The 2013 A-Z Blogging Challenge Reflections Post

This was my second year participating in the glorious craziness that is the A-Z Challenge. I think I enjoyed it more this time around, possibly because I knew better what to expect.

I had a theme again, and I prepared a chunk of posts ahead of time, both of which freed me up to visit more blogs. That's one of my favorite parts of the Challenge - being reminded how many talented and creative and passionate people are out there in the world - writers, photographers, craft people, artists, travelers, teachers, soon-to-be retirees, librarians. 

The comments and Followers on my blog increased - thank you all! I visited a ton of blogs and left lots of comments and added a number of new blogger buddies to my blogroll and email list. 

Now, how do we keep the momentum going? Okay, not at that rate - do you know how much coffee I'd have to drink? - but where we keep regularly writing our own posts, and making a point to visit each other and comment so we know for sure our words are not floating out there unheard and unread? How do we do this and keep our own writing and our own lives going strong? 

I don't know about the rest of you, but about halfway through the Challenge, I was feeling a bit burned out - I was missing the oomph I had in the beginning. Any ideas on how to keep more of that initial enthusiasm? Is there something we could put into the Challenge itself - a halfway mark giveaway? - to give everyone a fresh bump around the letter M or so?

A huge thank you to Arlee and all the Co-hosts and Minions for all their hard work keeping us going and on track!

King's Speech: Z is for tmZ

Regular readers of The Shellshank Redemption know how much I enjoy a good quote (see Motivational Mondays) and that I’m a huge fan of Stephen King (see the King of All Days Part I and Part II.) So, for the 2013 A-Z Challenge, I decided to combine the two, using some of my favorite King quotes about reading, writing and life in general. Enjoy!

*****

I think there ought to be some serious discussion 

by smart people, really smart people, 

about whether or not the proliferation of things like The Smoking Gun 

and tmZ and YouTube and the whole celebrity culture is healthy. 

(Stephen King)

I’m at the point in my life where, when I look at things online, I don’t know half the people who are talked about…and I don’t care. Don’t get me wrong – I enjoy TV (The Walking Dead – obsess much?) and movies and a few magazines, but my days of knowing who wore what and who dated who are waaaaay over. And I’m glad. But I didn’t free up that mind space for current events or politics or controversy. I fill it with more books, with creativity and imagination and art and play, with self-improvement, with learning.

I don’t consider myself one of those “really smart people” who should make the call regarding celebrity culture. I just know what’s right for me, what works for me, what I need to keep growing and improving.

*****

* Whew! It’s the end of the A-Z Challenge and I had an absolute blast! I enjoyed visiting and “meeting” so many of you, and I am so grateful for all of you who stopped by, who read the posts, who commented, and who now follow us here at TSR. *

King's Speech: Y is for YEARS

Regular readers of The Shellshank Redemption know how much I enjoy a good quote (see Motivational Mondays) and that I’m a huge fan of Stephen King (see the King of All Days Part I and Part II.) So, for the 2013 A-Z Challenge, I decided to combine the two, using some of my favorite King quotes about reading, writing and life in general. Enjoy!

*****

I have spent a good many YEARS since – too many, I think – being ashamed about what I write. I think I was forty before I realized that almost every writer of fiction or poetry who has ever published a line has been accused by someone of wasting his or her God-given talent.

If you write (or paint or dance or sculpt or sing, I suppose) 

someone will try to make you feel lousy about it, that’s all. 

(Stephen King)

People read some of my stories and wonder how much of “me” is in it - did that really happen? Is that how I really feel about this person or that situation? Other times, people read my scarier stuff and look at me with sidelong glances, nervous about what’s going inside the mind of the “normal” looking person standing next to them.

Both those situations used to make me extremely uncomfortable, and I’d fall all over myself explaining it’s the character that feels that way, not me or it’s based on a nightmare I had, not something I made up consciously. Now, though, I just smile mysteriously and let people think what they want. They’re going to anyway, so why bother trying to convince them otherwise? Besides, it’s so much more fun to see their faces as they work out whether or not you’re kidding about the voices in your head….

