NaNoWriMo

November 16, 2025

/ HJ / Leave a comment

but, should i want to write a book,
what book should i write?

should i re-write my first ever finished novel?
try to make it less about what i needed to hear
[and say]
at that moment in my life, and instead keep
the characters and their journey
and clean it up a bit
for a more
general
consumption?

should i try to finish up the novel i started
recently
with magic at its core
with a [relatively] scientific explanation

should i create my silly idea for a choose your own adventure novel?

should i write the fairy story of a person writing a fairy story
that they need
[and i probably do, too]

should i instead focus on play-writing?
or putting together a collection of
already written poetry?

i think i want to fall into a novel
like i did five years ago…

maybe that first option
really is
the way
to
go

November 2, 2024

/ HJ / Leave a comment

one day of national novel writing month
down
and only twenty nine to go

every year i wonder
why i do this to myself
and every year
the emotions stagger and flow
and i feel accomplished

but what in the world do i do
after this?

November 30, 2023

/ HJ / Leave a comment

i may have shot myself in the foot/
given myself a crazy amount of work to do
on this one, singular, last day of
National Novel Writing Month

but i also know i can do it —
it’ll be tough, but it’ll be achievable.

it’ll be hard
but i’m pretty damn sure
i can do it.

i easily made 3,000 words work
in one day of writing —
just two sections
and a break in-between,
so i’ll just have to do three sections
two breaks,
or more and more
if the work needs to be divided
into tinier bite-sizes

the only worry i have
is the focus
to be split
among writing
auditioning (i.e. memorizing/practicing)
and circus-ing

perhaps i’ll have to write
non-poetry
on the train
for the first time
ever…

November 25, 2023

/ HJ / 1 Comment

do i have the capacity to write more poetry
do i have the capacity to write nicer poetry
do i have the capacity this morning
with lack of sleep
and potential illness
coughing down the back of my neck
and a looming NaNoWriMo deadline in front of me

[probably not, is the answer]

November 12, 2022

/ HJ / Leave a comment

the not so great part
of having a solid plan
of combining your Morning Experimentations
into
a National Novel Writing Month Experiment
is that
once you combine the collective trauma
of living through a global pandemic
(and the subsequent failures of government and humanity)
with the fact that you wrote every morning
your pain and hopes and losses thereof
and with
the emotional toll of writing poetry
which you do
every morning now
is that
now
you don’t necessarily want to write
your Morning
Poetry
(because you have just
catharted
all over the computer screen
about a situation
we are still
very much
in)

August 16, 2022

/ HJ / Leave a comment

i should have known
that the answer wasn’t
‘both’
when asked if i liked to work more with
details
or
big picture
things,
simply based on my reaction to being presented with
either.
when asked to look at minute details
i feel like i’m being laid into a giant warm bed
that fits me perfectly
that itself cuddles back.
and when being presented with
the big picture
i’m overwhelmed to the point of
panic attack

~~~

this
computer
is on its last legs
(or its last keys)
the multiplying of vowels
has at least tripled
(except for the rare occasion
when a letter simply
doesn’t)
but now the delete button
and space bar
are on the fritz
and a few consonants
are also acting awry
and i
think should just bite the bullet
and let Kip transfer my things
over to the new [to me] laptop
but this machine is where i wrote a novel,
and this is where my Morning Poems started,
and i took all my zoom classes
here,
and it feels like
an end to an era
when it’s simply
upgrading to the next model
and i
need to stop worrying
about losing all my things–
Kip knows how to transfer
and i’ve saved in at least two different places
and i should trust technology
some day
(maybe today?)

~~~

my body
and brain
just want to go back to
adjusting every little date
on my transfer
from goodreads to storygraph
because tiny details
and mindless tasks
feed my soul
like pudding;
filling it with empty calories
that i know should go
after a full meal
(of poetry-writing, perhaps?)
but i secretly just want
to eat sweets
and do teensy tasks
whenever i feel
any kind of
hunger