What is a Hashtag? A hashtag, put simply, is a label or category that allows others to find something within a specific theme or content and are primarily used on Twitter and Instagram. Once you have copied a URL or used the share button on a post, hashtags can be used to direct your post […]
Dear Readers,
From time to time, I sit back and evaluate my purpose and progress in maintaining a blog.
Three years ago, on a lark after I retired from the world of education, I started my first blog, Janice Heck: My Time to Write. I tiptoed into the blogosphere, filled with beginner’s anxiety, to test the atmosphere. I joined Kristin Lamb’s little army of baby bloggers in WANA112 (We Are Not Alone) and launched out into unknown territory.
Feeding My Blog
At first I wondered how I could maintain a blog because these word-swallowing vacuums have voracious appetites and must be fed constantly. I thought I would rapidly run out of ideas. I also wondered if I had the sustaining power to keep a blog going. After all, I have been known to start projects, and then let them drop when other interests crashed the party. (Moi? Yes, moi.)
But look! Now, almost three years later, my blog is still alive, still begging for fodder, still holding my attention, still getting regular visitors.
I call myself an “eclectic blogger.” That is, I write articles or post photographs about whatever strikes my fancy: cats, family, travel, book reviews, current events, food, recipes, senior health issues, eldercare, grammar, writing tips, writing quirks, and writing “fix-its.”
I love blog challenges and have entered a number of writing and photography challenges.
My first A to Z Challenge (to publish a post six days a week in the month of April) in 2012 helped me prove to myself that I really could blog every day. I began to see myself in a new light: as a writer and a blogger. Since then, I have joined the A to Z every year and met that same goal. In the process, I have met many amazing bloggers and photographers. Here are my three survivor badges from those challenges.
I joined other challenges well and enjoyed posting on them: Cee’s Photo Challenges, WordPress Weekly Photo Challenges, Post-A-Day Photo Challenges, and others.
Feeding my blog has been easier than I thought possible.
Stats Report
My stats look pretty good with 52,593 visits (as of 8-31-14) and almost 500 regular followers. I’m not a Jeff Bullas, a Kristin Lamb, a Bradley Will, or Matt Wolfe, but I have had fair success (i.e. regular readers) for a novice. My Time to Write has had visitors from 176 countries. Alas, Greenland is still white on this map. (Hint, hint, Greenland bloggers. I know you are there.)
Blog Viewers by Country-Janice Heck, My Time to Write
Of course, no visitors from Iran have dropped by. No surprise there. But look at Africa. Each time I check this map, more readers from Africa have visited my blog. Amazing. English as second language (ESL, ESOL) readers pop up everywhere. I have had visitors from countries that I have never heard of until I started blogging. (Brunei Darussalam? Djibouti? Vanuatu?) Yes, Mr. Disney, “It’s a small world after all.”
Funny thing, though, the posts that I thought would be the least interesting have turned out to be the ones that people search for: grammar posts, “writing quirks,” and other topics related to writing. With the exception of one oddball post, Two Oceans Meet in Gulf of Alaska. Not., which has now had 15,279 hits, the English writing and grammar posts get the most daily visits. (For a sampling of these posts, check the end of this post.) Other posts have shorter term interest.
Decision Point
The stats on my blog dashboard indicate that my free WordPress blog is currently at 87% capacity (2667.67 MB). In other words, a decision point. Should I shell out some bucks and buy more space? Or should I morph into a dotcom? WordPress encourages me almost daily to do either of these things. Should I? Shouldn’t I?
Focus, Focus, Focus
Years ago, I went to a writer’s conference and met with an editor who gave me this advice: “You are a good writer… BUT… [always the but ! ] you need to FOCUS.”
He called me on my eclectic writing behavior, my tendency for random thinking, my propensity for great ideas, and, well, my many unfinished writing projects. How did he know?
At any rate, I see now, that he was right. And that is the issue on my current blog. It is eclectic. On the one hand, that is good because it has wider audience appeal; on the other hand, people who visit my blog looking for help with writing have to surf through all sorts of material not immediately relevant to writing.
