by Kathy Waller
blog
noun
a website containing a writer’s or group of writers’ own experiences, observations, opinions, etc., and often having images and links to other websites.
a single entry or post on such a website:She regularly contributes a blog to the magazine’s website.
According to GrowthBadger, there are over 600 million blogs online today. Over 31 million bloggers in the United States post at least once a month. Over 2 billion posts are published each year worldwide.
Alas, no matter how hard I try, I can’t read them all. I have some favorites, however, and in this post I’ll profile two of them.
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Friday Fictioneers
Which is easier to write—novels or short stories? How about short-short stories? How about short-short-short . . .
Each week, a photograph is posted at Rochelle Wisoff-Fields—Addicted to Purple. Using the photo as a prompt, you write a 100-word story—complete with beginning, middle, and end—post both photo and story on your own blog, and link to an inLinkz list of other Friday Fictioneers’ stories.
Prompts are also posted on the Facebook Friday Fictioneers page.
Rules and February 21 photo prompt appear here.
Photo prompts are not in the public domain. They’re to be posted only for Friday Fictioneers, and photographers are always to be credited.
The week’s inLinkz list is here. Currently, 56 writers have added their names here. Below are five stories I’ve chosen at random.
“After All This Time” “Diluted” “Rosey, a buggy and a heap of hay” “Secrets” “Why Should I Go to Pakistan?” “How Much?”
Here are some of my own past efforts:
“You’ll Be Fine” “‘Shrooms” “Lovestruck” and more here.
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A Round of Words in 80 Days: The Writing Challenge That Knows You have a life
Many writing challenges set goals for you: Write 1,000 words every day. Write five chapters every week. Write write write . . . And then life gets in the way, and goals are not met, and the challenge ends not with a bang, but a whimper.
ROW80, on the other hand, allows writers to set their own goals. There are four 80-day rounds in a year. At the beginning of a round, you set your goals, write about them on your blog, and then post about your progress on Sundays and Wednesdays.
As with Friday Fictioneers, posts are linked so other participants can keep up with your progress.
Progress is the operative word. Goals can be modified at any time.
Everything you need to know about how the challenge works is on the ROW80 site:
If you miss out on the beginning of a round, you haven’t missed out. Just set goals, write them up, and post on the next Sunday or Wednesday that comes along.
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I missed the beginning of 2020’s first ROW80 round, but today is Sunday, so I’m going to jump in.
Round 1 ends on March 26–31 days away.
Goal: By March 26, I’ll add 4,000 words to my WIP.
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I hope you’ll check out Friday Fictioneers and ROW80. Now I have to post.
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