A is for A Really Bad Idea, or Alphabet (take your pick).

ovember is, in the blogging-world at least, known as NaBloPoMo, which is a national blog posting initiative, and not, as it sounds, a popular phrase from the old mork & mindy television show.  the goal of NaBlowPopMo, or whatever, is to post once a day for a month, and to improve your writing by simply doing.  well, by doing and learning, as they also offer tips for better writing and writing prompts for every month, centered around a theme.  these prompts help you avoid what they call the “mid-month wall” that keeps you from following through on things like your blog, or say, personal hygiene or going to work, and is what i call “nearly every day of my life”.

his month is also NaNoWriMo, the no less gibberish-sounding but possibly much more popular National Novel Writing Month, where only the most crazy lunatics disciplined writers write a novel and, well, get some proverbial sh*t done, writing-wise.

although my business card says “writer” on it, i have no desire to EVER write a novel, yet this is surprisingly what everyone assumes what i want to do when i say that my job is being a writer.  why is that?

actually, if we’re being honest, my business card doesn’t say “writer” as my title, as i just couldn’t wrap my head around that identity, and instead blurts out “i write things”, which (i think) is a much more mature and professional way to communicate my profession.

think i am pretty sure i don’t get away with saying ridiculous things like this because my much more talented partner-in-crime, my husband, is a graphic designer and makes everything i say look so cool that nobody really questions me.  ah, see, now i’m telling you all my secrets!  don’t tell.  pinky promise.  YES, PINKY PROMISE.  i told you i was a grown-up.

now, what was i saying?

es, improving writing and tips on such.  i’m obviously in the market for improving my writing as i can’t seem to keep track of the words coming out of my own mouth, even when i can just scroll up and read them.  i had been toying around with the idea of just going through the alphabet, all popular-murder-novel-series-and-overdone-internet-meme-style, for lack of other brilliant ideas, and then i procrastinated just long enough to make it almost to November, where I can pretend that this it A Brilliant Idea–that is, unless you read the title of this post.

nevertheless, we shall make our way through the alphabet, mainly because i realized that i’ve become stagnant in terms of feeling like talking about anything, let alone anything of interest, and needed to do exactly what i used to tell my students to do: just write–and when i realized that if i went through the alphabet, i could use jessica hische‘s daily drop cap illustrations which are amazing and badass (as they make things much prettier)– and it was already going to be a National Thing, i simply had no more excuses.

ell, that’s not true, because i am a Pro at Crastinating, and i can find excuses like it’s my job.  hmmm…i wonder how much that job would pay?  would there be benefits?  would i penalized if i were late to said job? i digress, as i’m quite certain i’ve lost all three of you reading (hi dad!).

i’m feeing like there should be something ceremonial to kick this off?  how about this gratuitous picture of an explosion:

et the writing commence!