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We’re under two weeks away from one of the year’s largest writing events—NaNoWriMo. It stands for National Novel Writing Month. Many people set aside November to work on their novel, and those who finish sometimes get their story published. It’s a popular event with many participants and a supportive community.

 

Not everyone has a Great American Novel in their heart, so NaBloPoMo (National Blog Posting Month) or NaBloWriMo (National Blog Writing Month) was born. During November, people commit to writing on their blog every day. Posts can be long or short. They can be image-filled or text-based.

 

While NaBloPoMo/NaBloWriMo isn’t as structured as NaNoWriMo (many people moved from blog writing to social media platforms years ago), we’re going to encourage you to start a blogging habit in November.

Why Blog?

Shouldn’t the question be “why not blog?” Writing is a fantastic way to practice speech. Owners control their blogs, so there is no “right” or “wrong” way to blog. Some people write lengthy posts, and other people jot down a sentence or two. You can include images or leave them out. (Or only post images!)

 

Blogs are about your point-of-view. Every person sees the world in their unique way, and blogs are a great way to share with family and friends the things that are important to you. Think you don’t have anything to write about? Think again because YOU get to control the topic. If you want to make your blog a list of what you ate at each meal, it counts. (And whenever you’re hungry, you can look back at your old blog posts for meal ideas. See, win-win.) You can write about television shows you like, guess the ending of a mystery novel while you’re reading it, or list every bird you see out the window.

 

You can talk about your aphasia or use your blog as an aphasia-free space to talk about everything other than aphasia. You can make up stories about various objects around your home or the trees in your neighborhood. You can comment on current events or comment on why you don’t want to talk about current events. Your blog can be a list of your favorite colors with an image containing that color. In other words, the choice is up to you because there are zero rules when it comes to blogging.

Start Small

Microblogging is writing a tiny post—sometimes just a single sentence, and other times, as long as a paragraph. The beauty of microblogging is that it doesn’t take a lot of time, but it comes with a big payoff. Not only are you sharing your thoughts and practicing communication, but you’re capturing a slice of your world right now. It’s nice to be able to read back over blog entries months in the future.

Share Your Blog

Blogging can be interactive. Of course, you can keep your blog private and journal solely for yourself. But many people share links to their blog posts on social media so others can read their posts, too. You can also set up an email list and send the link out to family and friends who ask to read along.

Read Other People’s Blogs

There are plenty of blogs out there, and we love when people start aphasia-focused blogs because personal stories are so powerful. We featured Blue Banana in the past, and it continues to be updated from time to time.

 

Manav from the Aphasia Cafe also started a blog and updates it from time to time. He recently posts a video on his blog, telling his aphasia story.

 

We’d love to find blogs from caregivers or speech-language pathologists who work with people who have aphasia.

 

If YOU start a blog, we’d love to hear about it. Drop a link to your blog in the comment section below.