Tag: Assignment

Better Late than Never

January 10th, 2022

This is my first post of the new year and I believe it’s fitting that today is my son’s birthday. Yay!

The final two assignments for my blogging course were about tagging posts and reviewing the site to ensure I’d done my best to achieve the results I intended. The objective of tagging posts is to enable search engines and the WordPress Reader to point potential readers to a specific post, thereby providing an example to the reader of what may, or may not, follow. The review is a bit odd since I had no idea what my intended results were but I’m pleased with the result.

I still haven’t seen any comments and the one follower I have is from another blogging course I’m taking, but I’m pleased with the site right now. It’s a clean, well-lighted place to read stuff which is my intent. It’s far better organized than my desk for sure.

I’m in the middle of preparations for a short story contest that begins on Saturday morning. The writing part of the contest is always fun and I have yet to submit a story I’m not fond of. This particular contest offers every participant feedback on each story they’re fortunate enough to submit. The contest plays out in heats. Get past the first heat – the one that starts this Saturday – and I get to write another story. My goal this year, like last year, is to write that second story.

For each heat, exclusive of the finale, contestants are sorted into groups. Each group receives the same prompt: a genre, a situation, a character. One competes against the group in each heat. The field thins out leaving the contest, in the last heat, in the hands of a set of finalists.

Oh, I forgot to tell you…there’s a time constraint on each heat. The first story must be completed within a calendar week. If you make it to the final heat, you only get 24 hours to write your story. No pressure.

So, wish me well. I’ll let you know what happens. See you later.
Why?

December 6th, 2021

I’m taking a class in blogging. No, really, I don’t understand why authors blog. Presumably, it’s a way to connect with readers but if I write horror stories, what will I blog about? Bolts through the neck? The odd noise as my house settles that makes me think I have a mad slasher lurking in the basement?

I’m not a journalist, or a memoirist, or a photographic essayist so I won’t have cat pictures or meandering stories about that time in my life or an opinion about the state of bitcoin or why people vote the way they do. I don’t think I’m helping myself understand why authors blog by considering the blogs I follow.

A prompt from the lesson said ‘just write,’ quoting a famous writer who said all first drafts are drivel anyway so what difference would it make if your post was garbage? But, that’s an idea so I’ll run with it.

I finished my Christmas shopping today. Not brag, just fact. As I went about the whole shopping thing, I considered whether to buy what people wanted, what I thought they would need, or what I wished I could find when I went to their house. Those are three very specific shopping themes and theme is something writers are supposed to think about as they plan their story.

Christmas is a difficult holiday because of theme. What kind of Christmas do you celebrate? Do you celebrate Christmas at all or is there another this-time-of-the-calendar-year that you do celebrate? Is your event a celebration or a contemplation or a remembrance? Is there gift giving? Is there volunteering? Is there a behavior code?

I’ve always liked Christmas. I like Christmas music – almost all of it. I like the smells of baking and pine trees. I like giving gifts to people I care about. I like seeing surprise on people’s faces. It’s the one day of the year I like being surprised.

I like being done with the shopping part early. It’s the culmination of my rumination about giving to my personal bubble of people. I have time now to think about the people I don’t see every day, who are at the periphery of daily thought, who should get some piece of time from me; to think about, consider, reach out to in some way, however small.

While that theme doesn’t belong only to Christmas, its the day that, by custom, asks everyone to offer a piece of time to others – particularly if you find them circling your mind, not exactly whispering ‘look at me, look at me’ but still there.

I still don’t understand the whole blogging thing, but I’m happy to see if I can figure it out one post at a time. Now, I think I’ll go hunt up those Christmas cards and my address book. See you soon.

Tag: Assignment

Better Late than Never

Why?