Okay, so blogland is way too much fun. Especially since I know so many incredibly creative bloggers, who are always throwing an interesting challenge out into the blogosphere.
There are, however, only so many hours in the day, and I'm finding I have to compartmentalize my life a bit. And this means that there are only so many fun challenges that I can meet. But what I can do is let others know what's out there, and maybe they can join in.
I've decided that I can't join in on weekly, story-based challenges. I can't do this because I fret over them too much and then I spend too much time on those and not enough time on my fiction writing (which really has to be first priority). But there are two wonderful, story-based challenges out there that I've played with and that I'd love to mention:
Flashback Friday - Cable Girl over at 42 is getting this effort going, and the point is to tell us a story from your past. It's great fun and some wonderful tales have been produced.
Soap Opera Sunday - the brainchild of Brillig of Twas Brillig and Kate of Walking Kateastrophe, this challenge has been going strong for months. The idea here is to tell a soapy story from your past. And boy have there been some doozies! It's great fun.
I'm going to post about cooking challenges tomorrow, but one I want to draw your attention to, because there's just enough time to join it (entries due by March 2nd), is Eat to the Beat, by Elly of Elly Says Opa. For this challenge, you need to create a meal around a song or piece of music that goes together in some way.
And since it's tomorrow, I want to draw your attention to Singular Saturday, Jenn in Holland's weekly one word challenge. One of the most interesting parts of this is how folks can bend the challenge by the hysterical titles they choose (that are considerably more than one word)!
More internet fun will be listed tomorrow or Sunday.
And a comment on comments. I've found I'm absolutely stinko at responding via e-mail to the comments on this blog. So from now on (and I started doing this on Monday), I am going to seriously try to answer each comment posted here in my comments section VIA my comments section. So far, it's working.
Okay, thanks for putting up with a fairly boring blog entry. See you tomorrow and in the meantime, have fun playing with some of these great games!
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31 comments:
Oh, what good recommendations for the participation fun! Thanks for the nod to mine too.
I am having the same conundrum about the comment game too, and think maybe it's a good idea to do like you are doing. But I always wonder with all the blog hopping people do (and all the blogs there are to read) whether folks come back to the comment page very often. This is why I moved to the email reply, but as you mentioned it is sometimes hard to keep up with a conversation that way too.
Hmmmm... must still ponder the route to take.
I've got to get better at responding to people's comments! Usually, I at least try to go to their blog and leave a comment to acknowledge what they said, but I very rarely remember to actually answer the comment they wrote!
I'm also fretting about Flashback Friday right now :) Starting my Blog Hoppin' a bit early today to try and find inspiration!
Blog Hoppin',
Balancing Hops
oy. i very rarely respond to comments via e-mail, or in my comments. i don't think people expect you to, really. for me it's a nice treat when someone does, on a occasion... and I do it on a rare occasion as well. but um... well, i hope you aren't expecting me to respond to every comment. don't be hurt when I don't, k? ;)
Jenn, those are my thoughts on this, too. But the problem is that by the time I've found someone's e-mail, responded, etc. I often lose the thread entirely, so I'm going to try this for now.
Thanks for stopping by, April! I'll be by to check you out a bit later. Happy bloghopping!
Maypole, I haven't done this myself. I've just found that sometimes folks have had cooking questions or whatever and I wanted to respond, so I thought I'd let folks know how I do it. No worries on that score, ever! ;-)
These decisions are so difficult, aren't they? One reason why Music Mondays work so well for me is that I write them on Sundays, the one day I don't do any of my 'work' writing.
I'm terrible at responding to comments. I should try to improve in that regard.
Luisa, somehow I think you have enough things to do. ;-)
Music Mondays still work for me because I don't feel the need to do full stories, per se.
Fun fun! I just joined my first game with Fiction friday but I've also become a member of Jane Doe Writers- a new thing Jen at Semicharmed wife and I are starting up for people to post their fiction. Scaredy cat people.
But I'm with you on the whole time thing :)
The whole commenting on comments makes me feel guilty. First, I can't always access a commenters email address. And when they write something particularly touching I want to let them know.
