Well, I did it. I survived NaBloPoMo 2013. I honestly can’t believe that this is the last post because it seems like yesterday I was only a week in, and telling my roommate that I couldn’t imagine lasting three more weeks.
This is how I feel on the inside right now:
Winner winner chicken dinner
Would I do it again? To answer that I’ll need to do a recap.
Stats
- WordPress follower count increased by 70%
- Twitter follower count increased by 20%
- Facebook page fan count increased by 10%
- I was Freshly Pressed for the second time, and that post currently has 630+ likes
- I have more page views for the month of November than I do for all the other months in 2013 combined
- Top 3 posts: Things My Therapist Taught Me, 5 Stages of a Juice Cleanse, 21 vs. 31
- Forced me to write regularly
- I met some amazing people through the Yeah Write, BlogHer and Nano Poblano networks
- I was able to connect with non-NaBloPoMo bloggers as a result of my posts being shared
- As seen above, it can improve your overall blog stats
- It feels great to have conquered this beast for the second year in a row
- I now know that I can write good material consistently if I focus
Cons of NaBloPoMo
- Writing, editing and posting a piece every day was very time-consuming
- Comments became overwhelming on some posts
- I love reading others’ blogs, and I wasn’t able to do that regularly
- I had to post some pieces before I felt they were really ready, and wish I could have had more time to fine-tune them
- Churning out posts for the sake of posting really sucked the joy out of writing
- I think I may have annoyed some of you because of the frequent posting
The verdict
I would absolutely do NaBloPoMo again if I knew I could commit to it. Being able to tough it out makes me feel like I truly am a writer, something I’ve never really been convinced of until now.
I’d like to give mad props to my blog wife Speaker7 who not only persuaded me to do this, but also stuck it out the entire month with me. Do yourself a favor and go read her blog if you haven’t already.
Thank you to everyone who stopped by, followed me, shared my posts, commented, and endured the barrage of posts during NaBloPoMo. You really helped keep the fun alive, and motivated me to keep going. I look forward to catching up with you on your own blogs once the dust has settled.
Until next year…
Sips of Jen and Tonic 
So you blogged every day? That’s impressive. I barely have the energy to scratch myself every day. I honestly hadn’t heard about this event before (I guess I’m familiar with the novel writing thing), but great respect for having done this. Basically seems the equivalent of writing a novel.
Great wrap up with genuine answers…and why I haven’t done it yet. But your cons do leave room to change one’s mind. Quite an accomplishment, you should be proud of yourself!
Wow, those are some stats! I don’t think I could do it… I do once a week.
Going to check out what you turned out every day. Hats off to you!
Question, did you feel the quality suffered — I don’t mean the writing, but the topics?
I wanted to ask before starting to read. I’ve been wanting to dig into your blog for a few weeks. Now, I’m also curious to see if I notice a difference between your regular posts and the daily commitment ones.
Dang, so crazy! I’d only just started blogging so it seemed way overwhelming.. maybe next year! It seems like it would definitely be super intense… but it sounds like you were able to connect with a lot of different people, so that seems well worth it. The ability to push through and just write whether or not I want to is something I majorly struggle with… so I could see NaBloPoMo as a way to either increase my ability to do so or strangle all joy of the craft and leave me desiring to be a lumberjack or something instead.
Congrats, Jen. You’re the Katniss of blogging in my book!
This is my yay face. You can’t see it… but it’s happening.
Congrats on finishing and for the rewards that you have reaped. I’ve just started my month long quest, so hopefully I’ll be similarly triumphant when its all done.
I’m so glad you accomplished this writing goal! This is the month I always seem to be the most off my game. I hope you don’t become a posting hermit like last year after this though! I like having some Jen and Tonic to read when I’m trying to not do work 🙂
HUGE accomplishment! Congrats! I’ve never seen anyone break down their stats before/after like that, very interesting. I never heard of it before this year (this is my first year blogging) and thought it sounded awesome, but was overwhelmed as it was with a giant editing project. Didn’t to Nanowrimo either, which I typically do. Anyway, good on you!
Major props girl! I slid off the schedule this month for the first time in a year.. my Anti NaBloPoMo. I am in awe that you found that much to write about. Amaze-balls
Congrats on finishing. Now, go take a nap.
I finished NaNoWriMo this year. It felt amazing, and then I mostly turned off my computer for the better part of four days. It was heaven.