It’s quite literally the 11th hour here, but I want to get a quick plug in for my fellow bloggers and others to join in on DigiWriMo, or Digital Writing Month, the web-based writing initiative that encourages writers to produce 50,000 “digital” words during the month of November, piggybacking off of NaNoWriMo, the national novel writing initiative.
If you’re unfamiliar with the concept, you should definitely check out this interview with the founders, Jesse Stommel and Sean Michael Morris, of Marylhurst University. The first time I read this interview, I was particularly taken by one of Jesse’s comments: “What the Internet lacks in depth it makes up for it by having a good deal more surface. Digital writing harnesses this broad surface by emphasizing collaboration, networks, and communal context.” I like the direction of thought here, and the corresponding implications that make DigiWriMo such a compelling project. 50,000 words in a month boils down to something like 1,500 words a day…and when that gets spread across the internet, across Storify, Twitter, ScoopIt, Tumbler, blogs, and wherever else you choose to participate, it quickly becomes evident that many of us are actually probably fulfilling that quota already. In that case, DigiWriMo becomes an exercise in drawing attention to the places and spaces we choose to write in, often without even stopping to think. Will I count Facebook? Perhaps…if I produce work there that I feel worthy of contributing to the word count…and if that’s going to be the case, it will mean rethinking the way I use / interact with about Facebook. What other outlets can I locate and use?
This notion of digital writing as gliding across surfaces is very intriguing, to say the least, as it invites one to consider what it might mean to pause in writing across that surface, to sink below the veneer and explore the depth of the event of digital writing itself. A sustained blog series dedicated to exploring a single central theme pertaining to digital writing, a meta-blog of sorts? An journalistic explication of one’s own motivations and goals are in participating in such a project? A “vanishing horizon”-esque series of blog posts, Storify features, Pintrest graphs, etc., each providing a reflection of the previous exercise in its own unique way? I really have no answer, and I’m not sure that I’ll locate one, but I’m looking forward to trying!
The Cognitive Turn 
Nice explanation of this event. I couldn’t quite get into it, as I’m trying to stay afloat in a couple of classes, but I sure do like the idea. That’s a good point that the 1500 words per day can get spread across different social networking/ writing/ media outlets. I hadn’t thought about that and thought that I’d need to write 1500 words per day in blog posts.
It was a daunting prospect for someone that doesn’t write much, yet, but I guess I could keep track of my writing, the rest of the month, and see what the total comes out to be. I know I’ve been posting a lot-ish on facebook and twitter, and those could add up. How is your participation in DigiWriMo coming along?
Thanks!
Well, thanks to an unofficial decision amongst some of us on Twitter, I’m counting writing letters / etc for academic jobs…so by that count, I’m doing well! I completely get where you’re coming from re: staying afloat; I’ve spent the last couple of weeks buried under papers to grade, so my blogging / writing time has been severely curtailed. Maybe this event should happen over the summer, or the holidays…?
My overall goal is to experiment with more digital tools than I typically use on a daily basis at present — some Storify work, Wordle, etc – which I plan to post / link over the second half of the month. I’ve also been trying to make a point to provide more feedback on other blogs and in other forums, but the goal of working with public writing is kind of tricky, since some of that work is done on private forums. I’m going to be taking part in the Night of Digital Writing event this weekend, which should be a good way to boost word count and have some fun, meet some new folks, etc!
I say go for it — track what you’re doing / writing elsewhere, maybe toss in a blog entry or two on it, just have fun with the whole thing!
Thanks for stopping by!