I previously have written about being the hostess for a posted writing challenge that is not all overly challenging. No, it should not be challenging just to complete, the challenge should be to write meaningfully and add to the group’s voice, if you are one of the people for whom the challenge will be designed. I should say, IS being designed.
The challenge will be in February 2015 and called, simply, Four Weeks in February.
Why?
Because I can. Because we can.
Blogging challenges can be fun, but blogging challenges as camaraderie|by fire are a bit too grueling for those of use who did grueling several times through the past few decades. At some point in our lives the need to be heroic fades away. The need to connect and the need to share does not fade. So the month long blogging challenge has some great components that can and should be highlighted as well as the simple act of hitting publish every day.
General Good Things
- I have already alluded to networking.
- Shared voice can be powerful too.
- Group actions are both encouraging and reinforcing.
Specific Good Things
- February is a short month.
- February is not as busy as the Holiday Season.
- 2015’s February has a compact symmetry.
I am fashioning the event around symmetry. The symmetry that the coming, sooner than we expect, month of February 2015 offers just called out to me. It is such a neat and tidy month: 28 days, starting on a Sunday and ending on a Saturday, a little square of a month.
To post every day of the month would be Herculean, but also be the shortest every day for a month blog post challenge.
The challenge is for the intelligent, concerned, old enough to know better woman writer. Women who know enough to ask, “To what end?” as my friend Sandy Mauck, founder of Life’s Third Trimester blog and group suggested we ask ourselves for Four Weeks in February at the Tucson Women Bloggers Meetup this past weekend.
I am blessed to know many wonderfully enlightened women who have managed to make their lives in their 50s and beyond be richly textured adventures in living, sharing, and learning. I want to hear more from these women when they are writing about things that truly matter to them now and beyond.
As I told my friend Jane in a comment on her comment to my last post, “Sometimes I feel as if I am culturally a bit older than my years while being a bit younger mentally than my years. The familial space I am in is that of a person more typically in her late 60s or early 70s. I’m losing many of the anchoring points in my life and sometimes I just lose the reason for writing.”
I hope many if not most of my friends never have to gain some of the wisdom about families and aging that I have accumulated.
I know we have the ability to build networks that will transform the aging and sage-ing process and much of the world along with it. So, let’s think of topics and approaches for a month of brainstorm blogging and reflective musings, not necessarily deep and heavy writing, but real expression of what matters to us. How’s that sound?
Each participant should have to agree to write on a schedule, a schedule committed to prior to Groundhog Day. A schedule that is rigorous enough to show commitment, but not so demanding that it creates stressful. last minute, slap/dash writing.
I think I will probably commit to writing/posting every weekday, and leave my weekends open for commenting, and writing for the upcoming week. Others might want to commit to this challenge and post on weekends with posts carefully crafted during the week.
What do you think? 28, 20, or 16 posts as options?
- 28 days: every day
- 20 days: weekday, Monday – Friday
- 16 days: 4 times a week for 4 weeks
The tag can be #4wksFeb
I am now working on prompts.
I love this idea and will try to participate! Let’s see how the year starts off before I commit fully!
Lois, thanks for the encouragement! And of course I wouldlove for you to participate but I would only think of you being able to at the smaller commitment value. And you can always cheat, I mean negotiate!
I love the idea, and would love to participate…BUT, I have found that when I write everyday, I am writing crap. For me, writing something meaningful once a week, doing something visual once a week, then doing the round up is all I can muster. Sometimes not even that. But I can be on the sidelines, cheering you all on!!!
xo
I understand entirely! That is why I am still planning and may have a sign up that allows you to contract for x amount of posts.
This is such a great idea, Nancy! I blog daily, but not to prompts. I would only be able to participate if we were free to blog our own topics. However I would absolutely support and socially share as many as I could for you all!
Prompts would only be suggestions, Carol, to give people ideas if necessary. Anti-authoritarian me likes unrestricted writing!
This sounds very interesting. I can’t commit to posting every day, but I will follow and comment!
I think posting less often might improve the whole event. Do consider participating for the 4x wk for 4 wks!
Challenges always sound like such a great idea until the day actually comes that you have to do it! Good luck.
I know what you mean Wendy, but do give it consideration. Women blogging about subjects through which they hope to leave the world a better place is not your typical “challenge.”
I would love to commit, but I can’t. My hubby gets chemo that month and it’s way too chaotic for me. Hopefully, another time would work out better for me. thanks much!
Carolann, my thoughts and prayers are with you and your husband. Of course you can’t do anything non-essential. Blessings to you both.
I, for one would vote for the 16 posts. I have decided that ‘grim determination’ is no longer my friend and that I am okay with taking time to make thoughtful writing and posts. Just one girl’s opinion. So great of you to put out a challenge.
I did my usual scroll through the comments-so-far to see if I’d be repeating what others had said (at my age, one has a horror of being thought to repeat things one has said before….um, read that sentence with the appropriate British accent, please). What I found instead (of the repetitions, remember?) was evidence of what independent cusses we have all grown to be. The universal comment was some version of, “I love this idea, BUT…..” The Buts had much to do with everyone wanting to do things Their Way; Nancy’s responses were reassurances that we could.
So here’s my comment: Thank you, Nancy, for putting the time, feeling and intelligence into creating Four Weeks In February. I will be there!