What is #NaPoWriMo? Writers tell us what goes into publishing one poem every day

For Vallari Sanzgiri, a journalist and writer, April 2021 had been a particularly hard time to be reporting from home or on-ground. "News of deaths and administrative apathy was coming in from every media outlet. NaPoWriMo was a good distraction," says the 24-year-old about ‘National Poetry Writing Month', an online writing challenge which encourages budding poets to post one poem every day throughout April. "This year with office resuming, I find it a bit tedious but I still like the sense of community it is bringing."

The internet and social media in particular, offer a canvas for aspiring artists to express themselves. NaPoWriMo is one such space for creative experiments. The annual project was first started by Maureen Thorson who, inspired by National Novel Writing Month, began posting one poem a day on her blog in April 2003. Later, with people across countries writing poems in the same month and the trend picking up, Thorson launched an independent website for the project.

This year too, poets - experienced and amateur alike - are writing for NaPoWriMo to nurture their form of expression and hone their skills. Enthusiasm remains high, with many regular and new participants joining the writers' club to diligently churn out poems every day this month.

Prompts and experiments

A number of poetry pages, blogs and websites on the internet regularly tickle the writers' fancy through prompts, ranging from one word or an object to phrases and obscure or free-flowing ideas, concepts and emotions. Meant for writers to feel inspired to write regularly, these ideas - given by the website or chosen by writers themselves - encompass diverse themes of gender, social, political and cultural identities along with self and personal expression.

Vallari Sanzgiri is regularly posting poems on her blog 'A Writer's Practice'. Image courtesy: Sanzgiri

"I make it a point to try and follow the prompts provided by napowrimo.net. I might not be able to attempt all of them, but I try to attempt as many as possible. On the non-NaPoWriMo days, I just write whatever catches my fancy," says Shubhangi Srinivasan, who was first inspired by her friend to follow a few prompts five years ago and has participated in the NaPoWriMo every year since.

Sanzgiri likes to keep it a combination of both and for this year, she has taken an interest in the prompts provided by Laxmi Krishnan on Instagram, which she believes are unique or work as motifs for her writings. "Some prompts inspire an idea, some don't. If they don't resonate with me I move on to the next one. Sometimes through the day, I think of a poem idea myself. Then I either don't use prompts or combine it with my idea just for fun," she shares.

While there are many who like following prompts, there are those too who do not like restricting themselves to one idea and indulge in exploring and experimenting with their thoughts and inspirations.

Shraddha Bhakare, an editor by profession, is writing for the NaPoWriMo for the first time and has decided to stick to her own process, which involves taking inspiration from her surroundings to draw parallels with life experiences that many can relate to.

Shraddha Bhakare is following the NaPoWriMo on her Instagram poetry page 'Prowoke'. Image courtesy: Bhakare

"Personally, I find themes restrict me. But I do think it can serve as a good challenge if someone decides to stick to prompts as that can help them come up with various perspectives," says the 24-year-old writer, for whom the overall experience of NaPoWriMo has been a liberating one.

Meanwhile, for Vrujen, a 28-year-old poet, bartender and stock trader, it is about capturing one moment each day, which will challenge him to write. "Sometimes it's a simple suggestion by a friend, ‘why don't you write about your cat', sometimes it's just a random thought that might not be that important but gives me a line of a poem, and I build it up around that central idea. So it's experimental and very varied," he says.

Social media aesthetics and #NaPoWriMo

On a visual platform like Instagram, design is an important element as it pulls people to your content, notes Bhakare, and your words can do the rest to reach their heart and mind. "Aesthetics play an important role especially with an application like Instagram because you have a few seconds to grab the users' attention. If you're an established writer or poet, you know people will engage with your content regardless, but with upcoming writers, we have to see what works best for us and the audience by trial and error." She plays around with colours and adds a few elements related to the words in the poem, which give her posts a subtle but poem-relevant look. While the hashtag #NaPoWriMo is mainly a social media trend, there are writers who do not post regularly on Instagram or other platforms.

Shubhangi Srinivasan maintains a blog page named 'The Shubhster Diaries'. Image courtesy: Srinivasan

Srinivasan maintains a blog page, where she makes use of copyright-free images with picture credits for cover photos of each of her NaPoWriMo posts. The motive is to give the reader a visual motif to latch on to and connect with the poem without giving too much of it away. "It's very interesting how aesthetics can shape a poem, its flow, and its rhythm. Making poetry visually aesthetic is an art in its own, and I think that people who do so for their poetry do it because it also helps the readers understand what image the poet wants to paint for them," she adds.

Can one enforce creativity?

Taking time to enhance one's creative form of expression or reflect on muses while juggling a professional job can be challenging. How then do writers manage to churn out poems every day for poetry months and navigate a ‘writer's block'?

"I don't think creativity can be enforced, but I believe one can easily be creative. I think there's a bunch of images in our brain that we keep using up as and when we come up with creative solutions or ideas," Vrujen observes. "Simply replenishing those images with new things or places or tastes or smells or textures, I find creative inspiration for poetry, painting, craftwork, ideas for new dishes while cooking," he adds.

Srinivasan shares that the NaPoWriMo has helped her explore untried themes and learn more about new and interesting poetry forms. "I think that participating in NaPoWriMo can help everyone explore themes and genres they aren't familiar with. And when I am battling a block, I have a jar full of prompts saved from last year's NaPoWriMo that I regularly peruse to help me find inspiration," says the 24-year-old artist and writer.

Vrujen has recently started an Instagram poetry page 'Write.rite'. Image courtesy: Vrujen

Writers this author spoke to firmly believe that creativity cannot be enforced merely to complete a challenge, but they do emphasise on inculcating the habit of writing, expanding areas of inspiration and experiencing the joy from the process. While creative inspiration is not an everyday thing, what matters is that you are writing every day and as Vrujen puts it, one does not have to always rely on "emotions or any traumatic experience" to trigger your poetic expression.

For Bhakare, creation precedes quality, which is a matter of practice and periodic improvement. As someone who experiences long durations of blocks and fewer inspirations, however frustrating that can get, she has developed a habit of reading diverse types of content, including poems, articles and short stories, which have proved to be helpful. "If you know you have committed to write something every day, you'll do your best to create something, even if it's not your best. And I think that's probably the point," she says.

Sanzgiri shares a similar belief that taking up a challenge enables one to prepare and plan better. While there's a possibility that she would fall back to the same loop post-April, she has an interesting perspective towards getting into the flow of writing everyday for the NaPoWriMo amid a hectic schedule.

"You need some amount of mental strength for creativity. For example you can't work 16 hours a day and then go oh let's write a breath-taking poem. A professional singer will do riyaaz everyday but that doesn't mean every day has to be a gala performance. So I'd rather say if you're forcing creativity for the sake of April, you're doing the challenge wrong. I write funny songs if I have a ‘block' or just a limerick while trying to stick to its rules. These blocks go away once your mind gets in the habit or writing," she notes.