Thread by @AlexandraErin

So I mentioned #NiNoBilMa in my last thread, in passing. For those who don't know what I'm talking about: it's a sort of informal, year-long writing tune-up that I decided to give myself next year, and also decided to turn into a public participatory exercise.

https://twitter.com/AlexandraErin/status/1464433354850410501

The name I gave it evokes NaNoWriMo to convey that it's meant to be an open-to-all event/challenge that anyone can do on their own in their own time, and also convey that it's not a wholly original idea, both in the sense that it borrows from NaNoWriMo...

...and in the sense that #NiNoBilMa is short for "New idea? No, it's Billy Madison."

(Now THERE's a timely reference.)

Each month of 2022, I'm theming after a different grade/academic year of US primary and secondary schooling, with a soft launch this month for Kindergarten.

The overarching goal for the first half of the year is to start by practicing writing on demand* without inhibitions or hesitations with a "no rules, just write" approach and transition month by month to add more structure and direction to that energy.

(*One's own, to be clear.)

And then the second half of the year I'm going to be focusing on more specific actual formal writing structures and skills that I was able to mimic or fake convincingly but that I didn't quite internalize/retain when they were theoretically being taught to me.

It's possible that my activities for the second half of the year will be less widely applicable or relatable, but as there's no formal program you have to sign up for or drop out of, you can diverge from following my example when it stops making sense for you to follow it.

If you do sign up for my newsletter or Patreon, you will get (among other, unrelated posts) prompts/exercises, initially sent on Mondays (so starting December 6th) that you can do with what you will, as you can, when you want.

The kindergarten ones are very open-ended, focusing on single-word prompts. The prompts reflect subject matters that kindergarteners are taught; the sort of simple concepts that they might be learning how to write/spell by rote.

The idea here is not to write like a kindergartener... but it's not to NOT do that; no rules, just write! I'm not going to be restricting myself beyond the prompt.

If the word is green, I might write a stream-of-consciousness prompted by it, or a journal entry about something green, or a flash fic inspired by it, or a fiction vignette that is not quite a story, or an essay...

...or a series of simple declarative statements about it as might result from asking a small child to use the word "green" in a sentence.

The post explaining in more detail what I'm doing and how it's going to work is in the QT at the top of the thread, or alternatively this link to my newsletter. Both posts are unlocked, though the Twitter preview on the Patreon is from before it was open.

https://twitter.com/AlexandraErin/status/1464434043349614595

I'm doing this through my Patreon and my newsletter -- both of which have a paid option -- because I did not want to add the overhead of running a third outlet, nor ask the people most likely to join in to subscribe to a second/third thing. There really is no cost.

Oh, and I will also be cross-posting the posts to Twitter AND also putting the prompts up on here, if you're interested in seeing them and possibly participating but you don't want to follow me on another platform.

The linked offsite versions may have additional details (suggestions, clarifications, etc.) but especially in the first few months the entire exercise/prompt would easily fit in a single 280 character tweet.

Oh, and to be clear, despite theming it around school years I'm not assigning homework nor giving out grades. I *hope* that people will feel like sharing some of their efforts and plan on sharing some of mine...

...both ones that I feel came out really good and ones that I feel came out instructively or interestingly bad, as a big part of the early focus for me is going to be on breaking down inhibitions. I may even livestream some writing exercises.