#ButtInSeatMonth

I’m attempting to start something.

Since burning out of my newspaper reporting job 6+ years ago, I haven’t gotten my groove back. I still can write — and I sometimes do — but my attempts at bigger creative projects (and some even smaller ones) have failed. This is the first year I have had the time and mental space for #NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) or the related activities. No classes. No major work projects. No major life events *knock on wood.* But I knew if I tried to keep up in my current state that I would flop and be finished before the weekend ends. This is my solution:

#ButtInSeatMonth

It’s the PG Twitterfied version of the famous Dorothy Parker quotation:

Writing is the art of applying the ass to the seat.

I love the spirit of #NaNoWriMo, and I want to capitalize on the furor of writing action this month, even if a full novel is out of my reach. So here I am.

How do I see this working?

The real answer is I don’t know. I don’t have a consistent time to write or any habits. The whole point of this month is to build those. My journal has seen an increasing amount of action in recent months, and I expect daily journaling to be a big part of my goal.

(This dates to a somewhat competitive wellness program at work where journaling would get us points. Sometimes I’d put them in knowing I could journal later, and I would get an entry along the lines of, “I said I’d write in my journal, so here’s a sentence in my journal.” For #ButtInSeatMonth purposes, those entries count. You showed up; you tried. It will get easier.)

I also downloaded The Writing Prompt Boot Camp from Writers’ Digest to jumpstart my creative writing efforts. Need more inspiration? WordPress provides daily prompts and a full year’s worth in PDF form. For the bloggers, here’s a recent list from Don’t Get Caught.

I challenge you to join me in writing for the next 30 days. Writing anything you want. However you want. As much as you want. Let’s see where this can take us.