Blimey! Another Blog Challenge? NaBloPoMo. OK, I’m In.

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.

This year I joined the Blog Every Day in May Challenge. Hmm. Maybe two challenges so close together is a bit much.

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.

http://ceenphotography.com/fun-foto-challenge/

http://ceenphotography.com/cees-black-white-challenge/

http://ceenphotography.com/cees-which-way-challenge/

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.

#WANAFriday. Newly Discovered: Cee’s Photo Challenges

Today’s (9/6) WANAFriday prompt comes from Rabia Abbasi Gale

A New Discovery. It could be a recently discovered great author, band, or TV show. It could be a great walking route, an out-of-the-way antique store, or a perfect reading/writing nook. It could be a writing tip or a blogging trick. Share an exciting new discovery with us!

I like blog challenges such as the A to Z Blog Challenge that runs every April. The first A to Z I joined two years ago got me into regular blogging. I enjoyed the challenge of posting once a day for a month and met many new talented bloggers.  I joined the 2013 A to Z Blog Challenge and completed that, too. Blogging has become a habit, and I recently passed my 200 posts milestone.

The WordPress Weekly Photo Challenge is fun, too. I enjoy coming up with my answer to the prompt, and then looking at the other creative, ingenious, talented photographers and their photo entries.

But recently I have discovered another photo challenge blog: Cee’s Photography: My Life in Photos

Cee’s Photography: Fun Foto Challenge

Cee posts a new Fun Foto Challenge every Tuesday. See the list of sample topics below.

Click on the highlighted link to see entries in each challenge. Upcoming challenges are not highlighted until photographers post entries.

• Upcoming:  Brown
• Upcoming:  Soft Pastels
• Upcoming:  White and Purple
• Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: All One Color   Here’s my entry for the All One Color challenge:

Basket of pomegranates at a street market in Ein Karem, Israel

• Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Blue and Yellow
• Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Liquids
• Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge:  Houses
• Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge:  Anything that Lights
• Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge:  Seating
• Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge:  Locks, Knobs and Handles

Cee’s Photography: Black and White Challenge

Every other Wednesday, Cee posts a new black-and-white photo challenge. See a list of a few upcoming challenges below.

• Upcoming:  Sculpture, Statues, Carvings
• Upcoming:  Close Ups
• Upcoming:  Animals
• Upcoming:  Abandoned or Alone
• Cee’s Black & White Challenge: Your Favorite Thing or Things to Photograph

Cee’s Photography: Which Way Challenge : New challenge posted every other  Wednesday.

Ways we travel and beautify our world.

• Roads:  gravel, asphalt, cobbled, dirt,
• Freeway, Expressway, Highway
• Bridges (any view)
• Sidewalks
• Indoor Walkways:  hallways, aisles, people movers, breezeway
• Paths:  walking, bicycling
• Stairs, Escalators, or Steps:  indoors, outdoors

Cee’s Share Your World Challenge

Cee posts a new challenge in this category every Monday. She asks four questions each week that can be answered in words or pictures.

This week’s Share Your World questions are:

• If life was ‘just a bowl of cherries’…which fruit would you rather be?
• If you could witness or physically attend any event past, present or future, what would it be?
• If you could know the answer to any question, besides “What is the meaning of life?”, what would it be?
• If you were a crayon, what color would you be?

Writing prompts tend to get a bad name in the instructional world (“let them write creatively and from their own experiences!”), but real writers know that prompts can be just the ticket to get you on to new lines of thinking and creativity. I hope you check out these photo challenges and discover how much fun they can be!

P.S. Check out these other #WANAfriday Discoveries by my WANAmates:

• Cora Ramos, All Those Pretty Aps (smart phone)
• Liv Rancourt, Discovery: What Does the Fox Say?
• Rabia Gale, A New to Me Author (Mary Stewart)
• Ellen Gregory, 10 Rules for Writing First Drafts

The Last Meow

Well, I don’t think I’d like a bowl of cherries. How about a bowl of kibbies? That would make me happy and help fulfill my life’s goals (eat, play, sleep).

Meow for now.  =<^ ! ^>=