Tag: NaBloPoMo

NaBloPoMo Day 17

I’ve been blogging every day in November using the BlogHer NaBloPoMo blogging prompts, and I’m not quite sure what I think about it so far. It’s time for a poll!

Thanks for taking the time to answer!

xo –
Lori

NaBloPoMo Day 9:
 Tell us what you’ve learned so far about daily blogging.

Daily blogging. What a concept!

Actually, it’s not a new one for me. When I first started blogging, I blogged virtually every day. If I missed a day for any reason, I’d write an extra post a day until I’d made up for it. It became an evening ritual, one I looked forward to… but one which often kept me up past my bedtime.

Therein lies the rub.

The thing about daily blogging is that it runs the risk of becoming a chore. There are definitely times when going to bed earlier looks far more attractive than staying up late to write a post.

After a bit of brainstorming, I’ve come up with five ways to make daily blogging more feasible as a long-term strategy for myself:

1. Use prompts, like these BlogHer NaBloPoMo prompts.
2. Write shorter posts.
3. Mix up formats – post a photo, a video, or a quote on occasion, instead of a text-heavy post.
4. Write in batches by prepping a bunch of posts on the weekend.
5. Have theme days, as some blogs do: home on Mondays, crafts on Tuesdays, health on Wednesdays, etc.

I have learned something else this week. I’ve been concentrating on writing, because the process of choosing and/or editing a photo for a post can be very time-consuming, but I’ve realized that finding the right image is a rewarding part of blogging for me. My posts just look lonely without pictures!

NaBloPoMo Day 5:
Tell us about your writing space. Where do you write your blog posts?

I love the idea of that: My Writing Space. It evokes pictures of a Pinterest-worthy office that I DIY’ed from things I found in dumpsters and at Goodwill and – with just a smidge of paint and elbow grease and my natural decor sensibilities – turned into something that strangers are drooling over.

Truth is, I don’t write in a picture-perfect office. I write wherever I find myself.

Sometimes I write at David’s desk, which his dad built when he was a kid. It is appealing – it’s usually an oasis of neatness in the explosion that is our home office – but the desk was built by (and is now used by) a very tall person, so it’s a pretty awkward height for me. David spends all of his computer time there, too, so it’s not usually free in the evenings when I want to write.

A few posts have been written at my desk at my office, on evenings when I’ve worked late and need to take a break. It’s not my favorite place to write, though… maybe because I associate that space with stress, not relaxation.

I write in bed a lot. I got a lap desk for Christmas last year, which makes it a lot more comfortable than propping a hot laptop on my lap. (That was a lot of “lap” in one sentence.) My little laptop has a lighted keyboard, which makes it easy to keep writing even after David goes to sleep, on the rare chance that he goes to bed before I do.

Most of my posts, though, are written just as this one is being written: at one of the tables in my house. We have a kitchen table, a dining room table, and yet another “kitchen” table which is now living downstairs in the basement. We are a Home of Many Tables due to the sheer amount of game playing that happens here. Board gamers need variety – this table seats 6, the kitchen table is best for 4, and the dining table seats 8-10 (which means you can even have two games going at once).

Writing at the table suits me best because I can work right in the middle of things. I like the feeling of picking up my laptop and just getting to work. The distractions don’t actually distract me, because I can hyperfocus and tune out everything around me; in fact, sometimes chaos keeps me distracted enough from my own thoughts that I don’t get paralyzed by my ridiculous perfectionism.

So picture me as I am right now – sitting in semi-darkness at the table in my basement family room, surrounded by Halloween candy that Quinland and I sorted into a tournament bracket of sorts in order of preference, listening to Q try to pick out songs by ear on the keyboard, leg tucked under me on a hard wooden chair, feeling sleepy in this time-change week. It’s a good place to write.