How did February fly by so quickly, and how the heck is March now upon us? This year, I went back and forth with myself and with friends: would Writer’s March take a hiatus? Would I be able to sustain the post a day marathon that I’ve come to associate with the month?
In the end, I decided to settle for a compromise: YES, the writer’s march will march on, but perhaps with a lighter load. What will this lighter load look like? I’m glad you asked.
Randi and I moved to Indiana with too much stuff. We’ll be moving back with a quarter of it. Perhaps this lightening of loads is happening across our lives…
Here’s what you can expect from the 2014 Writer’s March:
The general premise of the March is the same:
1. Make a commitment to write every day this month. The trick here is that you set your own standards. Whether its 15 minutes a day or 5 hours a day, you know your schedule and you should keep it. Skip watching television. Give up that extra hour of sleep in the morning. Whatever it is, if you want the time, you have it. Push all the excuses aside.
2. Decide upon a monthly and daily goal. So maybe you treat Writer’s March as a second NaNoWriMo. Or maybe you use the month as a NaNoReMo (National Novel Revising Month). Or maybe you are a poet and you want to write a poem a day. Or a short story writer who wants one solid, ready-to-submit story. Or a playwright or a screenwriter or graphic novelist. Whatever the goal. Set it now, the beginning of the month, and then work every day to achieve it. Ultimately, it is up to you.
The one thing that changes, however, is the dailiness of this blog. When I began this March, I was a graduate student working on my dissertation. I had more time in the day to sit at my computer. Now, I’m teaching four classes and still (yes, still) trying to finish my book (I swear it’s closer). After assessing my own abilities, I had to make some changes. In the past, we’ve had a daily post (with prompts) given out for each day of March (usually by me and occasionally by a guest blogger). This year, you can expect a weekly post from me with the potential for some added encouragement in-between (by me or by others). Make sense?
“No that doesn’t make sense! I don’t like changes!”
Love, Tree, the dog
In other words, Tree:
- Join the March as usual. Set your goals and I”ll get them posted to this site – that part doesn’t change at all, and that’s the heart of the matter anyway, right?
- Every week, there will be at least one post from me, sometimes more. You can probably expect one post with words and one with some TED Talks or other forms of visual insight.
- There might be posts from guest bloggers as well – if you are interested in guest blogging, just let me know!
- ADDITIONALLY, for those who officially join, I may try and check in with you via email once a week – nothing to pressure you, but simply just to add to our levels of accountability. If I’m not writing a blog post every day, then there’s time (perhaps) for this!
Make sense?
“I guess so…”
Hey man, give me a break!
“Fine, but only if you take this stupid sweater off me.”
And so, without further ado… (and that much much ado about nothing, don’t you think?) Feel free to JOIN THE MARCH! (where posts will have more to do with writing and less to do with dogs…).
A Writer's March 