Life in progress


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What is Just Jot it January 2019? – Rules

Welcome to the sixth annual Just Jot it January challenge!

I began JusJoJan in 2014 for the simple reason that I wanted an excuse to push myself to write a post every day of the month. From there it grew to a challenge for many others to start their year off writing, to give us all a boost, and not least of all, to help us find our community here at WordPress. In the past few years we’ve had people join us from other platforms and from their own self-hosted sites. It’s been an amazing run, and one I hope to keep up for years to come.

So, what is Just Jot it January? The rules explain it all:

1. Just Jot It January starts January 1st, but it’s never too late to join in! Here, we run on the honour system; the “jot it” part of JusJoJan means that anything you jot down, anywhere (it doesn’t have to be a post, it can even be a grocery list) counts as a “jot.” If it makes it to your blog that day, great! If it waits a week to get from a sticky note to your screen, no problem!

2. I’ll post prompts at 2am my time (GMT -5). You don’t have to follow the prompt every day, but that will be where you leave your link for others to see. You’ll get a prompt for every day except Wednesday, when the prompt is simply my One-Liner Wednesday and on Saturday, when your prompt will be the Friday Reminder and Prompt for #SoCS, which will appear at about 9:30am Friday. Each prompt post will include the rules. To ping back, just copy the URL from the daily prompt post, and paste it anywhere in your post. Check to make sure your link shows up where you want it to, and go back occasionally to see other bloggers’ entries – the more you visit others, the more they’ll visit you! Note: The newest pingbacks will be at the top of the comments section.

3. Tag your post JusJoJan and/or #JusJoJan.

4. Write anything! Any length will do! It can even be a photo or a drawing – you’re going to title it, right? There’s your jot!

5. The prompts will appear every day that’s neither a Wednesday nor a Saturday–Saturday’s JusJoJan prompt will be Stream of Consciousness Saturday. You’ll find the list of prompts below. Remember, you don’t have to use the prompts. Please write whatever inspires you.

6. If you’d like to, use the JusJoJan badge so that others can find your post more easily.

7. Have fun!

I’ll fill in the prompts as I have them, along with a link to the blog of the person who supplied the prompt:

January 1 – Write about 2018, your plans for 2019, or anything you’d like
January 2 – One-Liner Wednesday
January 3 – “Your blog”
January 4 – “Enigmatic” by Virgobeauty
January 5 – SoCS – “sap/sep/sip/sop/sup”
January 6 – “Master” by Sadje
January 7 – “Memento” by Tara
January 8 – “Self” by Ritu
January 9 – One-Liner Wednesday
January 10 – “Sunrise” by Toortsie
January 11 – “Flew/flu/flue” by M. Oniker
January 12 – SoCS – “art”
January 13 – “Undiscovered” by Teresa
January 14 – “Reflection” by Janet
January 15 – “Paris” by Kelli
January 16 – One-Liner Wednesday
January 17 – “Inch” by John Holton
January 18 – “Companionship” by Di
January 19 – SoCS – “television”
January 20 – “Serendipity” by Jill
January 21 – “Echo” by Lady Lee
January 22 – “Curiosity” by Pamela
January 23 – One-Liner Wednesday
January 24 – “Zoomie” by Bee
January 25 – “Balance” by JP
January 26 – SoCS –
January 27 – “Cathartic” by Enthralling Journey
January 28 – “Testify” by Dan
January 29 – “Dirty” by Jim
January 30 – One-Liner Wednesday
January 31 – Your favorite thing/part of last month and/or last year.


72 Comments

The Friday Reminder and Prompt for #SoCS Dec. 29/18

Who put Friday on the calendar for today? Whomever it was, it’s time for your Stream of Consciousness Saturday prompt. I was going to write a post about Just Jot it January yesterday, but Alex is really sick and I didn’t get half of what I’d hoped to accomplished. Might be spending the day in the hospital emergency waiting room today. I’ll keep you up to date when I know more. Here’s your prompt:

Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “ask someone else.” Either ask someone for a prompt word or, if you can’t, turn on a TV or a radio and choose a word from the first sentence you hear. Enjoy!

