A Year of (Almost) Daily Writing

Today I’m joining a blog hop with a few friends from My 500 Words. Nearly a year ago to the day, I saw Jeff Goins’ call to join his challenge to write 500 words every day for 31 days.

Well, someone has to watch me, so I signed up.

The accountability mattered. Whether I shared my daily words with the group or posted only my word count or just popped in to cheer others on and share a laugh or three, I wrote every day.

Come February, most of us decided to stay, and the challenge was on to write every day of 2014.

From location to writing levels, we are a diverse and friendly and seriously supportive group. We have members everywhere.

We have some excellent writers, and it still sometimes blows me away that they even acknowledge me, let alone the gentle kicks in the butt I get when they know I need them.

We have watched others start their first blog or get an article published for the first time or finish their umpteenth novel, and we celebrate everything.

We have shared the hard stuff, too. Some members divorced this year, some lost loved ones, others suffered serious health issues. When down in the weeds, this group rallies together and tries to pull you out.

Most of you know I spent the month of September on the Oregon coast. One plan was to work on the novel I’d started in June. Never in a million did I think I’d ever want to write a novel. Look what these people did to me!

While chatting online one evening, Tonia and Roslynn decided to join me on the coast for a long weekend. Then we invited Laura, who lives near Portland. I was excited and also hoped I wouldn't run my introverted self into the forest and hide until time for them to leave.

Shortly after Laura decided to make the trip, I received an email from Pat, the editor of Not Your Mother's Book on Working for a Living (we had biz, ya'll!). Turned out she hits the coastal towns often. She agreed to join our meet up.

These stranger-friends arrived and rather than wanting to run into the forest, it felt like a reunion with long-separated friends. Tonia put the guilt on us if anyone wanted to go out before writing. She taught me better discipline. We wrote, we shared our writing with each other and critiqued for one another. We walked and talked and ate and laughed a lot.

Laura Hile and Pat Nelson

Tonia Hurst and Pat Nelson

We didn’t realize until departure time that only Tonia and Ros had met before this weekend.  That’s how easy it was.

We were no longer stranger-friends. None of us.

Tonia Hurst and Roslynn Pryor

Did I write every single day of 2014? No. I missed some days. Did I write anything that might change the world? Nope. I wrote some pretty good stuff and I wrote some stuff I should just burn. But I wrote. I wrote a lot. And I met good people that I never would have crossed paths with if I hadn't joined the challenge.

To the entire group, and especially the members who encouraged me to keep at it, may you find just the right words in 2015.

Write on.

Here are a few friends who took up the challenge a year ago. Check out their blogs and spread the love!

Linzé Brandon at Butterfly on a Broomstick

Vanessa Wright at Humouring the dark
Stella Myers at Stella’s Starshine
Amy Bovaird‪ at Amy’s Adventures
Crystal Thieringer at Muse and Meander
‪Roslyn Prior at Pushing the Bruise
Becky Williams Waters at A Novel Creation
Laura Hile at For the Love of Storytelling
Tonia Hurst at The Vast and Inscrutable Imponderabilities of Life

http://www.melindalancaster.com/2015/01/the-blessing-of-getting-stuck.html

A Blog Challenge Inside A Blog Challenge and Some Things I've Learned

Suzan St Maur recently posted a challenge to write a blog post of 26 sentences, in order, from A to Z. Take a look at her post here. I got busy writing mine and then realized I'd written entire paragraphs for each letter. Oopsie. Here's the edited version:

As the Ultimate Blog Challenge draws toward its end, I’m thinking of things I learned, and here they are, in alphabetical order.

Be active in the group, and you’ll meet great people.

Create good content. 

Don’t participate in the comment chain and then leave comments that say something vague, like “Good post.” 

Even if you really read it and thought it good, lazy comments sound like you couldn't be bothered with reading.

Find your voice and use it.

Give credit where credit is due - if someone’s post gave you a great idea for your own blog, thank them. 

Have some fun and then write about it!

It is easier to write a post per day than to try and catch up after missing one. 

Just do it.

Kill your darlings. 

Learn from others. 

Make a list of ideas for upcoming posts, and keep adding to it.

Never be a Negative Nelly.

Overlooking errors?

Put it away for a while, and when you get back to it, proofread. 

Quit making excuses.

Research.

Stop comparing yourself to others. 

Try.

Use your friends and family for blog material, with permission, of course.

Visit the blogs of those who leave comments for you. 

Whining is for children and dogs, so no whining online.

Xanax is an option if you find yourself checking your blog stats every 10 minutes and/or begging others to leave comments for you. 

You really shouldn’t get so worked up. 

Zebras are cool. 

I really haven't learned a thing about zebras, but if you write a blog post about them, I'll read it.

So tell me - what have you learned? Be sure to visit Suzan's blog, because she's posted an update on the A to Z, and there's a prize involved.