Writing Prompts, Blog Themes, and Posting on a Regular Basis

I have difficulty posting on a regular basis, some of my readers already know this. Sometimes I will post several days in a row and then I will stop posting for several day. Part of the problem is finding subjects to discuss in my blogs. The other part of the problem is time and stamina, I get very tired and have to sit down for an afternoon nap. If I do not post before the nap then I will not post that day.

After giving some thought to the problem of posting regularly, I have to decided set the goal to post at least every other day. This means that sometimes, I will need to respond to a prompt, find subject I can discuss, or use a theme. I have come up with seven themes that should work in conjunction with different prompts. This should solve the issue of posting on a regular basis, now all I have to do is manage to write two hundred words on whatever subject or prompt I choose.

These are the themes I have chosen (1) Free Write Sunday, (2) Quote of the Week Monday, (3) Haibun-Haiku Tuesday, (4) Midweek Reflections Wednesday, (5) Thankful Thursday, (6) Poetry form of the Week Friday, and (7) Recyclable Saturday.

A change in plans

I have attempted several times to have entries on specific themes for each day of the week. I am going to make another attempt this year. Some of the themes were Thankful Thursday, Website Wednesday, and Sunday Comics. I am keeping Thankful Thursday and Website Wednesday. To those I am adding Free-write Friday, Mundane Monday, Tuesday Research Topics, Weekly Writer’s Quote Saturday, and Poetry form of the week Sunday.

Some of those topics are familiar, so I may have planned to use them in the past. However, going through all my past blog entries is no an option at this time. The main goal is to write at least one 200-word entry everyday. I plan to post the entry between 12:01 AM and 11:59 PM, this will give me time to research, compose, proof read, and post the entry. It will also allow time for interruptions and a slow computer both of which I encounter on a daily basis.

Themes in chronological order

• Poetry form of the week Sunday
• Mundane Monday
• Tuesday Research Topics
• Website Wednesday
• Thankful Thursday
• Free-write Friday
• Weekly Writer’s Quote Saturday

Blog Action Day is Coming in October

I just received the e-mail today about Blog Action Day 2008, the e-mail actually came yesterday, but I just download the messages in that box today. The theme this year is poverty and on October 15, 2008 thousands of bloggers across the world will write about this subject. Any bloggers reading this join us on October 15 and write about poverty.

I am not sure what approach I will take on this subject. Poverty is something I have some personal experience with, so I may write about it from that perspective. However, this is a mixed genre writing blog therefore I could as easily write a poem or a short story. I do not want to pin my approach down yet because, personal experience tells me I will probably change my approach when the day come.

I can decided on an approach to a subject and then when the time comes to write about it I find myself taking a completely different approach. That is because personal and world events affect my approach to any theme or subject. I must admit though, writing an entry on the way poverty effect an individual and a family is most attractive. I have a little time to do some research on the subject and find a few website to include in the entry.

In the meant time, please check out Blog Action Day 2008 Poverty and join us in blogging about this subject, not only blog about it, but check out what other bloggers are writing about poverty.

Blog Action Day

October 15, 2008

Over 1,292 blogs will participate and more then 2,703,934 people will read about poverty.

I Changed my Profile

I changed my profile, for the reason go to Poet 999 - A Butterfly Emerges from Her Cocoon and see the entry "Changing My Introduction". As you can see, in the new profile I put the themes for each of my blogger blogs. Each of the blogs has a different subject and theme. The theme for this blog is writing, specifically it is a mixed genre blog.

Since I have a specific word count goal for each day, I am only going to enter dates myself once every nineteen day. This way every word I write goes toward achieving the word count for that day. Those are my plans at this time, however, I reserve the right to change my mind on the subject of dating my entries.

