Thanks so much to Rory at A Guy Called Bloke and K9 Doodlepip for nominating me for this award! If you haven’t already seen his blog, do yourself a favor and go visit him. He’s an interesting guy, writing about many different things, and, with the challenges & quizzes he sponsors, he goes above and beyond to create an interesting, diverse community of bloggers.

The Rules:

1. Thank the blogger who nominated you and provide a link to their blog.
2. Write a post to show your award.
3. Give a brief story of how your blog started.
4. Give (at least) two pieces of advice to new bloggers.
5. Select a bunch of other bloggers for this award; 10 to 15 seems about right.
6. Comment on each blog to let them know you’ve nominated them and a link to the post you created.

How My Blog Started:

Although I created a blog around three years ago, I never actually wrote anything. I toyed with the idea of blogging, but had no idea what I wanted to say or how I wanted to say it. Then, toward the end of this past April, I had some words in my head that were calling to me. Really nagging me. Once I started typing, those words practically poured out, even though I’ve never written poetry! I’ve always hated the writing process but generally loved the result. Not having a specific “assignment” or deadline has permitted me to learn to enjoy the process of writing, too. I still don’t know what I want to say or what genre I want to use to express myself, but that really doesn’t seem too important to me anymore. I write what I feel like, when I feel like it; sometimes prose, sometimes poetry, sometimes even fiction! I write for myself and am completely surprised and thrilled any time someone reads and likes what I’ve written.

My Advice:

Having blogged for less than three months, it seems odd for me to be giving advice, but here it goes.

1. No matter what anyone tells you, write for yourself. Whether or not you plan to ever earn a living writing, write for yourself first. If you don’t like what you’re writing, chances are no one else will, either.
2. You’ll start out reading all sorts of blogging advice articles and blogs. You’ll worry about how to pick a topic or start a story. You’ll worry about how to get people to read your blog. How to keep them when they do. You’ll be told to write what you know, write for 10-15 minutes every day, read other blogs, read books…..whew! Who has time for all that? Once you feel like you’ve had it with all the advice, keep what seems helpful for you (if you must) and throw everything else out. JUST WRITE! Don’t worry.  In just doing it, you’ll find what works for you. And have fun with it!

Nominations:

Having recently written about how I don’t like being tagged for chain-questions/quizzes, I feel a bit guilty nominating anyone. So, really, if anyone I nominate doesn’t want to be bothered, then don’t. I understand. Truly, I do. [whispering] Here’s a little secret: no one is going to be checking up to see who of my nominees decide to drop out. So do what feels right for you!

My nominations come from the blogs I read regularly because they’re fun or provocative or heart-wrenching or sweet or grip me in some way. (I’m not nominating some that are in that category when I know someone else has recently nominated them.)

kirstwrites

Life Travel Soul

Mws R Writings

The Darkest Tunnel

This, That, and The Other

wide-eyed wanderer

Written In The Ink

Michelle Leigh Miller

A Unique Title for Me

Piper’s Adventures

sweetpurplejune