The Warrior Speaks: A Guest Post from Shannon Lawrence

           Today I'm very pleased to have Shannon Lawrence of The Warrior Muse as my guest.  Some of you may have run across Shannon's blog during the Blogging from A to Z April Challenge of 2011.  Many more of you have been visited by Shannon in the aftermath of the Challenge as she and Tina from Life is Good embark upon there Post Challenge Challenge.  Shannon is here to tell us about her experience with the A to Z Challenge.

         When I first heard about the A to Z Challenge I was talking to myself, blog-ally speaking, because I hadn’t yet told anyone I even had a blog.  I wanted to feel my way through to see what I would post about first.  I knew I wanted to write about writing, but what, specifically, would I write about it?  The A to Z helped me work through this issue by having a prompt each day, so all I had to do was think of something relating to writing that fell under that day’s letter.

           I hovered over the mouse button for quite awhile before I finally made the decision to go for it and sign up.  My heart was pounding, palms sweaty.  I wasn’t sure I was ready to stick my name up on a list where hundreds of people could see it and possibly venture to my blog.  Ultimately, I decided to suck it up and do it, thus creating a kind of trial by fire.  I’d overcome my nerves the year before by attending my first writer’s conference, and it had opened so many doors, so why not try this?  No one I knew in real life had to know if things went awry, right?

         Before the challenge, I only read a couple of blogs, and only very occasionally.  Once I took that plunge into the challenge, though, I discovered that it wasn’t just about reading and writing blogs, but about this wonderful, accepting community that has formed in the blogosphere.  I hadn’t come close to imagining the scope of this community and what the challenge would bring to it.

           On the writing end of the challenge, I gained discipline relating to sitting down each day to make a post.  I brainstormed ideas so I would have a partial list on those harried days where sitting down and concentrating on writing was tricky.  I was so delighted when people began expressing interest in what I had to say, commenting, following the blog, etc.  I hadn’t realized how much of a dialog I could have going with other bloggers.  This grew even more when I began trying to visit all of the other blogs.  I wanted to explore, discover blogs I liked and pay it forward a bit by commenting on their blogs when I had something to say.

        However, when the challenge ended, I hadn’t made much of a dent in the list of bloggers.  I knew there were still plenty of blogs I’d like to see, so I kept going if I had a bit of free time.  I wasn’t the only one who felt that the challenge couldn’t really be done until the list was complete.  Tina, of Life is Good, and I discovered that we were both attempting the same thing, so she suggested we make it a new challenge.  At first it was just the two of us, but when we recognized that other people felt the same we decided to open it up and see if anyone else would be interested in making it a challenge.  Thus, the A to Z Visitors Challenge was born.  It isn’t a post challenge, but a visiting one where you make your own rules as to your pace and whether you choose to leave comments or not.

         Over 40 fellow bloggers have signed up at this time, and we’ve gained a co-host in Julie Flanders of What Else is Possible.  It takes time, but I find it’s worth it.  I’m definitely glad that I’ve continued, as I’m finding so many valuable and entertaining blogs that I would have missed out on otherwise.

         I’m still tweaking my blog, but I learned a lot during the challenge.  Not having been active before, I hadn’t been exposed to many different types of blogs.  The challenge taught me about blog etiquette, exposed me to different ideas and helped me to make connections.  It also helped me find my blogging voice.  For that, and more, I’m grateful.  You can bet I’ll be there when signup opens next year!  Where else is it so easy to connect with others and learn a few things along the way?

          Thanks, Shannon, for visiting today.  Don't forget readers that you can still go to Shannon's blog to add your link to the list for the Post Challenge Challenge.


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Life Is Good: A Guest Post From Tina

       Many of you have already received a visit from Tina of Life Is Good or Shannon from The Warrior Muse as they attempt the massive undertaking of visiting all of the participants listed on the Blogging from A to Z April Challenge list of 2011.   Shannon will be my guest on August 3rd, but today Tina is joining us to tell a little about herself, her blog, and the Post A to Z Challenge Challenge.

