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SoCS – Making Light

I wonder when the phrase “making light of a situation” began to take on a mostly negative connotation. I try to find the positive in most things. Making light of them induces, in me at least, the idea that all is not always dark. That there is always a light at the end of a tunnel… that nothing is absolute. But then it’s so much easier to see darkness, isn’t it?

Light can blind us. Imagine being so happy that you can’t see any possibility of misery in the future. But then misery hits and things are never darker. Does it mean that we should look for darkness in the light as well as light in the darkness? Perhaps.

But back to my first thought – I have to wonder if the coming of our politically correct society caused the increase in seeing “making light” a bad thing rather than good. Everywhere I go these days, people are getting up in arms about this or that. Finding insult in everything under the sun. I sometimes wish we could just all “be,” without constantly being criticized for what we are and things we do and say. We’ll never please everyone, but what happened to Thumper’s old line, “If you can’t say something nice, don’t say nothing at all”? “Nice” is such a rarity these days, isn’t it? In society in general I mean.

And so it’s become the norm for me to make light of situations only when I’m at home, where the people I know and love know me, and know that I mean no harm. Occasionally I’ll take a chance when I’m commenting on a blog or on other social media, but I’m always nervous that there’s someone out there who will take offense and make me feel like an awful person.

People need to lighten up.

This post is part of SoCS: https://lindaghill.com/2015/09/04/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-sept-515/ Anyone can join in the fun – click the link to find out how!

SoCS badge 2015


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The Friday Reminder and Prompt for #SoCS Sept 5/15

And now for something completely different… because it’s Friday of course! And what better thing to receive on a Friday than your Stream of Consciousness Saturday prompt? I’m having some internet connection issues today, but I should be back later. Here’s your prompt for this week:

Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is: “light.”  Make use of it any way you like. Have fun!

After you’ve written your Saturday post tomorrow, please link it here at this week’s prompt page and check to make sure it’s here 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!!

SoCS badge 2015

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,” “Begin with the word ‘The’,” or simply a single word to get your started.

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!

7. As a suggestion, tag your post “SoCS” and/or “#SoCS” for more exposure and more views.

8. Have fun!


by 26 Comments

One-Liner Wednesday – It’s all about self-motivation

I know I’ll be okay as long as I am my own fiercest competitor.

 

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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. Please ensure that the One-Liner Wednesday you’re pinging back to is this week’s! Otherwise, no one will likely see it but me.

As with Stream of Consciousness Saturday (SoCS), 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.

Unlike SoCS, this is not a prompt so there’s no need to stick to the same “theme.”

The rules that I’ve made for myself (but don’t always follow) for “One-Liner Wednesday” are:

1. Make it one sentence.

2. Make it either funny or inspirational.

3. Use our unique tag #1linerWeds!

4. Have fun!


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I did it!

365 days in a row! Strangely enough, I can’t decide if it feels like an big accomplishment or not. For the past year I’ve written a scene for each day and posted it on my fiction blog. Some I wrote ahead of time but most were written five minutes before they went live. Consequently I’ll admit they weren’t all fantastic. But during the past year I’ve met some new people, had a couple of people enjoy my scenes on a daily basis – I was once even dubbed a comic genius. Not sure about that, but I did get a lot of laughs.

And now it’s all done and I feel a little lost. I’m not sure what to do next. I’ve considered writing another series but have it scheduled to come out in a year from when it’s written, so I have time to properly edit it. I found writing a series as I just did on the fly created a few gaping plot holes and dangling story lines. At the very least I’ll probably take some time off from the grueling schedule of having to come up with an idea every day while I think about what my next project will be.

It’s been fun though. I do my best work under pressure it seems – Scenes from the Second Seat on the Right has taught me at least that. And I find it interesting that there’s a never-ending fount of scenarios out there, only a small amount of which were inspired by an actual occurrence.

I’d like to thank everyone who read at least one of my scenes, and especially my regular readers. I wouldn’t have been able to keep going without you.

Thank you. 🙂

You can find my fiction blog here: http://lindaghillfiction.com/


by 35 Comments

The Friday Reminder and Prompt for #SoCS August 29/15

It’s Friday! And what better way to celebrate than with your Friday Stream of Consciousness Saturday prompt? This is the last unofficial prompt of the summer if we count September as a fall month … where summer go? Is it just me or did it go by fast? Anyway, here’s your prompt for this week:

Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is: “four-letter word.”  Use any four-letter word as your theme. Enjoy!

