NaPoWriMo

One of the stigmas surrounding National Poetry Writing Month (and other events of its kind, such as National Novel Writing Month and Script Frenzy) is that it compels would-be writers to trudge to their desks for a month and churn something out (that serves the main goal of quantity over quality), while they spend the other eleven months of the year ignoring literature completely. I have but two retorts for that notion. While I don't know how the statistics break down when looking at the entire participant pool, most of the participants I come across are regular year-round writers who take part in these events for various reasons. Personally, I like the change of pace. I write all the time, but certainly not as much as I'd like to have time for, and one month is a decent amount of time in which one can increase focus and output - it's reasonable for most people with busy lives to take on any of these month-long events and accomplish something substantial.

As for others who do only come out and write during these months, so what? I've been working steadily on projects for a few years now, but I certainly know what it's like to be in a rut, and if NaPoWriMo can be the catalyst for increased productivity, all the better. Hell, it's great when it gets virtual non-writers to adopt the craft. More writers, more poems. And I don't necessarily subscribe to the theory that that's a good thing...but you know, poetry is vastly under-appreciated, and it really can take just one person's verse to inspire someone else to dive further into the medium. It doesn't have to be solely about quantity over quality, either; you can achieve both by building some mental notes and ideas beforehand, as well as making tentative plans for the project's destination afterward.

That is all, getting off the soapbox, now.