You turn on your computer on a weekend morning and sit down with your coffee to check your WordPress stats. You see not much has happened since you dragged yourself off to bed the night before so you open your reader. And there it begins. One great post by that blogger whose posts you never miss, followed by reading all the comments and then on to the next post, or the next blog…
What seems like an hour later you’re turning on the light because it’s gotten dark outside and … where did that empty chocolate wrapper come from? You get up to waddle to the kitchen for a glass of water and realize it was actually a pound of chocolate you consumed after you fell down the rabbit hole that is WordPress Wonderland and got lost in the maze of fascinating posts, pictures, recipes and laughter.
It never ceases to amaze me how much unique content can be found here on WordPress. Just when I think I’ve seen it all, something even better, more interesting, more inspiring and always time-consuming comes along to pull me in and keep me seated. And it’s hard! – really hard to stop sometimes. Finding the willpower to walk away from the computer and tidy up my house… It’s almost a no-brainer, for me anyway, which I’d rather be doing. Even editing my novel gets put aside for that post that just popped up…
It’s Friday, and time for the Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday! It’s been a while since I really left the prompt up to you so I’m going to make this one of those weeks. I hope you enjoy the challenge!
Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is: the letter “s.” Write the first thing that comes to mind when you sit down to compose your SoCS post!
After you’ve written your Saturday post tomorrow, please link it here at this week’s prompt page in the comments so others can find it and see your awesome Stream of Consciousness post. Anyone can join in!
To make your post more visible, use the SoCS badge! Just paste it in your Saturday post so people browsing the reader will immediately know your post is stream of consciousness and/or pin it as a widget to your site to show you’re a participant. Wear it with pride!!
Badge by: Doobster @ Mindful Digressions
Here are the rules:
1. Your post must be stream of consciousness writing, meaning no editing, (typos can be fixed) and minimal planning on what you’re going to write.
2. Your post can be as long or as short as you want it to be. One sentence – one thousand words. Fact, fiction, poetry – it doesn’t matter. Just let the words carry you along until you’re ready to stop.
3. There will be a prompt every week. I will post the prompt here on my blog on Friday, along with a reminder for you to join in. The prompt will be one random thing, but it will not be a subject. For instance, I will not say “Write about dogs”; the prompt will be more like, “Make your first sentence a question,” or “Begin with the word ‘The’.”
4. Ping back! It’s important, so that I and other people can come and read your post! For example, in your post you can write “This post is part of SoCS:” and then copy and paste the URL found in your address bar at the top of this post into yours. Your link will show up in my comments, for everyone to see. The most recent pingbacks will be found at the top.
5. Read at least one other person’s blog who has linked back their post. Even better, read everyone’s! If you’re the first person to link back, you can check back later, or go to the previous week, by following my category, “Stream of Consciousness Saturday,” which you’ll find right below the “Like” button on my post.
6. Copy and paste the rules (if you’d like to) in your post. The more people who join in, the more new bloggers you’ll meet and the bigger your community will get!
Anyone who would like to try it out, feel free to use the “One-Liner Wednesday” title in your post, and if you do, you can ping back here to help your blog get more exposure. To execute a ping back, just copy the URL in the address bar on this post and paste it somewhere in the body of your post. Your link will show up in the comments below.
As with Stream of Consciousness Saturday, if you see a ping back from someone else in my comment section, click and have a read. It’s bound to be short and sweet.
The rules that I’ve made for myself (but don’t always follow) for “One-Liner Wednesday” are:
There are some things I just can’t help. Eating the last few nuts in the tin even if I don’t want them, straightening out a crooked picture on the wall, … writing a blog post even when I’m too tired to write a blog post…
It’s been a hell of a few days, and the next three aren’t going to be any better. Last week I had two days off (meaning the kids’ dad picked them up after dinner one day and brought them back after dinner two days later) but the one in I should have had a full day off had an appointment for Alex smack-dab in the middle that only I could take him to, so I didn’t really get a day off at all. August was the last time I had one of those. All this to say that I don’t have the energy to write … anything, really. I suppose this is what being a writer is. Compulsion.
Unfortunately for all of you, it means listening to me whine about how tired I am. So here’s a consolation. A pretty picture. (Hunts for picture.) Ah, here’s one from the spring:
and look at that – it’s not even straight
What are you compelled to do, no matter what? It’s okay, go on. Admit it. We won’t judge.
If you haven’t already met Wes, check out his blog. His enthusiasm is contagious, and his sense of humour is sure to put a smile on your face. And he only needs a few more followers to get him to 100!
Thank you all so much! I can not tell you how big of a smile that this has put on my face, I may just give the joker a run for his money. Every single person that takes the time to read, comment, like, or hitting that follow button you are so amazing. Thank you so much for everything!
Aside from the fact that I can’t usually find a thing I’m looking for in my house if I haven’t seen it in the previous two days (okay, that’s an exaggeration, but the frustration makes it feel that way) most of my lost things lately have been inside my own head.
