Dear Readers: On Flying Deeper into the Blogosphere

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.

A to Z, April 2012

A to Z, April 2013

A to Z, April 2014

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…

 

Continuously or Continually? The Cats Have the Answer

Do you ever mix up these two words: continuously and continually? People do, but cats don’t.

Look at the chart below for some clues to distinguish between these often confused words.

What kinds of things happen continuously?  (no pauses, no breaks, no interruptions)

• My family lived in the old farmhouse on Brewster Road continuously from 1936 to 2004.

The Kroelinger house on North Brewster Road, Vineland, NJ

• Water flows over Niagara Falls continuously.  Six thousand years ago, ice sheets that had continuously covered the Great Lakes basin for thousands of years retreated and gouged out the Great Lakes, the Niagara River, and Niagara Falls.
• Water flowed continuously over the American Falls and the Canadian Falls at Niagara for thousands of years. Even when a thick ice bridge formed at the falls, water flowed continuously under the ice. (Water flow was once interrupted on the American side so engineers could determine whether they could remove the rock pile at the bottom of the falls. Even so, water flowed continuously over the Canadian Falls.)
  

  Photo credit: vroomvroom.com

• The Lenape Indians lived in Mays Landing, NJ continuously long before the Europeans arrived and displaced them.

Lenape Indian Wigwam Photo credit: JimSalichedublog.com

• It rained continuously for forty days and forty nights in biblical times. But Noah, after receiving a vision from God, had built and ark and saved his family and hordes of animals from sure destruction.
  

  Illustration finkorswim.com

• The nurses gave the dehydrated runner intravenous fluids continuously for two days.
• My air conditioner runs continuously on 90 degree days.
• It rains continuously during the rainy season in India.
• The people formed one continuous line down the block as they waited to enter the concert arena.

• You must be continuously employed at our company to receive benefits.
• Video surveillance in our downtown parking garage goes on continuously 24/7.

What kinds of things happen continually? (happen over and over again; intermittent; repeated frequently)

• Cats sleep continually (something interesting is always going on so their constant napping is frequently interrupted: a mouse to chase, a kibbie to eat, the dog to train, the owner to annoy, a dust bunny to bat, a leaf of grass to chew, whatever. . . . ) A cat’s life is one of continual nap time interruptions.

• Continual hurricanes create havoc (floods, wind damage, deaths) where they hit land masses.

Photo credit: tccnj.org.

• Continual telephone calls interrupt my work flow and prevent me from completing my assignments.
• The graph showed continual improvement with its zigzag lines that trended up.
• We expect continual improvement in your son’s grades because he is now doing his homework.
  

  Graph credit: freedigital.com

• Chipmunks continually climb the bird feeder pole and steal the bird seed. They jump down and run with bloated cheek pouches to drop the seed at their hiding places, then come back for more.
  

  Photo credit: inhabit.com

• Police officers continually catch violators at the traffic lights at Main Street and Market Street.
• Some people argue continually over minor things.

• All teachers continually seek to improve their teaching skill.

The Last Meow

Okay, now that we have continuously and continually all straightened out, can we kitties please have some uninterrupted peace and quiet so we can nap? Just have our kibbies ready when we wake up.

Thanks.

Oh, by the way, here are some kitties who continually play patty-cake.

Meow for now. =<^;^>=