Focus and Writing

‘Idál (Justice), 12 ‘Azamat (Grandeur), 165 B.E. – Wednesday, May 28, 2008 about 7:16 PM PDT

In order to write, a writer needs to focus on the subject, the poem, or the story that he or she is working on. My focus has been off lately. I start to write on one subject and move midway through the post to another. This type of writing called free writing and it does have it place. Free writing is best used when brain storming a story or article, before the research begins. Free writing is good to find an approach, but it can be distracting to a reader when I use it in a blog entry.

I am not sure why my focus is off. Perhaps I am approaching my blog entries without considering both the subject and the theme. Perhaps I simply do not know what I want to say. Perhaps I need to be back on my thyroid meds. The problem could be one of those or something else, whatever the problem I am going to have to find a solution or a different approach to writing blog entries.

I tried different daily blog themes, but found that boring. Perhaps instead of having a blog theme for specific days of the week, I could use the themes without having a specific day for each theme. Just have seven, nineteen or thirty themes listed and pick randomly each day. I could also try saying a prayer for assistance before sitting down to write. I will try all of those ideas in the upcoming month and see what works best. I suspect a combination of the ideas is the best choice.

I'm Doing it Again

Fidál (Grace), 3 ‘Alá (Loftiness), 164 B.E. – Tuesday, March 4, 2008 about 12:41 PM PST

I am participating in the Follow the Leader: Redux contest on writing.com again. This is the second time this year I have entered the contest. The concept of the contest is leading entries. Each participant is assigned a day to do a leading entry. The subject and them of the leading entry is up the "leader" for that day. The rest of the group responds to the leading entry.

I am using my regular writing.com blog Snow Melt for my leading and response entries in this contest. This edition of the contest begins Thursday, March 6, and ends Wednesday, March 26. My leading entry is scheduled for Monday, March 10. Since March 10 is going to be a busy day for me, I am going to be in and out of the house all day. I will compose the entry and post it at midnight Eastern Time, which is about 9:00 PM Pacific Time.

Wednesday, February 13, 2008

Istijlal (Majesty), 8 Mulk (Dominion), 164 B.E. - Wednesday, February 13, 2008 about 6:20 PM PST

I have heard complaints about bloggers using their daily activities as their blog entries. The complaints consist of rants concerning how boring those entries are, but has anyone every considered the other side of the coin. The entries we find boring today may be the very entries that archaeologist of the future might find intriguing.

OK, I have to admit that the title Wednesday, February 13, 2008 is a boring title, which says nothing about the theme or subject of this entry. It suggests that I am writing about the events and actions in my life today. In a way it is, I am in a journal contest on writing.com. In this particular contest, one of the participants makes a leading entry and the other participants respond. The leading entry for today February 13 was title February 12, 2008 and consisted in the leader's actions of yesterday.

While I was responding to the entry, I realized that the entries about a bloggers daily life might be the very things archaeologist of the future would be looking for. Archaeologists dig through ruins looking for information about how people lived in ancient times. The archaeologists a thousand or two thousand years from now will be looking for such information as well. The blogs that we write today will be some of the places they will look at to find information on twenty-first century daily life.

Spiritual Sunday: After Midnight

Jamal (Beauty), 14 Sharaf (Honor), 164 B.E. - Sunday, January 13, 2008 about 3:23 PM PST

Daily Writing Practice Prompt for January 13, 2008 - After midnight.

After midnight
and my midnight prayers are said;
I lay in bed listening
to the noise of the city's night.

After midnight
I hear the neighbor's dog bark,
the police copter overhead,
the squeak of brakes,
an ambulance
and sometime even gunshots.

After midnight
I feel no fear
for I have intoned the verse God
and feel the protection of the Divine.

After midnight
the hours before the dawn
the verses of faith
echo through my mind,
reverberate across the landscape
of my dreams.

After midnight
I review the days actions and decisions,
I consider where improvement is necessary
to that I can make today better then yesterday
and tomorrow better than today.

After midnight
tranquility and peace
is in the verses revealed by God.