Concentration. It’s what it all comes down to. Having a thousand things go through my head at once (disclaimer: this post will include many exaggerations. And by many I mean about a million or so.) is conductive to forgetting everything. For instance, twice this morning on my paper route I walked past a house I was supposed to deliver to because I have my novel in my head. A particular scene that I’ve been pondering… can’t remember now which one…
Too many people to take care of, (the last of which is ALWAYS me (exaggeration)) too little money to do all the crazy things my kids demand of me (i.e. taking the bus to the mall which costs $500 each way compared to driving the car which costs only pennies) (guess which one of those is an exaggeration. Right. The pennies one.), and where was I… Oh yeah. Not having enough time to write and edit, and read and CREATE! That’s gotta be the worst because it’s what keeps me sane. So I create in my head while I’m supposed to be doing other things. Like delivering the paper. And running red lights. And floundering around like a beached fish, gasping for air and dying… dying … dyin… dyi… d.
I’m such a drama queen this morning. Time to find some sense in it all.
Okay – so as some of you folks know I’ve been working hard on trying to unlock the secrets of creating a successful Kindle freebie release.
I’ve wrote a bit about it HERE and HERE and – if you scroll down through my blog entries you’ll doubtless find a few more examples. I have been doing my darnedest to figure out what mystical techniques you must use to create a successful Kindle freebie release.
I’ve met with some success – but today I thought I would set up a test case to see how NOT to promote a Kindle freebie release.
I’ve set my Northern Ontario set, redneck noir novella – HAMMURABI ROAD – on for FREE today.
Go ahead and click this picture if you want to upload this book as a freebie from Amazon.com
I didn’t do ANYTHING to promote this freebie beyond popping out a couple of…
It’s time once again for the Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday! Hopefully you didn’t have any trouble finding your way here this week. Please note: whichever blog of mine is on your screen (whether this one or the fiction one) you can find a link to the other one directly below the header photo on the right hand side. With that thought, and in the spirit of stream of consciousness writing, why don’t I just throw caution to the wind and catch the first idea that came to mind?
Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is: “find.” Use the word somewhere in your post or make it your theme, but most of all, let the word into your mind and see what flies out!
After you’ve written your Saturday post tomorrow, please link it here at this week’s prompt page in the comments so others can find it and see your awesome Stream of Consciousness post. Anyone can join in!
To make your post more visible, use the SoCS badge! Just paste it in your Saturday post so people browsing the reader will immediately know your post is stream of consciousness and/or pin it as a widget to your site to show you’re a participant. Wear it with pride!!
Badge by: Doobster @ Mindful Digressions
Here are the rules:
1. Your post must be stream of consciousness writing, meaning no editing, (typos can be fixed) and minimal planning on what you’re going to write.
2. Your post can be as long or as short as you want it to be. One sentence – one thousand words. Fact, fiction, poetry – it doesn’t matter. Just let the words carry you along until you’re ready to stop.
3. There will be a prompt every week. I will post the prompt here on my blog on Friday, along with a reminder for you to join in. The prompt will be one random thing, but it will not be a subject. For instance, I will not say “Write about dogs”; the prompt will be more like, “Make your first sentence a question,” or “Begin with the word ‘The’.”
4. Ping back! It’s important, so that I and other people can come and read your post! For example, in your post you can write “This post is part of SoCS:” and then copy and paste the URL found in your address bar at the top of this post into yours. Your link will show up in my comments, for everyone to see. The most recent pingbacks will be found at the top.
5. Read at least one other person’s blog who has linked back their post. Even better, read everyone’s! If you’re the first person to link back, you can check back later, or go to the previous week, by following my category, “Stream of Consciousness Saturday,” which you’ll find right below the “Like” button on my post.
6. Copy and paste the rules (if you’d like to) in your post. The more people who join in, the more new bloggers you’ll meet and the bigger your community will get!
If you’re wondering why there is no apparent fish in the photo, see this post: A Tuna Built a Nest Under My Front Steps! Either way, please click on the picture to see the full effect.
As some of you may have read here in recent months, I’ve been having ups and downs with my eyesight of late. For weeks I get up each morning and have to squint to see the computer screen. On some of those days I found an improvement after a couple of hours but other times it would last all day. Then, suddenly, it would get better for a while and I could see as well as I did a year ago.
Over the weekend my eyesight began to get progressively worse, resulting in yesterday having to wear my distance glasses just to walk around the block so as not to strain my eyes too much. I assumed it had something to do with screen time. But then it occurred to me.
Carrots. I eat them daily for a while but then I stop. So yesterday afternoon, after my paper route was done, I had about half a dozen raw baby carrots, and this morning when I woke up I could see my computer screen. Without squinting!
I always assumed it was an old wives’ tale to get kids to eat their carrots: “Eat ’em,” my mother used to say. “They’re good for your eyes.”
Who knew it was true?! I’m such a happy bunny today! 😀
