So how did it go on Day 1?
By midnight, we had 42 blogs added to the NaBloPoMo grid and, throughout that day, I’d probably typed the amalgam NaBloPoMo at least 600 times. Why? Because in 2006 when this thing first started, the grand prize was a custom blog header and I wanted a custom blog header more than anything in this world. I blogged every day, sometimes more than once, for 30 days, made some cool friends, and the randomly selected prize went to someone else.
But in that 30 days, I’d gone from an anonymous blogger—no photos, no gender revealed—to a pseudonymous blogger alternating between stories about my kids, jobs, sex life and short story writing. What else was I going to write about for 30 days straight? And it was in that reveal I blogged about a new phone I’d gotten my daughter Jordan for Christmahanukwanzaakah. That November post brought my future husband, then-new-commenter Q, to my blog by search engine in search of a photo of the phone hidden in my closet—the Motorola Razr V3 cherry blossom tattoo.
One cute comment, several chats, some embellished accounts of our first dates on our respective blogs later, I had my custom blog header, my new husband, a father to my children and a brand new baby.
So yeah, NaBloPoMo carries some sentimental weight for me. Bringing bloggers together as a small community is important to me. If I have to type NaBloPoMo enough times for one lone blogger to find a tribe or a lifelong love, I can do that.
New badges
I messed up the code on the first badge trying to complete a tiny color correction none of you were bothered by in the first place. One accidental “yes, I’m sure I want to delete” later, I’d wiped out the badge on about 30 blogs already added to the yeah write NaBlo grid. Sorry! If your badge is missing, please grab the new code from the one in the sidebar.
Then, I got an email from Momo, the social media manager at BlogHer asking me if I could display BlogHer as the glue holding all this together in the badge. Oh, Momo. I’ve already destroyed enough badges today, but, yes, I can add the BlogHer name to the badge. I’d be totally honored. I followed Q’s advice from the earlier snafu and uploaded the new badge to the server. Nothing broke and all the new badges got even newer.
New to yeah write?
There are lots of new avatars on the grid. Welcome! Please feel free to click around this site to find out what we’re all about. You may decide to stick around after November, and we’d love to have you. Comment on as many blogs on the grid as you can—that’s kind of our thing at yeah write—and follow us on Twitter. We’ll help tell the world you’re here if you’ll do the same for us.
Normally, we cut off submissions to our grids at 50 bloggers, but for this one, we’ll keep going until the BlogHer NaBloPoMo sign up ends on November 5. If it gets too unwieldy with too many blogs to visit and spend quality time with, I’ll figure out how to break us into smaller groups for kaffeeklatches and some such.
Day Two out of thirty. Add your blog below.
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What a great story, Erica! Thank you for sharing it and thank you for motivating me to get on board with NaBloPoMo. I normally post about once a week, so this is hugely intimidating. I’d never do it without the support of all my fabulous Yeah Write peeps. I love you guys!
Oh my God. I love you. That is an amazing story. Can we have coffee so I can ask you all of the questions? And wow–that’s a lot of effing work you did to get this up and running. Coffee on me. Seriously–when do we all get to meet up? Vancouver is VERY central. I have couches and pillows and there’s a seedy hotel down the street that will make for awesome follow-up posts.
I love all of you. I feel really lucky to be here. Thanks for letting me in your spaces. I’ll do my best to comment.
xoxo
So do we add the NaBloPoMo/YeahWrite badge to each post this month?
Do we just submit our blog here, once, all month?
I am excited to read the blogs. I won’t read them all every day, I will admit to that weakness but I will read as many per day as possible…so I will see you all around.
Day two, post two.
This will be a lot of blogs to read each day – but I’m going to try anyhow!
I love your love story! So much cooler than “I met my hubby in class.”
I’m woefully behind reading these — single momming it this weekend and the crazy happens when hubby travels. For real.
Am I supposed to be badging every post?
No, that’s too much. General blogs are linked and we’ll know to come looking for the newest November posts each day we visit. Some people are adding “NaBloPoMo” to the post title for easy identification for readers.
Got it. Thanks for the quick reply!! 🙂
Ugh. My kid distracted me while I was trying to think and I hit submit and my comment sounded rude.
Hi!
I wanted to ALSO say that I’m a sucker for a real life love story like this! Such a great story to get to tell!
Blogger is not working for me right now! Aaargh! I failed on the first day because I wasn’t able to post. Damn you Blogger! Damn you! And love you yeah write!
Yay! It’s working now. I got to post today. And …. thank you so much Erica! You are awesome for doing this. You are like a blogging fairy godmother. Much love! <3
This is a big task for you…managing all of us! What I really wanted to say was I loved your story about NaBloPoMo (that is hard to type) and what it means to you. Great memories and a great connection for us with you.
NaBloPoMo is not only hard to type, I can’t figure out how to pronounce it in my head. Forget about trying to work it into a real-life conversation. At least in a blog you can cut and paste!
Erica, I was terrified to commit to such a huge undertaking…until I read your story. And now, I find myself registered at BlogHer, signed up over there, and on the grid here at YeahWrite. Oh, YOU. 🙂
One question, is there a smaller sized badge? It’s too big for my blog sidebar and looks like godzilla taking over. User error, sorry! How do I fix?
I’m glad my little story was inspiring! Thank you!
I did a global badge size fix for everyone at the same time. Check yours now, it should fit nicely!
What kind of magic fairy dust… or is that magic mushrooms up there in the picture…. did you sprinkle? Genius, I tell you. It’s beautiful now! Thank you!!!
aww i love your love story!
I love your love story so much! I’m a sucker for those, but I’m really partial to a story having to do with writing and bloggin 🙂
This is so fun seeing all the folks that have linked up for this!! But, I agree, if we are able to break it down a bit, that would be wonderful. There’s no way I’ll be able to post daily, as well as visit all those blogs…every day…basically the challenge grid…every day! I visited last night until I had to make myself go to bed, and I still didn’t go through all the blogs. But I want to visit the other blogs and encourage each other! So, oh great Erika, if you can figure that out, I’m sure it will be helpful 🙂
I was wondering why my badge disappeared and then reappeared; you’re a magician, lady. Thanks for creating this space for those of us who would never do NaBloPoMo (can barely type that) if we had to be out in the big scary world outside of yeah write. And I loved the story of how you met Q.