NaBloPoMo

It sounds like a Judoon war cry - "Na Blo Po Mo!" But rather than legions from the Shadow Proclamation, it is an amassed horde of bloggers poised to do battle with the enemy.

Gentlemen - the enemy is us.

I noticed that I had averaged a blog post every few days in October - I wondered if I could beat that and still retain some vestige of quality. During BarCampLondon I heard Abizer talk about NaNoWriMo - while I didn't think I could manage a novel, I was fairly sure I could squeeze out a post every day.

This has been a crazy month for me. Between attending BarCamps, organising BarCamps, speaking at conferences, going to gigs and comedy shows, turning 30, helping launch #vf360 and taking a pensions training course - I wasn't sure I'd be able to make it.

I do most of my writing on the train and the tube. I've found that the BlackBerry's built in memopad is good enough for drafting posts. I use the official WordPress for BlackBerry application for submitting drafts. I usually apply formatting, add multimedia, and tidy the spelling on a PC at lunchtimes.

At the end of October, I installed BlogStats for WordPress.  It's quite daunting seeing how popular - or not - my writing is.  It certainly kept me motivated.

One thing I've found invaluable is the ability to schedule blog posts for publishing at specified times. This blog post, for example was started on the 9th of November and is scheduled to be published on the last day of November.

I'm very proud of some of my posts here - I certainly didn't start the month expecting to be interviewed by The Register.  I've become acutely aware of how my written and spoken style differ - and how I refine the former until it no longer resembles the latter.  Whereupon I hit delete and start again.

Other posts betray the pressures of writing every day.  Some are, if I'm honest, mere sketches of fuller articles.

Too often, I'd want to write about something timely - only to realise I'd already published an article that day.  "Best to save it for tomorrow," I'd think - only to change my mind when tomorrow came.

I've also shied away from writing some "profound" pieces.  I usually like to take my time - weeks or even months - over an idea. I like to wring meaning out of every sentence.  When faced with a daily deadline, that's all but impossible.

It's been really fun to see how many visitors I get - what's been more interesting is seeing older articles getting hits - Android on the N810 is a perenial favourite it seems.

The long tail is alive and well!

I don't think I'll keep up posting every day - but I will be making sure that when I think of some interesting and original content, I'll post it as soon as I can.

Until next year - NA BLO PO MO!