Write A Poem A Day, For 30 Days! #NaPoWriMo2022

You know what I haven’t done in a while? A proper writing challenge! (Am I pretending NaNoWriMo2021 did not happen? Well...well, yes.)

I feel like I could use some extra structure for the month of April (which I know is going to be a busy one!) to help prompt me to keep trying to write just a little bit everyday.

I actually have done NaProWiMo at least once, in 2014, though at the time I only got through the first 12 days or so. This year, I’d like to attempt to make it through the whole month!

Here is my personal proposed structure for #NaPoWriMo2022 :

1. Alternate writing in French and English depending on the day;
2. No editing of existing poems, I have to attempt to come up with new work every day;
3. Spend no more than 30 minutes a day on each poem — no cheating!
4. A weekly theme will help with structure and sparking ideas:
   • Week 0: April 1, 2, 3 I will write whatever style of poem I want, to shake out the cobwebs!
   • Week 1: April 4 to 10 — I want to work on sonnets! It’s a form many of us encountered (and hated) in high school, and I’d like to attempt to do some damage repair between myself and meter. On English days, I might want to experiment with the form a little — instead of focusing on rhymes, perhaps half-rhymes will do? On French days, I think I want to try my hand at the Alexandrine forms.
   • Week 2: April 11 to 17 — Haiku week! After the excruciating crucible that is sonnet writing, I want to get to know the haiku form a little more! My friend O encouraged me to write some haiku for the first time in our letter correspondence a while ago now, and I’ve been meaning to experiment a bit more with the form ever since.
   • Week 3: April 18 to 24 — Epic poetry week! This is also called the narrative poem. I want to try and get some (very, very rough) drafts of narrative poems started! On week 3, I may bend the rules a tiny little bit on rule 2 (“no editing of existing poems”) in order to actually get something accomplished.
   • Week 4: April 25 to 30 — Prose poem week! I love prose poems and they’re arguably my favourite form, so I’m saving them for last, in the hopes that that will really encourage me not to give up!

(Of course, poets, like pirates, often have a certain, shall we say, abundant appreciation for the constructed and artificial nature of rules...)

My goal is to become truly and completely sick of writing poetry for at least a year when this is done, if not longer. But, I will have 30 new poems to slowly work on over those coming months/years. So, victory? I will likely share some of my progress with my readers here at the end of each week or so, we’ll see how it goes!

Are you doing NaPoWriMo this year, or have you ever attempted it? Do you have any advice? I feel like I could use some, haha!

I wish you all a very lovely turning of March into April. Happy writing, and stay safe out there.