Life Is Good

HI.  My name is Tina and I'm competitive.  And stubborn.  And not one to back off from a dare.  Let alone a triple dog dare.  But to be honest, this wasn't a dare.  It was just me being stubborn and competitive.  I'll admit that.  After all, isn't the blogging community one big group of supportive friends, no matter what we need to confess to?  That's what I've found in the last year or so.  So yeah, I decided that I was going to visit every one of the 1282 registered participants in the AZ Challenge.  Call me Julie of “Julie and Julia”.  Although she had a much tougher challenge.  She was cooking 524 recipes in 365 days.  I'm just reading and commenting with no particular deadline.

I found the original AZ Challenge sorta tangentially.  (Yes, self-professed math nerd.  But the only time I ever used that degree was for tutoring.  My eight years of 7^th grade math and English students never needed M424: Abstract Number Theory or the  M317: Calculus of One Variable notes I so carefully saved.  ((For non-math types: in that course you write proofs to show why calculus works.  Not for sissies.  In fact, most people have to take it numerous times to get the required C for math majors.  I'm just enough of a snob to tell you I got an A the first time.)) (And I over-use parentheses and even though I taught English, that isn't part of the 7^th grade curriculum and my English education was “only” a minor.)  And I just watched Inception.  Makes me realize I had parenth's within parenths...somebody teach me this!  Or take the red pill and stay in the rabbit hole with me.  (Movie quoting is an Olympic sport in our family.  Feel free to compete.)  Ok, back to the tangent thing.

So there I was, blogging to practice writing, and to get constructive feedback.  “Life is Good” is mostly me telling stories from my childhood, or crazy college antics, some tortured love-lorn poetry for prompts, and I was participating in a meme a day, just about.  So I signed up for A-Z Challenge because I'd hit some doldrums in my blogging.  I've been reading Rayna M. Iyer's “Coffee Rings Everywhere and that led me to Alex J. Cavanaugh and the challenge. (If you're with me on the tangent thing, explain it to me in the comments.  First nerd, whether math or otherwise, gets a prize.)  See, there I go.  Competitive.

This challenge came at a really good time in my blogging journey.  I started “Life is Good” in 2009 with the intention of practicing my skill and getting HONEST, constructive criticism in order to improve.  However,  only a few brave souls, aka my friends, ever read anything.    At that point I knew nothing about blog-hops or weekly prompts, or anything about the etiquette assumptions in Blogland.  But there have been many wonderful mentors in this new world I found, and many faithful readers who have helped me, by their presence and support, through one of the toughest times in my life.  I've told some of the stories in posts, in poetry, and in rambling diatribes which probably shouldn't have gotten the “publish post” button pushed.  But it's all me, and I'm not shy.  I'm Swedish.  (Nudity is no big deal there.)  The A-Z Challenge shook me loose from the doldrums  and I met new, wonderful, supportive bloggers.

I didn't really have anything planned for HOW I was going to complete it like some of you clever folks who picked a theme for the month.  I just knew I needed a challenge to feed my competitive nature and get the blog back in gear after sitting on the side of the road feeling sorry for myself for a while.  It worked.  (For a full reflection of the challenge go to “How to Fix Your Sex Life: AZ Challenge  Reflections")   Yes, that's what I called it.  Kinda goes with the nudity...

Ok, now that you're all caught up (or going to be, once you hit the links above ;-) I do want to say a bit about the Post Challenge-Challenge.  Like I said in the opening paragraph, it's for me a competetive thing.  When Shannon commented to me that she was doing the same thing, I thought that being stubborn and competitive is a lot easier with a friend.  So we went from there. 

It's been a great ride so far, and I'm looking forward to more friendships built as those of us who hopped on this Post-Challenge Challenge train continue our travels.  Who knows what will happen next year.  I, for one, will be on that ride, too.  Maybe with a theme...

           My special thanks to Tina.   I hope you will stop by her blog and say hello.  While you're there you might even want to click the follow button so you can keep up with Tina's future posts and if you're up to the Challenge, join the fun by adding your blog to the Challenge list.

           Over the next several Wednesdays I will be hosting special guests here at Tossing It Out.  Next week my special guest will be Karen Walker from Following the Whispers.  Please come back for some great advice about memoir writing.



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