Final Decision: New Focus, New Dotcom Blog
With T. S. Eliot’s line from “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” firmly in mind, “decisions and revisions which a minute will reverse…,” I started playing with a blog (Janice Heck Writes) that has been sitting dormant on my WordPress shelf since I initiated my first blog.
Now with my first blog pool almost filled to capacity, I have decided to officially launch Janice Heck Writes as a dotcom. focusing completely on the writing process and writing craft. My goal is to help writers move to the next level in their writing abilities, whether they be wannabe writers or published writers.
As I attend writing conferences and meet and read the writing attempts of many wannabe writers, I encourage them to keep writing and writing and writing. Then when I notice the randomness of their writing, I tell them to focus. There it is. That advice given to me more than ten years ago has come spouting out of my own mouth! We become like our own editors!
Posts on my new blog will focus on helping writers develop their writing craft using this formula:
While natural talent and a wide background in reading help create a good writer, a strong grasp of writing craft (grammar, usage, punctuation) helps build a writer’s power. Effective writing strategies can be learned.
So this new blog Janice Heck Writes: Power-up Your Writing! Build Your Writing Craft will focus on the specific writing techniques to enhance your writing as well as quick fixes for the most common errors in writing. I will also include book reviews and writer interviews that focus on building effectiveness as a writer.
Of course, I will keep my darling kitties (a regular feature on my first blog) in my posts as often as possible because their witty remarks often bring chuckles to readers… and extra comments to my blog. But don’t worry, my dear eclectic readers, I promise to post on this ole blog as well. Since I love the writing and photography challenges and the relative freedom of topics of my first blog, I will continue to post there. Gradually, I will pull my grammar, usage, punctuation, and writing tips posts over to the new blog.
Come on over and check out my new blog: Janice Heck Writes: Power-up Your Writing! Build Your Craft. I’d love to see you there. Leave a comment if you have time. (Launch date: September 1, 2014)
Read the first post here: What? Another Blog on Writing? URL address: http://janiceheckwrites.com/
Your Turn
So, what do you think? Am I making the right decision? Do I have any other options?
Popular posts of the past in order of highest frequency of hits. (Alphabetical posts come from the A to Z Challenges.)
Q is for Quirky Dreams, Susie Q., and Prepositional Phrases
R is for Reflexive Pronouns Cause a Ruckus
K is for Kernel Sentences: Nouns and Verbs Control the World
D is for Direct Object or Happy Birthday
A is for Adjectives, Anteaters, Armadillos, and Aardvarks
Hyper-hyphenated Words Make Surprising Adjectives
I is for Invented Spelling of Kids and Cats
“Don’t Use Adverbs.” Book Reviewers Use Them!
Common Errors or Effective Writing?
G is for Great Gobs of Gramma’s Grammar Goodies and Goofs
And more…
Istanbul in the Rain… but still a nice day.
Internet connections can be tricky while traveling.
I have just spent 12 days at sea on a Mediterranean cruise (Norwegian Spirit) and have had a difficult time completing blog posts.
First of all, Internet connection time from a ship is expensive and SLOW. At $.55 a minute for the bargain rate and with the slow speed, publishing a new post was just not feasible. Believe me, I tried, but the minutes ticked away too fast.
Logging on to Internet on my Microsoft Surface 2 tablet ate up minutes and connecting to my blog took even more time. I blame this on the Internet access and not my tablet. I did manage to post one picture, but after that, I kept having problems loading the images. I resorted to using the ship’s computer because it was faster, and I could complete basic tasks (Gmail and Facebook checks) much more easily. Blogging was just too frustrating.
Now I am in a hotel in Barcelona with FREE Internet, and already I can see that working on the a blog post is much faster than at sea. I have already easily posted a photo to Facebook and to this draft post.
Second, I am using a new tablet, and I haven’t learned all the intricacies of it yet. The blogging process works the same as on my desktop computer, but it is definitely slower. Add the sensitivity of the touch screen (sometimes too touchy, sometimes not touchy enough), and I had added problems.
I tried to preview this post three times, but no luck. I can’t figure the reason for that.
Let’s hope I can publish what I have written. If you can read this post, I have been successful.
New tablet. New things to learn. Today’s test: posting pictures from MS2 camera to Facebook and my blog.
