Just after Thanksgiving last year, my blogger friend Anna announced her intention to participate in a December-long writing challenge entitled Reverb 10 . Immediately, I was intrigued. The month of zany November had left me little time to blog, and I thought I could use the swift kick to get me writing something other than “I went out to a new restaurant after yoga class and it was delicious.” So I signed myself up for Reverb, and on December 1st, I began the month of self-reflection.
31 days is a lot of reflecting.
Throughout the month, there were times when I was thrilled to write, and there were times when I would have rather done anything but. There were times when the words just flowed, and there were times when I struggled to produce a single phrase. There were times when I felt exhausted by the unending rumination asked for by the many deep and personal prompts, and I was grateful for the few lighthearted ones, like the best party or the best meal of the year.
I published a blog post 30 days out of 31 in December [and I wrote a guest post , so really, I made it to 31]. I skipped two prompts because I felt I had answered them in a previous post. Over the course of the month, I went to 16 yoga classes, dined in 14 restaurants, cooked 7 new recipes, saw 5 plays, spent 4 days in Connecticut, got over a cold in 2 days, went to 2 concerts, broke 1 blender , survived 1 apocalyptic snowstorm, and drank an unknown quantity of wine. And every morning, I woke up to a new writing prompt.
Participating in this challenge put me back in college, in my creative writing classes.
One thing I’ve learned as a writer – and as a person – is how important it is to own who you are. I would bring my stories into those workshops, and someone else would volunteer to have his or her work evaluated first. I’d read those works, and I would doubt myself. I’d wish I had the mind he or she had, wish I had interpreted the assignment differently, wish I was more creative, more intelligent, more witty.
Usually, I blog in the morning. I schedule my posts to go live at lunchtime, and then I go to work. I kept this schedule up throughout the month, even though some posts were far more rushed than I would have liked. But writing in the morning was the way to go – because it kept the doubts at bay.
As each morning turned into an afternoon, I’d see other bloggers’ posts go up, and I’d question myself. I’d wish I had been more imaginative or more introspective. But my post was published and I was at work, and so there could be no turning back.
Back in those college classes, my piece would eventually get its turn for group discussion. People would tell me I was a good writer. They would share useful comments and they would offer me praise along with the critiques. My doubts would fade away as I would recall that I was capable of writing well, that I was creative, and that my ideas had merits all their own, just as my classmates’ did. I would remember that I had a unique voice to share with the world.
Reverb 10 helped me to feel the same thing. I am grateful I participated.
A few of my favorite posts from the month [all Reverb 10 posts are archived ]:
The defining moment of 2010 .
Realizing how alive I felt all year .
A letter to myself at 15 , ten years ago.
Thoughts on my heritage and how important it is to carry it on.
Musings on being a maid of honor and a grown-up – and musings on still being young .
Thanks to everyone who stuck with me throughout the month, whether you stopped by for a single post or came back for all 31. Your encouragement meant a lot!
So now, it is 2011. There are some changes coming to the whole plate this year, and I’ll be getting them underway in the next few days. If there is anything you’d like to see on this blog, please share it with me, whether in the comments or in an email [thewholeplateblog@gmail.com]!
In the meantime, I hope everyone had wonderful celebrations on New Year’s Eve. I certainly did, and I’ll be sure to share the tale of gin, pickled onions, and taxi bribery soon.
Just after Thanksgiving last year, my blogger friend Anna announced her intention to participate in a December-long writing challenge entitled Reverb 10 . Immediately, I was intrigued. The month of zany November had left me little time to blog, and I thought I could use the swift kick to get me writing something other than “I went out to a new restaurant after yoga class and it was delicious.” So I signed myself up for Reverb, and on December 1st, I began the month of self-reflection.
31 days is a lot of reflecting.
Throughout the month, there were times when I was thrilled to write, and there were times when I would have rather done anything but. There were times when the words just flowed, and there were times when I struggled to produce a single phrase. There were times when I felt exhausted by the unending rumination asked for by the many deep and personal prompts, and I was grateful for the few lighthearted ones, like the best party or the best meal of the year.
I published a blog post 30 days out of 31 in December [and I wrote a guest post , so really, I made it to 31]. I skipped two prompts because I felt I had answered them in a previous post. Over the course of the month, I went to 16 yoga classes, dined in 14 restaurants, cooked 7 new recipes, saw 5 plays, spent 4 days in Connecticut, got over a cold in 2 days, went to 2 concerts, broke 1 blender , survived 1 apocalyptic snowstorm, and drank an unknown quantity of wine. And every morning, I woke up to a new writing prompt.
Participating in this challenge put me back in college, in my creative writing classes.
One thing I’ve learned as a writer – and as a person – is how important it is to own who you are. I would bring my stories into those workshops, and someone else would volunteer to have his or her work evaluated first. I’d read those works, and I would doubt myself. I’d wish I had the mind he or she had, wish I had interpreted the assignment differently, wish I was more creative, more intelligent, more witty.
Usually, I blog in the morning. I schedule my posts to go live at lunchtime, and then I go to work. I kept this schedule up throughout the month, even though some posts were far more rushed than I would have liked. But writing in the morning was the way to go – because it kept the doubts at bay.
As each morning turned into an afternoon, I’d see other bloggers’ posts go up, and I’d question myself. I’d wish I had been more imaginative or more introspective. But my post was published and I was at work, and so there could be no turning back.
Back in those college classes, my piece would eventually get its turn for group discussion. People would tell me I was a good writer. They would share useful comments and they would offer me praise along with the critiques. My doubts would fade away as I would recall that I was capable of writing well, that I was creative, and that my ideas had merits all their own, just as my classmates’ did. I would remember that I had a unique voice to share with the world.
Reverb 10 helped me to feel the same thing. I am grateful I participated.
A few of my favorite posts from the month [all Reverb 10 posts are archived ]:
The defining moment of 2010 .
Realizing how alive I felt all year .
A letter to myself at 15 , ten years ago.
Thoughts on my heritage and how important it is to carry it on.
Musings on being a maid of honor and a grown-up – and musings on still being young .
Thanks to everyone who stuck with me throughout the month, whether you stopped by for a single post or came back for all 31. Your encouragement meant a lot!
So now, it is 2011. There are some changes coming to the whole plate this year, and I’ll be getting them underway in the next few days. If there is anything you’d like to see on this blog, please share it with me, whether in the comments or in an email [thewholeplateblog@gmail.com]!
In the meantime, I hope everyone had wonderful celebrations on New Year’s Eve. I certainly did, and I’ll be sure to share the tale of gin, pickled onions, and taxi bribery soon.