After you’ve written your Saturday post tomorrow, please link it here to 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 our pretty 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 by Pamela, at https://achronicalofhope.com/

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. I will post the prompt here on my blog every 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 will simply be a single word to get you 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. NOTE: Pingbacks only work from WordPress sites. If you’re self-hosted or are participating from another host, such as Blogger, please leave a link to your post in the comments below.

5. Read at least one other person’s blog who has linked back their post. Even better, read all of them! 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 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!


60 Comments

The Friday Reminder and Prompt for #SoCS Dec. 22/18

It’s Friday–the Friday before Christmas! And your Stream of Consciousness Saturday prompt is here! Battling a bit of a headache this morning, so I’ll keep it short and sweet. Here’s your prompt:

Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “tin.” Use it as a word or find a word with “tin” in it, and base your post on that word. Bonus points if you start your post with that word. Enjoy!

After you’ve written your Saturday post tomorrow, please link it here to 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 our pretty 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 by Pamela, at https://achronicalofhope.com/

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. I will post the prompt here on my blog every 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 will simply be a single word to get you 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. NOTE: Pingbacks only work from WordPress sites. If you’re self-hosted or are participating from another host, such as Blogger, please leave a link to your post in the comments below.

5. Read at least one other person’s blog who has linked back their post. Even better, read all of them! 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 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!


34 Comments

The Friday Reminder and Prompt for #SoCS Dec. 15/18

Yo! Friday’s here! And that means it’s time for your Stream of Consciousness Saturday prompt. Christmas is coming, the goose is getting fat … Does anyone eat geese any more? Huh. Here’s your prompt:

Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “hairy.” Use it any way you’d like. Bonus points if you use it to mean more than one thing. Enjoy!

After you’ve written your Saturday post tomorrow, please link it here to 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 our pretty 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 by Pamela, at https://achronicalofhope.com/

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. I will post the prompt here on my blog every 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 will simply be a single word to get you 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. NOTE: Pingbacks only work from WordPress sites. If you’re self-hosted or are participating from another host, such as Blogger, please leave a link to your post in the comments below.

5. Read at least one other person’s blog who has linked back their post. Even better, read all of them! 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 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!


37 Comments

The Friday Reminder and Prompt for #SoCS Dec. 8/18

Hi! And welcome to the Friday reminder for your Stream of Consciousness Saturday prompt. How’s everyone’s December shaping up so far? Started your Christmas shopping yet? No? Join the club. Here’s your prompt:

Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “musical.” Use it any way you’d like. Have fun!

After you’ve written your Saturday post tomorrow, please link it here to 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 our pretty 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 by Pamela, at https://achronicalofhope.com/

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. I will post the prompt here on my blog every 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 will simply be a single word to get you 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. NOTE: Pingbacks only work from WordPress sites. If you’re self-hosted or are participating from another host, such as Blogger, please leave a link to your post in the comments below.

5. Read at least one other person’s blog who has linked back their post. Even better, read all of them! 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 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!


43 Comments

#NaNoWinner2018 – I did it!

It was a tough race to the finish. I was behind by 13K words coming out of the weekend, but I was fiercely determined to finish my novel by November 30th. I had a week to write 21,461 words.

So I devised a method. In a ten-minute sprint I can write 300 words. If I could just do two of those an hour for the seven hours Alex was at school, getting to 50K by the end of the month would be a piece of cake.

And guess who’s going to the store to buy cake? (And all the groceries I’ve been running out of all week.) ME!!

About an hour ago I finished my sixth novel!!

 


45 Comments

The Friday Reminder and Prompt for #SoCS Dec. 1/18

It’s Friday and time for your Stream of Consciousness Saturday prompt. I can’t believe I’m writing “December” in the title of this post!! So sorry for the silence over the past few days. I’m writing a novel for NaNoWriMo–only 2,800 words left for the win! More later. Here’s your prompt:

Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “ma.” Use it as a word or find a word with “ma” in it. Bonus points if you start your post with that word. Enjoy!

After you’ve written your Saturday post tomorrow, please link it here to 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 our pretty 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 by Pamela, at https://achronicalofhope.com/

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. I will post the prompt here on my blog every 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 will simply be a single word to get you 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. NOTE: Pingbacks only work from WordPress sites. If you’re self-hosted or are participating from another host, such as Blogger, please leave a link to your post in the comments below.

