Cue the sad trombone....
I didn't finish the challenge - in fact, I totally lost it there at the end! Oh well...Jenni says she hopes to do another one in September or October, so (fingers crossed its September...) maybe I'll be able to tough it out then.
I did learn a thing or two from the challenge though...
The sky is the limit with posts!
It doesn't have to be something that is happening at this very instant in your life. You don't have to recap your day or make it relevant to the present time. Anything from your past (memories, songs, childhood, etc) all make for great topics, and it's really not as irrelevant as we might think when we're trying to put words to it. I enjoyed trying to brainstorm a memory and digging deep to verbalize those feelings and details that I'd long forgotten.
It's okay to be honest!
I struggle with this a lot because I don't want to offend anyone...and I don't want to air any dirty laundry out there either, but there was something so liberating about being able to get on my soapbox about something you may or may not have known I was passionate about. I think I get so caught up in trying to please everyone that I am maybe not as true to what I want to write about as I am if someone gives me the license to do so. The dirty laundry will probably stay in the closet though. :)
Practice makes perfect!
The more I write posts, the more I feel confident about them. I love that part in the 2005 version of Pride and Prejudice where Darcy tells Elizabeth (as she's playing the piano terribly on the insistence of Lady Catherine) that speaking to people he doesn't know well doesn't come easily to him, and she replies, 'Perhaps you should take your Aunt's advice and practice!' I think of that a lot when I start feeling whiny about my photography or my writing. It can only go up, right?
Take more pictures!
Cue that last one - I desperately need to practice this...I guess I haven't gotten over being somewhat self-conscious about carrying around a camera, and I also am lazy to be honest. I take a lot of pictures, but uploading them is a whole other story...our London pics are still on the camera and have yet to be uploaded to the computer...and that was back in April! I also keep feeling like I want to be the best or take the perfect picture, and so I tend to avoid it because I believe it isn't going to be good the first time around. Dumb.
Routines are the best!
I really enjoyed having a morning routine where I went for my walk and then came back to write a post (usually the next day's post). There is a lot to be said for having a set time to do something because you tend to be so much more productive then you might be if you kept trying to squeeze it in somewhere. This may just be the key to keeping up the blog on a regular basis.
Anyway, if you're thinking about getting into blogging, that would be my initial advice. I'll be caught up volunteering all of next week, so I may or may not get a post out, but let's hope the routine starts to take shape the week after!
Happy Weekend!
