Thank you to those of you who gave your opinion on my last post when I asked for help in the direction of this blog.
You may have noticed the changes I’ve now made in reorganizing the blog, under a new name, and the new direction I’m moving in. All for the sheer joy of writing, to notice the beautiful stories around us and to spread that joy. I’d love for you to let me know your thoughts on these changes.
This new direction means my plan is to write with more frequency and wouldn’t you know, serendipitously, WordPress is offering all of us the opportunity to jump into Bloganuary.
For the month of January, WP will be offering prompts that will propel us to write. A post a day for one month may seem daunting for those of us who have put writing aside or weren’t frequent writers to begin with. Though this is a great opportunity to instill a good habit into the new year.
And Bloganuary isn’t just about writing. You can simply post an image with a few words, a video, a list, whatever works for you for the prompt. You can find out more about Bloganuary here.
I for one am looking forward to it. I hope you will join me on this new writing adventure.
And do let me know what you think of my new direction with this blog and the name.
Wishing you the very best in 2022! May your new year be filled with beauty and more joyful moments than you can handle.
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Hello again and thanks so much for following my new blog. 🙏 I’m sorry I missed your plea for help a while ago, but I’ll give you my views here which I hope will be still helpful. It looks like you decided to keep your old blog with a changed title and web id? I decided to start a different blog with a different name mostly because my old blog had become bloated and unwieldy. I had changed it several times over 8-10 years and so had thousands of posts with rather a lot of categories and 1250 followers. Some joined because I wrote about mountaineering, some because I wrote about aid work in Nepal, some were interested in my wine posts, a few more because of my philosophy posts or Buddhism. Then there were the travel followers, the science followers etc etc etc. . Much as I love writing, I also love engagement, people who genuinely like what you’ve written, comment on it, then engage further when you comment on their comment. A couple of days ago I exchanged about 10 comments with a young woman from Australia that began about the Roman Empire then continued as we exchanged and shared careers, Buddhism and much more.
I thought long and hard about the structure of my new blog, it had to be simple but all encompassing, my previous categories were too specific ….. Travel, Wine Reviews, Wine Travel, Philosophy, Natural Philosophy, Buddhism History, Churches ….. I think you get the picture. But, my new approach is to be less specific with the categories Thoughts, Memories, Photos, Reviews. In fact, these are my secondary trigger words, a bit like your Bloganuary thingy. So, for example, I could go for a walk in the woods, and take some Photos to make a post. But that walk triggers a Memory in me of macro photography expeditions with my daughter when she was about 10 years old, that’s a second post. Additionally it triggers a Thought in me about the changing environment which is now a third post. So that’s three quite different posts. I think you get the picture 😂.
I have no desire for lots of likes, thousands of followers, or annoying comments that merely say “nice post” or “nice photos”. Equally a single all encompassing category that ends up as a blog of rolling posts doesn’t he.p me, which is why I chose to structure it with 4 categories.
Bloganuary from WordPress is a treadmill to me but might not be to others. I don’t need daily words to write daily posts that serve only to keep up millions of hits for WordPress! But …… I WILL look at each daily word and see if it triggers a thought, a memory, a review or a photo, note it on my list of ideas for later use.
I’ve no idea if this is helping overall but hopefully you’ll find something of use. We all choose to do things differently, but I’m a firm believer in taking my time and thinking things through deeply before jumping. Unless my trousers are on fire and jumping in that lake is a no brainer 😂😂
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Thanks very much for your insights Dr. B. I do think many bloggers are coming back to writing based on less specific subjects and more on their own thoughts and memories. I completely understand what you mean. I’m heading in that direction myself. As far as the WP prompts, you make a fine point, however I perceive it as an opportunity to build connection with other writers in a community of bloggers. And as you said, each prompt is sure to evoke a memory or story. That’s what I’m looking forward to, stoking the fires of memory and creativity. And hopefully not setting myself afire. Though the lake is nearby if needed. 😂
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Not sure how you found your way to mine, Alegria. Changing direction or reinventing a blog can be tricky, but if you’re finding joy and good company, now’s as good a time as any. Wishing you good health and happiness in ‘221
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Thanks Jo! I followed your old blog and you’ve followed mine from your old one for a while now. In fact you offered some valuable advice on my last post, which is much appreciated. Great to reconnect. 💕 Wishing you the very best in 2022.
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Ha! I needed more hints to make the connection. Good to see where you’re going with this. Wishing you much joy to come.
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Will follow on Twitter shortly.
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