Facebook test: MS2 passed with flying colors.
Now for the blog. Here goes.
Success. But it took me a few minutes longer than it should have. And is my space bar sticking? Maybe.
Okay. With a bit more practice maybe this will go faster.
So far, I like the keyboard touch. The screen touch is sometimes too touchy (but I have seen that problem with all the touch screens on tablets and phones). So, for now, more practice. I’ll report again soon.
![atoz [2014] - BANNER - 910](https://janiceheck.files.wordpress.com/2014/03/atoz-2014-banner-910.jpg){kind=small}
When I started my blog in January of 2012, I worried that I would not have enough ideas to keep a blog going. Turns out, I have too many ideas. As ideas pop in my head at random moments, I try to make note of them by starting a new post with a half-baked title and a few notes tossed in the body of the post. Sometimes I go back and work on a particular post, but sometimes it stays in that skeleton form for a while.
I started yesterday’s post about Twitter Followers quite a few months ago, but the #AtoZ Challenge prompted me to finish it for “T” day.
WordPress says that I have published 321 posts, but I have another 313 drafts percolating in the queue.
Now come the hard days in the #AtoZ Challenge: V, W, X, Y, and Z.
What writing quirks will I come up for those letters? Hmmm. Maybe I will have to scout my Garners’ Modern American Usage. I should be able to find some juicy tidbits there.
But first, I’ll scroll through those 313 unfinished, underdeveloped, and unprintable posts that I haven’t looked at in a while. Maybe I’ll find some other treasures there.
Wish me luck.
Your Turn: How many unfinished blog posts do you have waiting in the queue?
Oh Heck! Another Writing Quirk, theme for the amazing 2014 A to Z Challenge, suggests ways to improve our writing by avoiding and/or eliminating troublesome bug-a-boos that cramp our writing style.
Look for a list of posts for the #AtoZ, 2014 Challenge (Writing Quirks) here: #AtoZ: Q is for Quirky Index and a Q Post Round-Up
Meow for now. =<^ !^>=
Okay. I am a pushover for blog challenges. For two years running, I have completed the A to Z Blog Challenge in April and will probably jump on the bandwagon again next April. I learned a lot from those challenges, mostly that I like challenges, that they get me to write more, and that I can complete them.
![survivor_[2013]](https://janiceheck.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/survivor_2013.jpg)
This year I joined the Blog Every Day in May Challenge. Hmm. Maybe two challenges so close together is a bit much.
![BlogEverday[1]](https://janiceheck.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/blogeverday1.png)
Photography Challenges
I have climbed aboard on Cee’s Fun Foto express which provides challenges of various types, but mostly related to photography. I wrote about some of those challenges in a blog post here: Newly Discovered; Cee’s Photo Challenges. I enjoy the photography challenges and take tons of pictures, but they sit on my computer. After all, who wants to see 200 photos taken in one day! Now I have an outlet for these gems. The photography challenges encourage you to think in different ways and to look at things from all angles. You get some surprising results when you do this, and you get new ideas for writing.
WANAFriday Challenges
One last challenge: WANAFriday. 100 bloggers with a range of experience in blogging joined with Kristen Lamb for a blogging experience: WANA112. Kristen’s primary message for all of us was this: We Are Not Alone (WANA). As bloggers, we need to stick together and encourage each other, to give feedback, and to share thoughts and feelings. My WANA112 group is probably most responsible for keeping me going as a blogger. Now with almost two years at blogging and 225 posts published, I feel much more confident about posting and joining challenges.
This WANA112 group of 100 friends has largely stayed together now for over a year. Ninety of us joined a closed Facebook group where we post about whatever is on our minds. About six months ago, several members of the group suggested we start our own challenge, and so began our own WANAFriday challenge. One member of the group posts a prompt for the rest of the group, and those who have the time and inclination respond to it. Between five and ten people respond each week.
NaNoWriMo, NaNonFiWriMO, NaPoWriMo
Every year about this time, NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) comes around. The goal is to write 50,000 words on a novel in one month. I am not really a fiction writer, so the idea of writing 1,600 words a day does not grab me at all.
