Participating in the March blogging challenge

I am participating in the March blogging challenge on writing.com. I also participated in the January and February blogging challenge. I like the blogging challenge because it stretches my creativity and helps me focus on a specific subject.

Sometimes I have difficulty when it comes to finding subjects to cover in a blog entry. Even when I have a specific theme such as a poetry form, I have problems writing more then 100 words on the subject. It is easier for me to respond to a prompt then to begin writing without a prompt.

When I sit down to respond to a prompt, I start writing and the words come without much of a problem. The biggest issues I have, when it concerns prompt responses concern syntax problems. I stress over commas, colons, and semicolons rather then what to write. I also stress about the words “then” and “than” because I always get them confused.

Some writer’s have trouble with “there”, “their”, and “they’re”, I have few problems with these words, except when it comes to typos. If I get those three words wrong it is because my fingers it the wrong keys. This happens because I think faster then I type and it causes me to strike the wrong letter on the keyboard.

The 7-day blogging challenge begins today

This is Day 1 of the Frontliners 7-Day Blogging Challenge on
writing.com. I am posting my responses to the daily prompts in More Snow Melt. The title of today's entry is FL 7-Day Blogging Challenge Day 1, with the subtitle of Here There Be Dragons.

Responding to a writer's prompt

Several different website have writers' prompts. These are single words that the writer responds to by writing whatever comes to mind for five or ten minutes. It is a good idea to have some type of timer to sit so that you can write without looking at the clock.

The writer can write anything in response to the prompt. I prefer to write in a Word document, but a pen and pencil journal works just as well. When responding to the prompt do not worry about spelling or grammar that is what rewriting is for, the prompt is to get the creative juices flowing and generate story or poem ideas.

Prompts are great ways to come up with flash fiction stories. They are also good for finding story ideas and slices of life pieces. After responding to the prompt let the writing sit for an hour or more before going back to rewrite.

Fighting Blogger's Block

I am fighting blogger's block
one prompt at a time
I free write my response
to a randomly generated prompt.

I did an internet search yesterday for blog writing prompts and found several sites. However, one website caught my eye immediately because of its intriguing and creative name. That website is mindbump: Where Great Minds Collide, which has a random prompt generator. The prompts generated are submitted by other bloggers.

Mindpump's random prompt generator gives you a prompt, with the code so that the blogger can copy and past the prompt into the post. This is wonderful because you do not have to worry about typos or keys sticking if you typed the prompt. Once the prompt is in your post, then you respond to it. After writing your response, you link back to the site of the blogger who suggested the prompt.

You can respond to the prompt by writing a story, poem, or slice of life piece. The prompts are creative and cause you to think. They wake both your muse and your brain up. The prompts make good warm up exercises for those of us who are pressed for time and have to make the blog entry and writing warm-up a single post.

In addition, the prompts make good focused free writing exercise. Yes, I sometimes post focused free writes directly into my blog. I time the free write to ten minutes, when the time is up, I do a spell check to make sure my typos and creative spell is fixed; after the spell check, I post the entry.

One prompt at a time
I am fighting blogger's block
writing words and phrases
as they step into my mind.

Using Prompts to Battle Blog Block

Call it what you will a brain-fart, blog block, or my muse has taken a vacation. It does not matter what you call it, you cannot write anything when it occurs. You sit in front of the computer staring at the screen and nothing comes to mind. You get up, go into the kitchen, pour yourself a cup of coffee, stare out the kitchen window hoping the neighbor’s cat will walk across your yard, and do something interesting.

One way to battle blog block, besides waiting for the neighbor's cat to give you an idea, is to respond to a prompt. Prompts give you a starting point; they suggest themes and subjects that you can personalize. They wake your muse up or call her back from vacation. Prompts, like a strong cup of coffee in the morning, wakes you up and gets your creative juices flowing.

A blogger can find writing prompts on the Internet. Just type in the words "blog writing prompts" into the search window, click go, and your search engine will return several websites that post writing prompts. You can also subscribe to free newsletters or join prompt groups and receive daily or weekly writing prompts.

Once you have decided which prompt to use. At the top of your entry put where you found the prompt and the prompt itself. After that, you proceed to respond to the prompt by writing a poem, story or personal essay. After you have finished your response to the prompt, you type the key words into that window and then publish the post.

One more piece of information about responding to prompts. Under no circumstances, tell yourself you do not know what to write. Instead, just start writing.