IntShoWriMo 2014 OFFICIAL BADGE (MODIFIED) |
IntShoWriMo
is not the brainchild of a deliberate and complex design nor is it product of a
fickle fancy. It did, however, thrive by default. It just so happened that in
December, 2010 I announced in this article—the last one I posted that
year—that through 2011, I was going to be waist deep in short stories.
No regular blogposts, only 2,000-word
shorts and about thirty in all. A quick glance at the 2011 archives will reveal
a total of thirteen posts and most of these happen to be poetry. So what
happened? I couldn’t do it, that’s what happened. I had a
hard time making up my mind on what to post: drafts or revised drafts? And that’s how I
spent an entire year eating the dirt of my own indecision.
Steven
Barnes, in one of several newsletters I received from the great writer, hinted
on writing the short story over the novel for young fiction writers. “You may write a 100,000 word novel or fifty
2,000 word stories in a year. You’ll learn faster writing the short stories.” —Steven Barnes (rephrased). I was trying to walk
that path when I got stuck in 2011 even though, I got the second story I wrote
published in an online magazine I knew I had to make good on that promise.
IntShoWriMo
(called NaShoWriMo in 2012) was my way of delivering on that commitment I made
way back 2010. It was purely an accidental thing that somehow stuck. And the
interesting fact is you can become a part of it. And you should.
Keep
your pens bleeding!
Akpan
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