Now for today's slice, a reflection or what next? If both, I should have started sooner. Last slice indeed. I thought about both, made notes.
Thumbnail reflection on the month: the rhythm of daily posts varied more than the time of day posted, swinging from at a loss for words to in a grove and back again. Over the month I could feel my personal blogging voice returning. How I lost it would be another post. My personal commenting policy is always more than 3 a day, spread out over that day's post and 1-2 previous days. Reading and commenting on other blog posts by as many different bloggers as possible was as important as writing every day 31 days straight.. 
As a retired, not formally teaching and never K12 (unless I count the after school and family literacy programs), I don't have much in common with most of the other slicers. Nor did my posts did not fit the recommended "what is a slice of life" model. I first met the genre in 1961, FY English, Introduction to Literature. The professor lectured on Realism and Naturalism and assigned slice of life pieces as examples of Naturalism. My well-informed hindsight guess is that it was because they were short. There was an essay. I don't remember what I wrote. don't remember. Since then I've done a lot of lit ~ MA in English, ABD in Comparative Literature (which included reading Naturalist works in multiple languages, including Zola novels) and appreciate the genre more now than I did then but disagree with the professor's categorization.What next? I hope I keep my rediscovered personal blogging voice (stronger this time than last) and that my motivation to blog regularly with less scaffolding holds up better this year. I'm working on a plan, strategies to keep me blogging. Slicer Elizabeth Ellington March 24 post about keeping writing has a wealth of ideas and links. Now back to that porch...
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| My front porch decorated for Easter and April Fools Day |
Two Writing Teachers host a weekly Tuesday and an annual March Slice of Life Story Challenge (SOLSC), of which this is the 11th iteration. During March, participants write and share daily blog posts on the TWT blog; then comment on three or more blog posts by other participants. Writing, sharing and commenting, are central both challenges. Read more last slices here. SOLSC will be back March 1, 2019. Hopefully, so will I. Next Tuesday, look for fresh weekly slices.
One of the bonuses of the month is always a strengthening of voice and, for me, a rediscovery of purpose. I, too, had lost my way with blogging and hope that I have found it again and can stay the course. I do find the scaffolding of a daily challenge and the support of such an active community so vital to following through on my intentions and writing and posting each day. The commenting is also a real pleasure and necessity to me.
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DeleteI'm working on scaffolding, challenges to keep me on track -- with an equal eye to bringing another blog out of hiatus, blogging more and posting less directly on Facebook.
750Words is good for daily writing just for myself and the commitment to write something every day, minus the word count challenge. I'm giving Camp NaNoWriMo's design your own project a whirl and looking at few of your suggestions, especially Write_On. Before the internet, I was an inveterate letter writer (from a family of letter writers), now carried on in email.
I feel the same way about commenting. When taking online courses with a blogging participation component, I invariably spent more time reading, commenting and adding blogs to my reader than I did writing blog posts.
Hi Catrina! So nice to see you in such good form. Really, have you gained some weight?
ReplyDeleteCatrina is still her skinny self -- skin and bones, minus the skin that is. I wish I'd sprayed the tumbleweed with glitter spray for the holiday but it's been windy.
DeleteI've got more porch pics, including a closeup, to add to the timeline post.