Bloganuary: Challenges

Sandy

Today’s Bloganuary prompt is: Write about a challenge you faced and overcame.

Right now, the challenge I face is writing about this challenge.

Every day around 7pm Eastern Time, I peek at my Bloganuary bookmark to see the next topic. Almost always my first reaction is “Who wants to read about me again?” To date, the topics have been very self-centered: What makes you laugh? What do you like about your writing? What emojis do you use?

My Bloganuary salvation has been in reading how others respond. The more interesting responses have been those that turned the topic around.

Perhaps that’s the issue. When I blog, I try to create posts that are a little unusual. I try to make it as interesting to read, as it is for me to write. If I am bored with my draft, then it’s time to trash it.

This translates into a few things that I won’t do:

  • I won’t write blog posts longer than a coffee break. I’m a slow drinker so that translates to 500 words.
  • I won’t post more pictures than it takes to scroll down 3 times. That generally translates to five or less photos.
  • I won’t answer a challenge literally. I may try literarily but hardly ever literally.

The things that I will do:

  • I try to offer a different perspective, a bit removed from the mundane.
  • I stay away from the excesses, the braggadocio and aggrandizement. Afterall, this isn’t Instagram.
  • I write in series of odds. Three scrolls down. Five pictures only. Five hundred words. Although, technically, 500 is an even number … but for the sake of literariness, five isn’t.

So, back to today’s challenge. How have I overcome the writing challenge of the day? By writing about not writing about it.

And changing my picture.

What about you? Of all the challenges in these challenging times, is there one that you’d care to write about? Let me know in the comments below or in a link to your blog.

21 Comments

  1. You just listed the reasons why I like your blog. ☺️ It’s so carefully crafted. I try to do that, too, and notice I have less and less patience for bloggers who don’t. Our time is precious! Scrolling is a turn off.

    And yes, the prompts are a bit similar and retrospective, true!

    As for challenges, I have toomany of them! 😅 But none of them are very interesting and writing about them would make me sound like I was whining. I liked your approach! (Good this I’m not doing thw challenge!)

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    1. Case in point … the latest Bloganuary topic ..”What’s a life lesson everyone can benefit from learning?” Yeesh. Am I a preacher now?

      I’m giving it a break.

      Besides, something you said in your latest post triggered an idea which would be much more interesting. Stay tuned.

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      1. Yikes! I always feel awkward handing out lessons on my blog (sometimes I do it by accident, it seems!)
        Though if you look at Hubspot’s blogging videos for example, or any other guides to blogging or improving SEO or enhancing practically ANYTHING, they always try to teach you to write blog posts that hand out advice, and title it ”how to” and make it into a numbered list. This is a pet peevw of mine: we can’t all just go around giving each other useless advice all day, argh! So anyway, I predict that at some point, one of your prompts will be to create a list like this!! 😆😁 for sure that’s where it’s leading!! You’re just warming up with the life lessons here! Hahah. 🙃

        Anyway, I’m intrigued about your upcoming post and will stay tuned!!

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  4. Always I find something new and interesting in your posts.
    Thank you.
    You are too frank.
    500 words…. You have lot of patience.
    Somewhere I read people lack patience to read if the topic crosses 250 words irrespective of how we’ll it is written.
    So much goes for one’s patience these days!
    5 photos?… are you not worried about storage space unless you have a business plan? I’d read to post more than 2 photos.
    3 scrolls!
    Again you have lot of patience.
    I wish I were like you.
    Thank you Sandy

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    2. I’m glad if you find something interesting to read in my posts.

      Is it patience that I have? Certainly, it takes a lot longer to write shorter posts. The same is true for selecting photos based on individual merit.

      In terms of the 250 word limit. I’ve heard that too. Truth be told, my normal word limit is more in the 250-300 range with 500 being my top.

      There’s a lot of babble on social media & while I think its generally true that most people have little patience for long reads, they make up for it by reading hundreds of meaningless short texts.

      That doesn’t appeal to me & if those folks don’t read my stuff, it’s ok. … because I certainly won’t be reading their’s 🙂

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      1. This is a fascinating debate and you’re right about babble! But personally I’m more interested in the content than the length. I’ll happily read a 3,000 word post if it interests me and will skip a 300 word one if it doesn’t! Likewise photos – I’d rather scroll through a set of ten or more great images than see one dull one 😀 In fact, I tend not to bother with these ‘one photo and a caption’ posts like Wordless Wednesday and Silent Sunday unless I know the post is from an excellent photographer!

        I like your posts Sandy because I find the topics either interesting or thought-provoking or both. I would read them if they were longer, I promise!

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    1. I wouldn’t call it self-restraint. That implies I’m holding back on a torrent of words & pictures that I absolutiely want to share 🙂 It’s not true. I just like being sparse 😉

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  9. Your challenge is a tough one Sandy, I will pray that you have the serenity to accept the things you cannot change, the courage to change the things you can, and the wisdom to know the difference. God bless us all, everyone. 👼

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