As an alternative, NIna Amir organized WNFIN (Write Nonfiction in November) or NaNonFiWriMo (National Nonfiction Writing Month) for nonfiction writers. While I do write more nonfiction than fiction, I cannot imagine writing 50,000 in one month. One year, maybe.
Nina Amir sent a note about WNFIN: (Thanks, Nina)
You don’t have to write 50,000 words during the Write Nonfiction in Nov. Challenge…you can write an essay, an article, a report….or a book of any length.
By the way, in April I run National Book Blogging Month (NaBoBloMo) for those who want to blog a book in a month. You can find that on my blog, http://www.howtoblogabook.com. :~)
And we can’t leave the poets out. NaPoWriMo challenges all poets and non poets to write 30 poems in one month. I haven’t tried this challenge yet, but I have it tucked in the back of my brain for future reference.
And Now: NaBloPoMo
But now, we have another choice: NaBloPoMo, National Blog Posting Month). Write a blog post every day in November. That I can do. I have done this with the A to Z Challenges, and I can do that again. Besides, NaBloPoMo provides prompts by the month ahead of time in case I don’t have ideas of my own. (I write on a variety of topics, including cats, but my favorite topic relates to teaching writing to developing and struggling writers.)
If you want to sign up for NaBloPoMo, click here: NaBloPoMo, November 2013, Blogroll. Look for the November writing prompts here.
A Challenge for Everyone
Of course, there are many other challenges on Internet…something for everyone. Starting with the biggie:
The Daily Post at WordPress.Com: Weekly Writing Challenges
The Daily Post at WordPress.Com: Weekly Photo Challenges
Ese’s Weekly Shoot and Quote Challenge
yeah write weekly writing challenge
Velvet Verbosity 100 Word Challenge
Six Word Saturday
Wordless Wednesday
It’s Monday: What Are You Reading?
Where’s My Backpack: Weekly Travel Theme Challenge New theme on Fridays
Ultimate Blog Challenge: (Blog post a day in January, April, July, October)
Make Something 365
30 Day Gratitude Challenge
Should Be Reading: Friday Finds: Books you have added to your TBR list
Five Sentence Fiction: A new prompt word given each week.
FatMumSlim: November Photo a Day
Lisa Jo Baker: Five Minute Fridays
Saturday in Six Words
The Weekend in Black and White
Weekly Writing Spark — Ignite Your Creativity.net
Michelle’s Weekly Pet Challenge
Festival of Leaves Challenge
Tuesday’s A to Z Challenge
Theme Thursday
Friday Foto Challenge
BEDN Blog Every Day in November
Super Quote Sunday
Thursday Lingering Look at Windows
Festival of Leaves
Friday Fictioneers: 110 word challenge, photo prompt
Insecure Writers Support Group..post 1X a month
Sunday Stills
Trifecta Challenge: two writing prompts a week
Community Storyboard weekly writing prompt
For even more blog challenges check http://dailypost.wordpress.com/blog-events-listing/
(My personal challenge is to find all the writing and photo challenges! If I have missed any, please add it/them in the comments section below. Thanks.)
“Spooky” the Longwood Gardens cat, PA. Photo by Dawn Ellis
And Now: The Last Meow (Where the cats get the last word)
We really don’t care how many challenges MaMa Jan gets into, just as long as she doesn’t forget to give us kibbles and cuddles and lets us nap whenever and wherever we want! She knows our motto: “Eat, Play, Nap.” What else is there for cats to do in life?
Meow for now. =<^;^>=
…
P.S. Please add links to other blog challenges in the comment section. Thanks.
PSS. See you tomorrow on NaBloPoMo.
Today, Zero the Hero makes a special guest appearance on my blog to celebrate my 200th post.
(We celebrated my 100th Post on May 17, 2013.)
Who is Zero the Hero? Well, I’m happy you asked.
Now, on stage, Zero himself: Zero the Hero. Cute little guy, isn’t he!
When I worked at the Lower Primary School at Hong Kong International School, we had an incredible team of talented kindergarten teachers who brought Zero the Hero to life every tenth school day.
