December NaBloPoMo - Just Get Writing

I've decided to participate in the December NaBloPoMo.




What is NaBloPoMo you ask? It stands for National Blog Posting Month. Bloggers commit to completing and publishing at least one post every day for the entire month. This is supposed to help improve writing skills and create the habit of writing every day.

I'm participating through BlogHer. The theme for December is, not surprisingly, 'Gifts' and BlogHer provides writing prompts on each week day. Bloggers are expected to do free writing on the weekends. The prompts are not a must, they are just there for inspiration for those who may need it. We are welcome to follow our own paths all month if we choose.

If you are like me and your head is constantly filled with random thoughts and ideas that you want to get on your virtual paper or rant from your internet soapbox, then these prompts aren't really necessary.

Or are they?

It's a lot easier to write about the things you want to write about. I'm going to say 'write about' just one more time for good measure. Anyways - as I was saying - we all have a multitude of topics that are pertinent to our lives that provide heaps of material for a short blog post. Heck - if nothing else we just post a picture of our kid or dog or a pretty tree, am I right?

It's harder to write on a topic that is suggested to you by someone else. At least for me it is. That's why for a few days every week I am going to force myself to follow the prompts. I believe that this will hone my skills as a writer and force me to put more thought and consideration into my subject matter. Maybe even dig a little deeper into myself - an exercise that isn't always pleasant for me.

I share too much. I don't hide a lot. I'm not afraid to be honest. But there are some parts of me that I keep guarded. I intend to dig into these areas and use NaBloPoMo as an excuse to probe into the uncharted territories of me.

So buckle up and let's see how this plays out! Oh, and December 3?  Nailed it!  

Note: If you are a reader but not (yet) a blogger or writer, why not tag along in a private journal of your own? Writing down your thoughts every morning is amazingly therapeutic - and who doesn't need a little of that during a crazy holiday month like December? 

Are you participating in NaBloPoMo? Have you completed (or not) one prior to this month? How did it go? Do you think you improved as a writer &/or blogger?

Related articles

• Join Us for Daily Blogging with December's NaBloPoMo (blogher.com)
• NaBloPoMo Soup: Add Your December Posts (blogher.com)

Adventures in Rock Painting

I got all up in Esmerelda's face about painting really great words of wisdom on some rocks after seeing a picture of such a thing on Pinterest. So I set about planning what we'd need for materials:

• rocks
• paint
• something to put paint on rocks aka paint brushes

The thing about rocks is that unless you live beside a river there aren't of a useful shape lying around - they need to be fairly flat and round in order to have aesthetic appeal. The search began…

Read about the epic adventures of rock collecting and how brilliant minds are bad at painting after the jump.

The Mission: Acquire Rocks

While planning our paint date over chat with Esmerelda  I suddenly remembered that the house next door has river rocks along the side of their house. Telling her to hold on, I darted outside in my jammies to do some recon and sure enough, river rocks all over! Unfortunately the house has been on the market for a very long time with no yard maintenance, meaning the rocks were super grimy, broken and mildly depressing.

With my hoodie up over my head I grabbed a couple handfuls of decent stones and sauntered back to my own house, trying to appear as if I were merely going for a small walk around the front lawn, 'taking the air' if you will.

Back inside, I raced to my laptop to tell Esme what I'd found and she wasn't effing there anymore. Nice friend, had I gotten caught and charged with some archaic NoCal law regarding rock kidnapping I know who would NOT have been available to bail me out.

Anyways, I had 14 decent specimens in hand which Ender helped clean up and then hijack. Ender – 14, Me - 0.

Later that day we drove to Palo Alto for some business of R's and I forced him to cruise neighborhoods with small streets while I eyeballed the walk ups for appealing rocks. The thing about R is that he is in no way shifty. He just pulls up in front of a house and says 'how about there?' Yes, those are great. However I'd like to remain free of a criminal record so I'd rather we don't stop in a wide open area where I can see 9 people without even turning my head. Finally we found a sort of unclaimed sidewalk and I stood outside the car pretending to suffer motion sickness while covertly stuffing stones in my pockets.

Alas, still not enough to supply both Esmerelda and myself along with our kids. So R took me to a craft store where I found two bags of candlescaping rocks shipped here from China, because that makes economic sense, and the brushes. Yay! Let the inspirational juices start flowing!

See the finished product after the jump!

A Picture Speaks a Thousand Words

They say that a picture is worth 1000 words. It's true. All you have to do is flip through your own photo album or check out the photos of the day over at National Geographic to recall or invent stories that go along with each image.  Like this one.

Boy With Balloon, India
Photograph by Kamala Kannan 

Doesn't that just tell a hundred potential tales? Hubby says the kid is probably running from zombies. Balloon-loving zombies.

What about a picture that says 1000 words that are unrelated to its own visual image? I happen to have such a painting on my bedroom wall.

You see, it's a painting of an elephant but it tells the story of a beautiful friendship.

Feeling blue? Get stoned.

I really like these. I'm going to make some if I get some spare time over Thanksgiving and then use them for inspiration and creating feel-good emotions in myself.

And then when Esmerelda comes over with bottles of wine I will probably try to convince her of how cool they are by tossing them at her until she agrees. 

From The War of Art