shorter posts will be a) easier to write daily and b) easier for others to consume. Don’t get me wrong, I like long posts, but during NaBloPoMo, finding a happy medium is key for everyone involved. Good luck! 😉
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haha, yes- the good type of peer pressure!! 😉 And I’m excited with my personal challenge to do the shorter posts. It’s actually fun and kind of refreshing to keep things a little shorter and sweeter for a bit! And, 500 words is still a decent length post. It’s not “short” short. More of a happy medium for sure. 🙂
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The boys got their flu and vaccine shots today. It was NOT PLEASANT! I had to do eeny meenie to figure out who went first. Taco went first and Paul started to cry before he even got his shots because Taco was crying. Another nurse came in – probably to see if someone was getting attacked or something. The nurse who did it told me they did they did great and I was like – what?? Maybe she was trying to make me feel better. I give myself 1-2 subcutaneous shots every Monday and I do it in front of the boys usually. I hope at some point they see that shots are not a big deal. That seems many years away though!
the challenge with posting less frequently is that our posts are long when we do post since we cover a lot. I often think – this is too long but don’t know what to cut!!
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Oh, hello there! I’m SO GLAD you decided to join us! You won’t regret it. I’m determined to read and comment on everyone’s posts every day, but I’m already struggling with it (and we’re on day #3, ha ha…) So I think we’re all just doing our best.
About the post length… I say, make your posts however long you like. BUT… since we’re all trying to read so many blogs every day, I think most people appreciate posts on the shorter side : ). BUT AS I SAID… if you have a longer post in you, go for it. It’s your blog.
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