5. Read at least one other person’s blog who has linked back their post. Even better, read all of them! 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 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!


39 Comments

One-Liner Wednesday – Meeeoow! 🐱

Research mishaps: Looking up recovery times for anesthetized cats, one of Google’s suggestions was, “Is it dangerous to sedate a cat?”

I read, “Is it dangerous to seduce a cat?”

Answer: depends on its mood. 🤣


If you would like to participate in this prompt, 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 pingback, 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.

NOTE: Pingbacks only work from WordPress sites. If you’re self-hosted or are participating from another host, like Blogger, please leave a link to your post in the comments below.

As with Stream of Consciousness Saturday (SoCS), if you see a pingback 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. Try to make it either funny or inspirational.

3. Use our unique tag #1linerWeds.

4. Add our lovely badge to your post for extra exposure!

5. Have fun!

#1linerWeds badge by Cheryl, at https://dreamingreality646941880.wordpress.com/


15 Comments

#SoCS – The Digest Version

What ever happened to those hardback digest versions of books, compiled by Reader’s Digest? You know, the ones with the dark brown covers. My mother had a bunch of them when I was little. I remember trying to read a story out of one of them when I was a kid … maybe 10 years old? I think it was Moby Dick or Treasure Island or one of the old classics. I got bored with it. And I also recall wondering if I was going to read the story, why not actually read the story rather than a glorified synopsis of one?

Maybe that’s why they stopped making them …?

Or do they still? I haven’t seen one of the Digest books in years, unless they were in a used book store.

Speaking of books (and not to make this a sales post … I don’t want everything on my blog to be a sales post, but lately it seems to be all I do. More on that in a minute …) did you know Amazon has a coupon for $5 off, if you spend more than $20 on two paperbacks, until tomorrow? The coupon code is NOVBOOK18. I would be grateful if you bought one of mine, but it’s good for whatever you choose.

Which now brings me to what I’m loath to digest, and that’s that I can’t keep this up. I’ve spent more time writing and trying to sell my books than I used to, and the evidence is here on my blog. Or, I should say, the evidence is the lack of my presence here. Something has to give, and when it comes down to it, I have to follow the money. I need to spend more time doing things that will earn me money, or I’m not going to have the Internet to be here at all. Or food. I could give up food.

But it’s tough, you know? I feel like y’all are family here. And I don’t want to let you down. Nor do I want to give up the pleasure I get from contributing to this community I’ve built around me.

I won’t give up SoCS as long as I have a computer to host it on. Nor One-Liner Wednesday. But I may need help … no, scratch that … if I’m going to do Just Jot It January 2019, I’m GOING to need help. But I’m not sure how to do that anymore either, since WordPress has changed the guest blogging rules.

Suggestions are welcome.

I do know that I’ll be working a full time job (editing) in January, so my time will be very limited. I may drop the coloring club not because I don’t have time to post, but because I never have time to color. If anyone wants to take that one over, let me know via email at bacamjoly@gmail.com.

So that didn’t end up being a very uplifting post, did it?

Maybe next week …

I hope everyone has finished digesting their Thanksgiving dinner by now. For us in the rest of the world, it’s business as usual.

And no, I didn’t mean THAT kind of business.

Or maybe I did.

Damn not being able to edit!

heehee

SoCS badge by Pamela, at https://achronicalofhope.com/

This post is brought to you by Stream of Consciousness Saturday! Click the following link to find all the other participating blogs in the comments, and join in! It’s fun! https://lindaghill.com/2018/11/23/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-nov-24-18/


37 Comments

The Friday Reminder and Prompt for #SoCS Nov. 24/18

Hello there! It’s Friday and time for your Stream of Consciousness Saturday prompt. I hope all my American friends had a wonderful Thanksgiving yesterday! Here’s your prompt:

Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “digest.” Use it any way you’d like. Have fun!

After you’ve written your Saturday post tomorrow, please link it here to 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 our pretty 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 by Pamela, at https://achronicalofhope.com/

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. I will post the prompt here on my blog every 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 will simply be a single word to get you 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. NOTE: Pingbacks only work from WordPress sites. If you’re self-hosted or are participating from another host, such as Blogger, please leave a link to your post in the comments below.

5. Read at least one other person’s blog who has linked back their post. Even better, read all of them! 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 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!