King's Speech: X is for eXPECTATIONS

Regular readers of The Shellshank Redemption know how much I enjoy a good quote (see Motivational Mondays) and that I’m a huge fan of Stephen King (see the King of All Days Part I and Part II.) So, for the 2013 A-Z Challenge, I decided to combine the two, using some of my favorite King quotes about reading, writing and life in general. Enjoy!

*****

At [writing's] most basic we are only discussing a learned skill, 

but do we not agree that sometimes the most basic skills can create things far beyond our eXPECTATIONS? 

We are talking about tools and carpentry, about words and style . . . 

but as we move along, you’d do well to remember that we are also talking about magic. 

(Stephen King)

I am a big believer in the existence of magic in writing, in any art or creative endeavor. I’ve read books and seen movies and TV shows and stared at paintings where I just knew that everything came together in some mysterious, wonderful, amazing way, a way that will not, and could not, ever be duplicated. Call it magic, God, Fate, Destiny, the Universe. Call it what you will. When it works, it works.

King's Speech: W is for WORK

Regular readers of The Shellshank Redemption know how much I enjoy a good quote (see Motivational Mondays) and that I’m a huge fan of Stephen King (see the King of All Days Part I and Part II.) So, for the 2013 A-Z Challenge, I decided to combine the two, using some of my favorite King quotes about reading, writing and life in general. Enjoy!

*****

Amateurs sit and wait for inspiration, 

the rest of us just get up and go to WORK. 

(Stephen King)

I believe some people I know think I sit around all day twiddling my thumbs. These are the same people who rarely ask me anything specific about my writing and don’t bother to remember any project I’m working on. They’ll ask me about my husband’s business and how that’s going. They’ll ask me if that meeting he had scheduled went well. Do they ask about National Novel Writing Month, something I’ve done for eight years in a row? Pfft. Do they read my blog or make a point to read my published stories? Hardly.

Yes, I know I sound bitter, but I’m really more frustrated than anything else. I do my best to ask about other people’s jobs and careers - I respect what they do. Just because I don’t make a lot of money and don’t work in someone else’s office and grouse about vacation days, doesn’t mean that what I do isn’t work. Just because I love what I do doesn’t mean it deserves any less respect. 

King's Speech: V is for VIEW

Regular readers of The Shellshank Redemption know how much I enjoy a good quote (see Motivational Mondays) and that I’m a huge fan of Stephen King (see the King of All Days Part I and Part II.) So, for the 2013 A-Z Challenge, I decided to combine the two, using some of my favorite King quotes about reading, writing and life in general. Enjoy!

*****

And poets, in my VIEW, and I think the view of most people, 

do speak God’s language – it’s better, it’s finer, 

it’s language on a higher plane 

than ordinary people speak in their daily lives. 

(Stephen King)

Amen.

And extremely appropriate for National Poetry Month.

King's Speech: U is for UNIQUELY

Regular readers of The Shellshank Redemption know how much I enjoy a good quote (see Motivational Mondays) and that I’m a huge fan of Stephen King (see the King of All Days Part I and Part II.) So, for the 2013 A-Z Challenge, I decided to combine the two, using some of my favorite King quotes about reading, writing and life in general. Enjoy!

*****

Books are a UNIQUELY portable magic. 

(Stephen King)

I am not the most social person. I’m shy and awkward. I like to listen more than I like to talk. (This is true, regardless of what my husband says.) Having a book in hand becomes an escape route, where I can disappear into another world or someone else’s story and avoid those awkward conversations where I tell people I’m a writer and they stare blankly back.

But books are magic for another reason. They’re also often a connection to another person. I’m the geek in the bookstore who, if I see you flipping through a book I’ve read, will approach and tell you my thoughts on it. If you’re not spooked by a total stranger, you’ll smile, and we’ll chat about the book as if we’ve known each other for years. Sure, it’s not Harry Potter wand magic, but it’s magic all the same.