This is so funny, Sassy - I was just over at your place, reading your Fiction Friday piece. And what a great idea for you and Jen!
Sister Honeybunch... I feel your pain on that! That's why I'm trying to comment here.
I've often wanted to participate in these theme blog entries, but it's like having a newspaper deadline, which doesn't suit me. I prefer to blog about what occurs to me at the time.
--HP, Blog Hoppers
That's one of my problems, too, Sarabeth... and the week goes way too quickly! Thanks for stopping by.
I find it easier to respond to a comment than write one.I wish I more crative with them.
I sometimes find writing the comments too easy, Glamah! LOL, I get on soapboxes sometimes. Thanks for your comments here - they're appreciated!
Kudos to you for making priorities. It is fun to mess about but you can start to feel a bit thin. Good luck with the commenting. I never know if people expect me to comment or not, by email or otherwise.
I think it's definitely a conundrum, Jane. And again, I loved your piece today. It felt completely real to me.
Blog hopping and just wanted to say hi!So...hi!
Dixie
Great idea! I know what you mean about just not having enough time to do it all, so glad you're finding solutions that work for you!
Happy Friday! Blog Hoppin'!
~"Margarita Mom"
Thanks for pointing out some of those story writing themes.
I've always been in a bit of a bind about commenting to my commenters too. I sometimes comment on my own, but more often just visit the other person's blog. because I'm not sure whether the commenter will come back to read my response or not. Is there netiquette about that? And blogger doesn't have the capability to comment direclty to the comment, that other packages do like wordpress.
I look forward to other bloggy ideas!
Blog hoppin pomtini!
Just drop by to say "Hi!"
Dixie, Margarita Mom and Pomtini - I hope you all had a lovely time bloghopping! Thanks for stopping by. And no, for those who asked, I don't think there's any netiquette on this... just what I'm playing around with!
Mariposa - Hi back! ;-) And I hope you're having a lovely weekend.
hey, I stopped the SOS stories as well, by lack of inspiration but also because it's so hard to write against a deadline.
singular saturday is absolutely hysterical. I love going around to see what everyone has written. The only problem I have is that usually on a Saturday I have a lot more to say than just one day ;).
On answering comments...doesn't wordpress have a way better method to do so? Pff I am frustrated over blogger lately, thinking I'll transfer my blog. Maybe...
I admire your discipline AND your creativity - as well as your fine blogger etiquette - to no end.
Goofball, I'm thinking about switching to wordpress or something else, too, for similar reasons.
Diana, I don't know about etiquette, but it just seemed like it was time. And as far as creativity goes, I'm not sure many can match yours. ;-)
Great recommendations! And I know exactly what you mean about comments - I can't do email replies either and I don't even get as many comments as you do!
Well, Jerseygirl, I've been particularly comment rich this week! I'm a lucky girl indeed. This seems to be working so far, though.
Just BlogHoppin by, have a great weekend.
If you have time for more internet fun, I started "Turn it Up Tuesday" on our site , you just post a song you hear on the radio during the day that makes you "Turn it Up"
That sounds cool, Married Leos! I'll come by and check it out. Happy Bloghopping!
Great recommendations!
As far as comments go, I'm not great at responding. I don't usually do it in my comments or via e-mail, unless I get a specific question or they don't have a blog. I'm a pretty faithful blog reader. So, I sort of see it like this, I return a visit to my place with a visit to their place. Seems to be working. I hope.
I so feel you there. I want to participate in ALL these things, but it's damn near impossible. But great idea to tell the folks out there what brilliant ideas exist!
Responding to comments is definitely occupying more and more of my time these days, but I can tell you, it only gets more rewarding as time goes on. To me, it makes me feel way more connected with the good folks who read my stuff and care enough to drop me a kind word or two.
Leslie, I think that works perfectly. I just wanted to play around with this idea.
And yes, Jim, that's exactly why - it helps me to have conversations with folks and feel more connected to the comments, too!
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