NaPoWriMo Update : I Wrote A Stoicism Inspired Poetry Book

Cover sneak peek, lessons learnt and my dance with Epictetus

Musings with Epictetus cover design | Image created by author

Towards the end of March 2026, I wrote about signing up for the NaPoWriMo (National Poetry writing month) challenge. Which is a yearly challenge to write a poem a day in the month of April.

This past April was pretty epic for me as a writer, and especially as a poet. In addition to the NaPoWriMo challenge I also founded the **Intentional Poet Awards**. I had lots of fun writing poetry and learning about the lives of other wonderful poets in this space.

April 2026 marked the 30th anniversary of NaPoWriMo

I decided to celebrate the 30th anniversary of this event by signing up to write a poem a day. As I liked the thought of having something to motivate me to write poetry daily. I love poetry, and anything that gets me to read or write more of it is totally worth it in my books.

I DIY’d my book cover

(The above image is a sneak peak of my upcoming poetry book cover.)

I made this cover myself, using Canva pro. I like the cover design as it’s unpresumptuous, simple and reminds me of the classic philosophy books cover designs, I read as a young adult.

I don’t know if this will be the final design, but for now I like it. Most likely I’ll keep mostly as it is (I’ll likely make the title don’t bolder).

My challenge results

Well I actually didn’t end up writing a poem each day. The first three weeks went fine, with a daily poem writing habit going. But in the last week or so, it all went down.

I got pulled in other creative directions for my slow growing online business, and life just seemed to be happening.

I’m not perfect, and I’m still working on my powers of discipline and focus. So I didn’t complete the challenge without any hiccups. But I’m glad I did most of it. I’m generally a positive person and see the glass as half full, rather than half empty. So I won’t let it get me down.

The Positives

What I actually did in those first few weeks was write a poem each day, with an additional short insight write-up expanding on my thoughts for each quote.

Quote? Yes, I set myself the task of writing a poem inspired by a quote by Epictetus the ancient stoic philosopher.

I also plan to do an art piece to include in the book. I haven’t gotten round to that yet, but will share an update posts with intended art piece when that done.

It was a lot of fun connecting with wise words from this ancient thinker, crafting a poem inspired by the chosen quote of the day. Then writing a short reflection piece afterwards .

A special kind of poetry book

I didn’t want my poetry collection to be only that, but an self reflective experience beyond poetry.

I’ll most likely add some reflection pages to it.

So people can add their own journal entries based on any inspiration or ideas they get from

• any of the quotes by Epictetus
• the poem accompanying each quote
• the short insights accompanying each poem

That way people have three journalling prompts to work with.

Stoic ideation and insights have been pillars in my life. Giving me strength to persevere through the awful moments and sometimes ridiculousness of life

I want to bring more of these teachings to others in a less academic, and more accessible manner.

Modern poetical form is a perfect way to do just that!

So by the end of the month, I’d written enough material to create a poetry and reflection book. I’m proud I gave myself the push by signing up for the challenge, and I’m happy something fruitful came out of it.

If you’re stalling on writing regularly, or on writing your book. Writing challenges are a great way to get the ball rolling.

If you do a good search online there’s a few popular ones almost every month.

You can also design one yourself!

I mightn’t have achieved my goal in the manner I liked, but I did a lot nonetheless. I want to lean into that energy of quiet accomplishment, despite the distractions or sometimes shaky discipline.

The energy of looking back on what I’ve done, rather than regretting what I didn’t do, is a better way to look at things.

All that remains now is for me to proofread my book, do some polishing edits, and format the manuscript for self publishing.

It will take me some time to do this, as I have other things going on (as always 🙄). Still, it’s good to know a large part of the book is done and dusted.

I’ll write a follow-up post once the book is published.

*100% human written, no AI used.✍️

🌸Egypt Rain Mountain |Author, poet, writer and calmpreneur The themes I write on include : personal essays, societal critique, short fiction, poetry, art, creativity, calm and slow living, calm and cosy business, unconventional wisdom, philosophical musings, and more. If any of these interest you, then feel free to 📬 Follow me here

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