After you’ve written your Saturday post tomorrow, please link it here at this week’s prompt page and check to make sure it’s here 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!!

SoCS badge 2015

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,” “Begin with the word ‘The’,” or simply a single word to get your started.

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!

7. As a suggestion, tag your post “SoCS” and/or “#SoCS” for more exposure and more views.

8. Have fun!


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#1linerWeds

Before I post this week’s One-Liner Wednesday I want to record the results of our poll. Since I can’t close a poll and just leave it there (there’s a section to set an expiration time for voting but it seems useless), it seems the poll will remain open on this post.

I’m capping it off here:

hashtag poll

As you can see the decision is definite. Our new hashtag is Mr. John Holton’s suggestion of #1linerWeds.

Make sure you use it in your one-liner post this week!


by 6 Comments

Hashtag Poll – We Need Your Vote!

As you may know, after The Great Twitter Fiasco of last week (read about it here if you haven’t already) I decided that we need a new hashtag for One-Liner Wednesday. There were some fantastic suggestions but only four of them turned up to be already unused. (The most popular ones in the last post’s comments–#1LW and #OLW are the most used of all. OLW is for both “Operation Live Well” and “Only Living Witness,” neither of which I feel strong enough to take on … particularly the witness one…)

So here are the ones we can vote for:

Sandra J. Jackson’s #1__erWed
John Holton’s #1linerWeds
Pamela’s #Your1lineWed
or Willow’s #lindas1linerWed

The Poll

I’ll close the poll before I post this week’s One-Liner Wednesday. If there’s a tie, I’ll decide.

Let’s do this thing!! Vote now!


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The Friday Reminder and Prompt for #SoCS August 22/15

Friday! We should write a jingle just for Friday to attach to our alarm clocks so we know without a doubt it’s here when we wake up. Because Friday means it’s time for your Stream of Consciousness Saturday prompt! Here it is:

Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is: “mind.”  Use it any way you think to. Have fun!

After you’ve written your Saturday post tomorrow, please link it here at this week’s prompt page and check to make sure it’s here 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!!

SoCS badge 2015

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,” “Begin with the word ‘The’,” or simply a single word to get your started.

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!

7. As a suggestion, tag your post “SoCS” and/or “#SoCS” for more exposure and more views.

8. Have fun!


by 34 Comments

One-Liner Wednesdays and Hashtags

A few weeks back I was delighted to discover there was an hashtag on Twitter – #1lineWed – that I thought would be nice to use for our weekly prompt of the same name here on WordPress. I spoke to the lady who, I assume, came up with the hashtag. It turned out that it was in use as a prompt for writers to post one line of their work-in-progress on Twitter. The “owner” of the hashtag and I discussed it and came to the conclusion that the more the hashtag was used, the more exposure both our prompts would receive. Good for everyone, right?

However, the “users” of #1lineWed have other ideas. I keep getting complaints that I’m using it wrong – that it’s not for me because I don’t participate in the prompt they’re used to seeing. For instance, this tweet (directly quoted) I received this morning:

in case you didn’t know, this # is for writers to share there lines and there is a theme each week.

I’ve come to the conclusion that it’s not worth the hassle of getting chewed out by people who think they own the hashtag. Therefore, I will be changing the “rules” of One-Liner Wednesday once again.

I’ll take suggestions on a hashtag that won’t infringe on anyone else’s ownership rights.  One that we can share not only amongst ourselves but with the world in general. Because we’re nice like that. Please leave your ideas in the comments below – if there are enough, maybe we’ll do a poll next week and vote on it. 😀


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SoCS – Today

Today I got a few things accomplished.

Tonight I went out with friends for dinner and drinks – something I haven’t done in many years.

It’s important, I think, to connect with people. I consider myself lucky to have friends. Friends aren’t something I’ve had a lot of in my life, at least not since high school. Oh, I’ve had a few here and there, but the life I lead isn’t one many people can find something in common with. I’m a parent, yes, but my kids are … special. Being a writer and admitting it usually results in people looking at me as though I’ve grown an extra head.

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freedigitalphotos.net

Wine is good. Friends are good. Here’s a goat.

This odd yet intensely personal post is brought to you by Stream of Consciousness Saturday. https://lindaghill.com/2015/08/14/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-august-1515/

SoCS badge 2015

It’s fun for everyone!