NOTE: This is how I feel when I say and read my prayers at midnight. Even in Las Vegas, with all the noises and danger, there seems to be something spiritual about the midnight hour, when a person is alone with the sacred scriptures and a prayer book. This is just a personal feeling, but lately it seems to pertain to the events in my life.

Website Wednesday: Tabbed Brousing

'Idal (Justice), 10 Sharaf (Honor) 164 B.E. - Wednesday, January 9, 2008 about 10:42 AM PST

This is Website Wednesday, but instead of reviewing a writing website, I am going to write about a related subject. Tabbed browsing is wonderful because it lets a writer have more then one website loaded at once. To switch from website to website all you do is put the mouse cursor on the tab you wand and click.

Tabbed browsing is great when doing research or composing a blog entry online. If I have to reference more then one site while I am writing, I put each site on a different tab. It saves time because I can keep the blog entry on one tab and look at the site I want to refer to while writing. This is especially nice when I need to access an online dictionary quickly.

I love tabbed browsing and use it all the time when I am online. Even when I am not composing a blog entry, I have two tabs up with different websites. One tab is usually my yahoo e-mail or my writing.com port. There are problems with tabbed browsing especially since I have a phone line connection. However, most of the problems are not that big an issues as long as I remember to save my blog entry periodically.

The main problem I have with tabbed browsing is losing my Internet connection occasionally. I can deal with this, while it is a bit irritating I is not unmanageable. First, I have to remember to save your blog entry before going to another tab. The great thing about blogger.com is that it saves my entry automatically when I am composing. It also tells me when I have lost the connection with the server.

Second, when I do lose my connection I reconnected immediately. Normally I am reconnect automatically, but not always. I use ZoneAlarm as my firewall so just by looking at the icon I can tell if I am still connection. When it comes to tabbed browsing I have one rule never have more then three tabs up at once, which cuts down on the lost connections

An Experiment in Prayer

Kamal (Perfection), 8 Sharaf (Honor) 164 B.E. - Sunday, January 6, 2008 about 8:21 PM PST

This is the first in a series of Spiritual Sunday essays. I am writing these essays from personal experiences taken from the 61 years of my life. I turned 61 on December 24, 2007.

I read an article once about a man who tried an experiment with prayer. He would say prayers for a while and then he would stop praying. When he stopped praying his life situation got worse. At the time I read the article, I thought that it was an interesting experiment, but not one I intended to attempt.

I have always believed in prayer so trying an experiment like that did not appeal to me. My own experiment in prayer began inadvertently. My prayer life had gotten to the point where I just said the prayers. I did not focus on the prayers I said or the way they made me feel during and afterwards.

When my mother went into the hospital last year, I began focusing on the prayers. I focused on one prayer in particular. That was the Long Healing Prayer revealed by Baha'u'llah. When I read that prayer, for my mother, I focused on the words and on the spiritual feeling that accompanied them. The lesson I learned was to focus on the prayer, even if I know the prayer by heart I still need to focus on it.

Themed entries for this blog

Jamal (Beauty), 7 Sharaf (Honor) 164 B.E.- Sunday, January 6, 2008 about 11:00 AM PST

I usually make two or three entries in this blog daily; therefore, I have decided to give one entry per day a theme. When I use a prompt, my response to the prompt will cover that day's theme. I decided to do this because it helps me write about writing.

Daily Themes for This Blog

1. Sunday = Spiritual Sunday, which will consist of a short essay on a spiritual subject or scripture verse I find comforting.
2. Monday = Poetry Monday, the entry for this day consist of a poem written by myself.
3. Tuesday = Contest Tuesday, I will review writing contests.
4. Wednesday = Website Wednesday I will review a website or blog that covers some aspect of writing.
5. Thursday = Book review Thursday I will write about a book I have read.
6. Friday = Flash Fiction Friday I will post a story of 1,000 words or less written by myself.
7. Saturday = Survey Saturday I will answer survey questions.