7 Tips for NaPoWriMo: Start it, stick with it, smash it.
- catwoodward
- Mar 20
- 4 min read
NaPoWriMo, National Poetry Writing month, April 1st-30th. Every year, writers challenge themselves to write a poem a day every day in April.
Some finish, lots don’t. Like any challenge of this sort, NaPoWriMo can be fun, surprising, frustrating, disappointing, exciting, crushing…the rewards are high but so are the risks. 30 poems in 30 days is a tough ask; once you’ve found the time to even write all those poems then there’s the pressure, expectations, writers block, comparing yourself with others…and after all that, what if the poems are crap?
But the more prepared you are for the challenge, the better your chances of reaching the end. Whether this year’s NaPo is your first or your fifteenth, I want you to have a good one. So I’ve put together 7 tips to get you started and importantly, to keep you going to the end.
1. Remember why you started
There are lots of good reasons to take on the NaPoWriMo challenge:
- To write more
- To be more creative
- To learn about yourself and your writing
- To prove you can do it
- To see what happens
- To write that collection or pamphlet
- To take your writing seriously
- Or, just for fun
What’s your reason? Write it down and put it somewhere you will see it every day, in the front of your notebook, or on a post-it on your laptop. It’s easy to get distracted in all the NaPo fuss; having a clear purpose and remembering that purpose will keep you on track, whatever your goal.
2. Pick a time slot
Life is busy. Realistically, when are you going to sit down and write these poems?
Think about your day and identify a time, however brief, that you can reliably use for writing. On the bus to work, after you put the kids to bed, before your morning coffee…Choose something that works for you. This way, you will always be able to find time in a day for a poem.
That said, for some people, having a specific time allotted to be creative is an instant creativity killer. I’m like that. If you’re like that too, then you will have to be more flexible, but the important thing is to consciously make time, one way or another.
3. Use prompts
It’s tough to come up with a new idea for a new poem every day, especially over a long period of time. A writing prompt gives you a ready-made starting idea that you can respond to, so you don’t need to wait around for that strike of lightning. You just write.
There are lots of prompts available. If you don’t get on with one prompt, try another. The more ideas you have at your disposal, the better. Alternatively, you could stick with a challenging prompt to see what happens, constraint often breeds creativity.
If you’re looking for prompts, I’ve assembled some prompts of my own into sets of 30, one prompt for every day to inspire you. Available now at The Poetry Master Class, and on sale every year throughout April. You can try out some of my prompts here and here.
4. Or, pick a theme
If prompts are too constricting for you, or if you can’t find a prompt you really like, then choose a theme that you’re interested in and write your 30 poems around that. Poetry magazines often put a call out for poems ‘on the theme of…’, this is the same idea.
Choose a theme that you’re genuinely interested in. Don’t pick a theme that’s too broad, because you might struggle to find something particular to say about it; likewise, don’t pick a subject that’s too specific, because you might run out of things to say well before the 30 days are up.
5. Pick a line limit
For those of us who are suffocated by creative freedom (like me), picking a lower or upper line limit can be useful to establish expectations.
Your minimum can be as low as you need it to be; so long as it’s over 0, it counts. It can be discouraging when you don’t produce as much material as you think you should have. If you struggle with the expectation to produce, try setting your minimum target at 1 line. 1 line a day is still writing. You’ll probably write more than that anyway.
If you tend to sprawl and ramble, then introducing an upper limit might be more productive than having no limit. When you’re confined to 10 lines, for example, you will have to approach the task differently to the way you’re used to. Interesting, unexpected things may happen (also, you can write a 10 line poem quickly if you need to!).
6. NaPo with a friend
Writing is more fun with friends, you can share ideas, compare poems, encourage and motivate each other. You’re more likely to reach the end of the NaPo challenge if you have someone to do it with. So, buddy up.
7. Don’t worry if the poems are crap
It would be very unusual if you were to produce 30 astonishingly good poems in 30 days (but who knows, you might). The expectation of NaPo is that some of the poems (even all of them) will be a bit naff. If you’ve got 2 or 3 good ones out of it then that’s good going and something to be proud of. Even if all 30 are disappointments, having something is always so much better than nothing. You can continue to work on these poems when April is over, or use them as jumping off points to write stronger poems when you have more time to give them.
If you decide to really make something out of your 30 NaPo poems, you can always get a mentor like me to work them over with you. You never know, you might have a real diamond in the rough!
The experience of NaPo is more important than the end product anyway. Don’t get hung up on the 30 days thing, it’s just a device to get people writing and to get people talking about writing. Whatever happens, if you participated in it at all, that's a success.
Good luck with your NaPoWriMo adventure, and happy writing.
Cat Woodward
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