Image based on graphic composed at Wordle.
TO BEGIN READING THIS BLOVEL,
PLEASE CLICK ON CHAPTER ONE IN THE APRIL ARCHIVE -->
When it comes to writing, procrastination is one of my biggest problems. Even in college, I waited till the last minute to put that term paper together, relying on caffeine and sheer panic to kick me into putting the words on the page. So although I've always wanted, like most English majors, to write the "great American novel," the sheer scope of such a project was overwhelming. And with no novel deadline looming in my immediate future, the idea always got tossed on the back burner. Until now.
On his blog, JungleG, Jorge Escobar issued a challenge to writers with procrastination problems to write a blovel--a serialized novel in the form of blog posts. All of a sudden, the task seemed doable. So I took him up on it, and created Novel by the Day. So far I've written a chapter a day. Not a monumental achievement, I know. Not even a habit unless I can keep it up for a significant period of time. But it's a good beginning. And just the practice of writing daily, of having a reason to "show up at the page" is bleeding over into projects beside the novel. All of a sudden, I'm excited about writing again, and looking for any and every excuse to do it.
So if you've been suffering from writer's block for days, months, even years, and you have yet to scratch "write a novel" off your bucket list, I invite you--no, I dare you to take the Blovel Challenge. You never know where it might lead you.
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