Zero the Hero by Joan Holub, illustrated by Tom Lichtenheld
Early in the morning on one of these zero days, a poem would appear somewhere in each kindergarten classroom. This poem told the children to look for certain counting items in the classroom; to do something (sing, dance, play a game, hunt for counting items); to make something (an art or cooking activity); or to do something related to counting and numbers (listen to a story, draw a picture, build a tower, sort and categorize objects).
Sometimes Zero would leave a special snack for the children, and these snacks most often looked like zeros: Cheerios, life savers, donuts, bagels, or other zero-like things. Zero himself did not show his face…that is, not until Day 100…and then there was a BIG PARTY to celebrate Zero the Hero’s arrival.
Zero the Hero visits kindergarten
There’s even a song for the kindergarteners to learn. (Click on the red link.)
You can learn more about Zero the Hero here.
Two-Zero-Zero
So this is it: my 200th post. 2-0-0. Two-zero-zero. Thanks Zero for joining me in this celebration.
Here are some WordPress blog statistics for my journey to this point.
Most read posts:
Total number of views of all posts to date: 17856 (9-4-2013)
(Looks like Zero the Hero will have to return sometime soon to help celebrate my triple zero viewers milestone:18,000!)
Number of countries with viewers: 92 (darker colors = more readers)
WordPress statistics: Countries/Viewers Summary, Sept 4, 2013
Countries with more than 200 views:
| Country | Views |
|---|---|
 United States |
10,558 |
 Canada |
1,108 |
 United Kingdom |
1,088 |
 Australia |
576 |
 India |
320 |
 Italy |
288 |
 Philippines |
258 |
 Germany |
249 |
 France |
223 |
Missing Countries:
My last check on countries with no viewers occurred on May 28, 2013…read that post here: Dear Readers, Who Are You?
In that post I wrote
Equally interesting are the white spaces on the map: Greenland; Paraguay, Suriname, and French Guiana, three countries in South America; many Middle Eastern Countries; many countries in Africa; and Papua New Guinea in the Far East. It makes me wonder: Is Internet available in these areas? Is Internet available but restricted?
Since then, a few countries with viewers joined the list. A special hello to the new viewers in South America (Suriname); Africa (Mozambique, Nigeria, Cameroon, and Tunisia); and the Isle of Mann.
Alas, still missing: Greenland; Nicaragua in Central America; Cuba in the Caribbean; Paraguay and French Guiana in South America; many countries in Africa; Middle Eastern counties of Iran, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Afghanistan; and Papua New Guinea in the Far East. Maybe by Post #300 some of these counties will visit this blog. After all, even in non-English speaking countries many people study English. Of course, Internet is not available everywhere.
The Last Meow
Numbers, schnumbers. Don’t forget, we kitty cats helped with each one of these posts, and we have more to go. But in the meantime, it’s nap time. See you for Post #201.
Photo credit: writerjenn.blogspot.com
Meow for now. =<^ ! ^>=
Photo Credit: Leonard Cohen (Dr. H. Guy)
In one week in May, I received four nominations for the Liebster Award. Wow! Here, at long last, are my responses.
First, thanks to these special followers for their gracious nominations. I do appreciate your interest in my blog.
I wrote about the Liebster Award last year when JudytheMorgan nominated my baby blog for this honor in April of 2012. “So a person who bestows the Liebster award on someone else’s blog is showing love to another person.”
Check out this new design for the Liebster Award.
Here are the simpler rules for my first Liebster: (Note that the award has gone through various permutations over the years.)
This year’s rules add several items:
None of us need extra work and answering 44 questions will take some time. Therefore, I propose that we eliminate the questions section of this award. The purpose of the award is to encourage readers to visit other newish blogs and to give encouragement through recognition. No one wants to write an overly long post, and no one wants to read one.
With all due respect to this award, I will tell 11 things about myself and nominate 11 bloggers. The 44 questions will have to wait.
11 Things about me: (This includes answers to some of the 44 questions!)
That’s enough about me!
Here are my 11 nominees for the Liebster Award.
Nominees, I advise you to do the shortened response as well, otherwise you will spend more time on this than necessary!
