Moving to naskewrimo.tumblr.com

In order to streamline operations, we're consolidating all NaSkeWriMo blogging operations at our Tumblr-hosted blog: http://naskewrimo.tumblr.com/

The main website remains at http://www.naskewrimo.org/

Update your bookmarks! Edit your favorites! Re-link your links! September is around the corner!

Been sitting on a great idea? For now, keep sitting.

If you're at all interested in this project, you probably have at least one idea for a sketch that came to you while you were on your way to work or picking your nose. You didn't have time to write it down then (or couldn't because your finger had a booger on it) but you planned to write it later. And now that National Sketch Writing Month is here, you might be thinking that this is the perfect time to write your sketch!

Here's the problem: if you've been holding on to that idea for a long time, you are probably in love with it, or at least seriously crushing on it. You probably know a few key lines and have it already cast and acted out in your head, and everybody is laughing and cheering you on and throwing rose petals at your feet.

But NaSkeWriMo is not about love. It's about output. It's about habits. It's about teaching yourself to write when you don't have ideas, and about coming up with something, so that later you can re-read what you wrote and find what was good about it and edit it into something great.

If you start with an idea that you've been holding on to for too long, you will probably be pretty unhappy with your first draft. You might be tempted to keep working on it and get exhausted and maybe you will finish it but in the end you will conclude that this is just too much work! Who could possibly do this 30 times in one month?

Instead, spend the first week or two writing sketches starting only with the vaguest of ideas. Single word suggestions are good. Or watch the news for inspiration. But start with a new idea, that you haven't fallen in love with yet. Because if you're not attached, you will have an easier time writing and getting it done.

You won't be concerned about whether it is perfect. In fact, you will probably be pleasantly surprised at how good it is, considering you had no expectations for it to begin with. (That idea you love, however, will never come out as great as it was in your imagination.)

After a week or two, you'll have momentum, and then you can attack that sketch idea you have been sitting on for too long. But by then you will be prepared to handle the mediocrity of a first draft, and know that, if it doesn't ultimately work out, you will be able to fall in love again.

Greetings and salutations!

Hey kids! Time to get writing!

This is Year 3 of NaSkeWriMo. I hope to keep you guys motivated and writing all month. Ben is a master of keeping the electronica up to date. Both of us want you all to succeed!

I will be getting the end-of-month sketch party together - keep an eye out for details!

GO TEAM!

It begins again tomorrow!

Write 30 sketches in 30 days. Easy as pie. Have you ever tried eating 30 slices of pie in 30 minutes? Sounds like fun, until some point after your fourth slice.

Michelle and I are kicking off NaSkeWriMo 2010 with a, "Wait! What? It's September already?!" Ideally we'd have some kind of thing to lead into the month, but it crept up on us just like everybody else.

The website has been updated, to support the idea of NaSkeWriMo happening every year. I probably should have foreseen the need for this feature last year, or the year before. Regardless, now you can see past records from 2008 and 2009 as well as keep track of sketches you write for NaSkeWriMo 2010. And, even if I get hit by a bus in the next twelve months, the website will automatically turn over again for NaSkeWriMo 2011.

Note that the website address is new, sorta. For very boring reasons the domain nationalsketchwritingmonth.com is no longer under our control. naskewrimo.org always worked as a shortcut, now it’s the main address. So spread the word for people who still might be trying to find the site at its old address.

What else? Oh yeah, there’s a NaSkeWriMo tumblelog you can follow with links to sketches from the site and posts from this blog. And a Facebook Group and a Twitter account, too.

We had 23 writers in 2008 and 65 writers in 2009. Can we break 100 writers this year? (To count as a writer, you need to write at least one sketch.) I think we can! Then again, I’m an optimist.

Participation Survey

I've set up a survey for people who participated in NaSkeWriMo '09. If you've registered at the website you should have received an email, but if not you can click here to access the form.

I hope there will be useful nuggets of wisdom buried in the responses, which I intend to mine and process into Manufactured Wisdom Goods to be published on this blog.

September Sketch Staging!

Party time! Staged reading of your best and brightest sketches.

Ochi's Lounge at Comix
Tuesday September 29th
900 PM

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=134471212839

See you there!

Home stretch!

Hey all!

Great work done by so many people. I'm impressed and inspired and hope you are too.

Don't be discouraged if you're behind...I know I am behind but not discouraged.

The end of the month celebration will be soon announced, in all its detailed glory. Whether you plan to read, submit or just watch please come on down! I can't wait to see you all.