One Hundred Posts, Three Quotes, and One Big Thank You!

September 19, 2015Sue Archer 62 Comments

I can’t believe Doorway Between Words is celebrating its 100th post!

Back when I started this blog in March 2014, I had a goal to write once a week. I managed to stick to that schedule most of the time. I even took up the gauntlet and wrote for twenty-six days in April during the 2015 A to Z Challenge.

What’s kept me motivated to write is my incredible community — all of you who have read, liked, and commented on my posts. I hope you’ll all still be with me when I reach 200 posts. 🙂

It seems appropriate that I have also just reached 300 blog followers. Thank you to all of you!

I have been remiss lately in posting additional thanks to those of you who have given me blog awards. I appreciate each and every nomination, even if I don’t always have the time to write up seventeen random facts about myself.

Here are some special individuals who have nominated me for awards in the past few months:

Alex Hurst, for her must-see Must-Read Blog Award

Lori MacLaughlin, for the Creative Blogger Award

Bradscribe, for the Liebster Award

Shawn, for the Real Neat Blog Award

Nimmi, for the Premio Dardos Award

I have also received a request from La Sabrosona to participate in the Three-Day Quote Challenge. I thought I’d share three of my favourite quotes that seem appropriate today:

Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.

Mahatma Gandhi

I wrote about the importance of integrity and communication in Would Your Captain Be Proud? It’s still one of my favourite serious posts. When I write this blog, I feel like I can be me in all my forms — my serious side, my zany side, my scholarly side, my imaginative side. Thanks for making me feel comfortable being me.

The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place.

George Bernard Shaw

I have this one up on my sidebar for a reason. It reminds me that communicating involves more than one person, and that thinking about your audience is the single most important thing you can do when writing. You are why I am here. Otherwise I’d be writing to the coldness of cyberspace, and who needs that?

Just do it.

Nike

I dithered a bit before I created this blog. What if I didn’t like it? What if I didn’t know what to write? What if it was a spectacular failure?

Sometimes, you just need to do it — take on those challenges and see where they take you.

This one’s taken me to a really great place. And I’m glad you were here to come along with me for the ride. 🙂

Love to you all,

Sue

Image by Kirsty Hall via Flickr/Creative Commons

Reflections on the A to Z Blogging Challenge

May 4, 2015May 3, 2015Sue Archer 79 Comments

Now that I’ve had the weekend to recover, I thought I’d post my reflections on the April A to Z Blogging Challenge. This was my first time taking the challenge, and I learned a lot from the experience.

Prepare, Prepare, Prepare

I’m glad I prepared most of my posts ahead of time. As someone who normally blogs once a week, I don’t know how I would have survived writing a post every day. And if I had managed it, I definitely wouldn’t have had much time to visit other bloggers. Even with all my preparation, I found that I couldn’t do everything I wanted. I’m a firm believer in responding to all of my commenters (and I am certainly thankful for all the comments I received!), but this left me with limited time to read other posts. For those of you who wondered where I went to, I am now catching up!

If I do this again next year, I will be sure to write all of my posts ahead of time.

Have a Meaningful Theme

I’m thankful that most of my posts were based on suggestions from my readers. This kept me motivated to write my posts, since I knew at least one of my readers would be interested in the rogue word of the day. It also helped me to channel my imagination and come up with defined ideas because I was starting from a specific word prompt. For anyone interested in taking up this challenge for next year, I recommend having some kind of theme.

Find a Better Cross-Blog Platform Tool

The most troublesome aspect of this challenge was trying to interact with bloggers on other blogging platforms. I found myself getting annoyed by CAPTCHA because I kept having to prove I wasn’t a robot. Then when I left a comment, there was no easy way to find out the response to it, short of coming back to the post or asking to be notified via email. I’m sorry, but my email is full as it is. So I feel I missed out on some chatting with non-WordPress bloggers. If someone else has a suggestion on how to manage this interactivity issue, I’d be happy to hear it!

Make New Blogging Friends and Learn a Lot

The best thing about doing this challenge (other than the personal sense of accomplishment) was getting to meet some great new bloggers and read their posts. I was amazed by the variety of topics and the amount of effort my fellow bloggers put in to their posts.

During April, I visited all sorts of wonderful places. I experienced life in Japan and found out how to interpret kanji characters. I toured through Glasgow and New Zealand. And I learned about the experiences of women living in India.

I also went back in time to celebrate the Roaring Twenties in America and to salute the bravery of those who lived through World War II.

I read lots of fiction as well, including an ongoing mystery story, flash fiction using odd words, creative stories from childhood, and a series of stories inspired by types of trees.

I got my sci-fi/fantasy fix, too, by reading philosophical discussions about science fiction, discovering comic book characters, and assessing the merits of sword and sorcery movies.

I even found a fabulous blog series that is chock-full of useful writing tips.

I could go on and on…but then the word count of this post would really push the limit!

Congratulations to all of you who made it through A to Z. And thank you to everyone who helped make this a positive experience for me: host Arlee Bird and his many helpers (especially John Holton, who helped me on my way), my fellow A to Z bloggers, and all my readers and commenters.

And to my son, who inspired me and who drew this wonderful tribute to the challenge.

Until the next challenge,

Sue

We will now return to Sue’s regular posting program…see you all next week!

Wanted: Rogue Words from A to Z

December 11, 2014December 12, 2014Sue Archer 38 Comments

Calling all readers…I need your help unmasking those treacherous words that hold your writing captive!

Is there a word that you always have to check to make sure you’re using it properly? Do you freeze in terror as you glimpse it in your mind’s eye? Does it laugh at you while stealing away your confidence as a writer?

Fear not, my friends. We will tame those rogue words together, and bring them to justice!

No, not him…we want the real bad guys!

Send me your challenging words, and I will creatively describe how to master them in some fun posts for the upcoming A to Z Challenge in April. Yes, I have decided to participate in the challenge this year. I do not fear to take it on! (However, I do fear having to write 26 posts all in one month – so I am preparing for the fight now.) I want to capture as many tricky words as I can from my readers. So please post your word below, or feel free to send me a comment with your request. Whether it’s remembering how to spell a word, or when to use one of two similar words, or where to place an apostrophe, I want to hear about your worst nightmare word. And I will do my best to give you a bounty of laughs when I write about it.

Yours in pursuit,

Sue

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For those of you who have done the A to Z challenge before, any survival tips would be greatly appreciated! 🙂

(Image from Disney’s Tangled)