The Last Meow
Now we are really tired. But don’t we deserve a kitty award? We have been good, and we didn’t pester you while you worked on this post. How about it? A little measly award for us? Okay?
Hey, lookee there. A double award. Awesome.
Meow for now. =<^:^>=
WANA Friday Prompt: Every Friday, the WANA 112 group (Kristen Lamb’s little lambs: We Are Not Alone in this blogosphere) blogs on a prompt suggested by a WANA team member. This week’s prompt is. . .
Create a Wordle (www.wordle.net) of something you have written.
My Wordle features my very first blog post on WordPress: “Hello. Welcome to My Time to Write,” January 28, 2012. It gives a visual summary of my life experiences and writing interests.
The Last Meow
Don’t forget us kitties. We have a Wordle of our own. How do you like it?
Meow for now. =<^;^>=
Check out these #WANAFriday Wordles:
The Wonderful Team Member Readership Award (WTRMA) landed on my blogstop about ten days ago, given to me by Lynne Revette Butler, making the most of every day. Lynne started her blog in March 2013. She lives in South Oxfordshire, England and posts gorgeous pictures of flowers and gardens. She writes about gardens, the environment, and lifestyles. Thanks for thinking of me for this award, Lynne
I like to get a little history on blogger awards as they come around, so I tracked the WTMRA back to find the source. The WTMRA appears to have started at managuagunntoday; however the link from that blog award is broken. A reference to the official launch date of 5/7 (no year) can be found. (The above link is active, but it doesn’t take you to the original award page.)
On 9/1/2012, the WTMRA landed at Old Rooster Diner, where Jackie mentions that she is one of the first recipients of the award. Jackie’s blog is “Change for a Better Me: a mix of recipes and stories to help make a healthy change easier.” (She switched to a gluten free diet because of health issues).
Even though the WTRMA is the newish kid on the block, Google pulls up sixteen pages of references to it, thus reflecting the power of geometric progressions with blog awards.
The requirements for this Wonderful Team Membership Readership Award are simple:
1. Display the WTMRA logo on your webpage or sidebar.
2. Nominate up to 14 readers you appreciate over a period of 7 days (1 week) – this can be ALL on one day or two a day or seven days. (In my research, I noted that some nominees have, in turn, given between 2 and 14 nominees. The number required is not written in concrete!)
3. Make these rules, or amended rules which keep to the spirit of the Wonderful Team Member Readership Award, known to each reader nominated.
4. Complete this sentence and post: “A Great reader is…”
A great reader (of blog posts) is someone who reads posts on a regular basis, commenting occasionally, and clicking on “like” when a post touches the heart or the head, appeals to one’s interests, or just makes good sense. A good reader sometimes asks a question for clarification or posts a link to a related article. Feedback gives writers encouragement to keep writing on the dimmest of days when we ask, “Why am I doing this?” Readers keep us going, and I, personally, appreciate every single one of them. When they light up my WordPress stats map, I feel good. jkh
A while ago, I wrote this post about my most loyal readers. Now I nominate these same loyal readers for this WTMRA.
Tami Clayton, Taking Tea in the Kasbah
Elaine Smothers, Wonder in the Wild
emaginette, Shout With Emaginette
Glenda Mills, Meet Me On The Mountain
Barbara Forte Abate, Scribbling Outside The Lines
Judythe Morgan, Voice and Views from The Front Porch
Mike Schulenberg, Realms of Perilous Wonder
Sheila Pierson, Wonderstruck
Ellen V. Gregory, to beyond and back
Jodi Lea Stewart Walking on Sunshine
Liv Rancourt, Laughter, life and romance under partly sunny skies
Elizabeth Fais, Where the awesome begins
Sara Walpert Foster, Nobody Expects the Spanish Inquisition
Siri Paulson, everyday enchantments
Linda Adams, Soldier, Storyteller
Sherry Isaac, Psychological Sizzle
Sherri Martin-Hutchins, live wonderstruck
Laird Sapir, Shabby Chic Sarcasm
The Last Meow
Hey. When is someone going to start a “The Cat’s Meow Award” for blogs that detail our most wonderful qualities? Now that would be an award to value!
Meow for now. =<*;*>=
Janice Hall Heck 