Let's Take a Breather....

Let's kick back!

          After a couple of heady high-falootin' topics earlier in the week I think it's time to just slow down and relax today here on Tossing It Out.  I want to thank everyone for not only the great discussion here on this blog, but also the discussion that carried over on some of the other blogs.  I guess it just goes to show you that the topics of followers and  just doing the A to Z Challenge are topics that many of us are still thinking about.

           In between other activities I've been trying to get the press releases out to the media.  Unfortunately I haven't been able to devote much quality time to writing up the releases and making contacts, but I believe I should be having some things come out.  This is a project that I'll have to start on earlier next year.

          I mean really!  Is April 1 coming quickly or what?  It's next Friday folks!  And now I'm thinking I'm not as ready as I'd hoped I'd be, but not to worry I'm sure we'll all manage.

stuff and other stuff

            So speaking of followers, I've run across some of our participants who still only have a handful of followers.  Here's a new challenge:  If any of you reading this have the same follower philosophy as I do (try to get a bunch of them) would you please try to find at least five new blogs from the A to Z list to follow this weekend.  If you can do five a day between now and next Friday that would be even better.  Let's give some of our fellow bloggers a boost. 

            And so before the Challenge starts I have a couple of awards I need to get out of the way.  I also still have a few lost among my emails.  I'll have to get to those later.  But I'll take care of these two and you can start on my follow-a-new-blog challenge by following the blogs that I pass the awards to as well as those who gave me the awards.   I will be drawing from my commenters of this week.

One Lovely Blog Award
                

From MysteriousRose at MysteriousBooks comes this One Lovely Blog Award.

What do to when receiving this award:

1)  Accept the award, post it on your blog together with the name of the person who has granted the award and his or her blog link (okay, that's done--thanks again Mysterious Rose).

2)  Pass the award to 15  3 other blogs that you've newly discovered (I'm going to reduce the number to save time)

3)  Remember to contact the bloggers to let them know they have been chosen for this award (I hope I remember).

I'm going to pass this first award to:

Angeline Trevena / Fantasy and Horror Writer

Lisa  Vooght at Flash Fiction

L.G. Smith at Bards and Prophets




Memetastic Award

           Sandi at That's Ahh Some! passed me the Certified to Lie Memetastic Award where I'm supposed to tell 3 lies and 1 truth and you're supposed to guess which one is true.   But then I received the same award from Liz at 8-Bit Words except that hers is an Allowed to Tell One Lie Award (okay I made that up) where I tell four truths and one lie.  Now I don't know how this divergence occurred in the life of the award, but I guess it leaves me to choose which way I want to go with this.

          Hmmm--- I don't like to lie, but I am a storyteller so I guess they're not really lies are they.  So here's the deal.  I'll tell mostly "stories".  Can you guess which of the following is true?  

Wait!:  there is only one story tonight and it is true.  My computer slowed down so bad tonight that I'm not going to get around to any story telling.  I'm going to go to bed instead.  But I'll still get the award passed on and the recipients can tell their stories if they like.

Once again I'm going to pass this on to, not 5 like suggested, but  3 more bloggers just to save some time.

dafeenah a Journey of Self Discovery

Sand Castles and Snow Forts

Julie at What Else is Possible?



So I'm done.  Not going to proofread or anything else.  Done.  Finshed.  Soon to be asleep.  That's what I get for waiting so late to do this.

Follow some new blogs--make some new friends!


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Here We Go Again!

            Yes, I know its been done many times by many bloggers and you may even be one of them.  I know I've covered the topic of following more than once and now I'm going to do it one more time.  I just want to clarify where I stand on the issue.

            On Monday I alluded to a fine post by Jeffrey Beesler on the topic of following as in doing something because others were doing it.   The comments on this older post of Jeffrey's reopened and I noticed this comment from Michele Gregory of Beautiful Chaos:

i'm a crowd follower too, but am trying to change that. i'm cheating at this - doing all my posts ahead of time, and i know i can't get to every blog. i can barely get to the blogs i follow now. on top of that, it feels fake to follow a blogger just to get a blogger to follow me. i should probably do a post about that. or maybe not.   (I've added the underlining to emphasize my topic for today.)

         I asked Michele if I could quote her in this post.  She responded with this clarification:  

 no problem. it's the topic that i think of most when i hit the follower button. i want to be genuine in all my interactions with people and though i follow because i think a blogger has said something that resonates with me (as in i don't just hit the button to get someone to my blog), i know my chances of getting back to that blog to comment or read is iffy at best. i have a few i always read no matter what, some that interest me sometimes, and others i wonder if i should stop following because now i'm not interested and my time is limited.



on the other side, i've met some really great bloggers because i followed them or they followed me - you, Kristie Cook, Lisa Yarde, Alex Cavanaugh and others. i might have missed those friendships if i hadn't followed their blogs. i don't think there are any easy answers. and i do want people to follow me because i try to be encouraging, etc. it's not so much about promoting my books as it is to give readers a lift. i know that i have to follow and comment to get people to come so they'll read those posts.


not sure if any of that makes sense, but there you go. and you can quote this response too if you'd like.

           What Michele's said does make sense and I want to thank Michele for allowing me to quote her because she expresses concerns that many of us think about.   In the list below I want to try to clarify my personal opinion, philosophy, rule, or whatever you'd call it concerning the multiple definitions of "following"

1.     I want to have a large "following", that is number of followers to my blog.  With this comes the understanding that not all of the followers will always be readers.  The numbers are mostly for show, but also for that possibility that a non-regular reader might occasionally come back to check out what's happening on my blog.   A large following looks good to most people (including agents or any professionals wanting to see something about my platform).

2.     I believe in the reciprocation of the follow.  Whenever I can I will follow back anyone who follows my blog.   It always helps if when someone follows my blog, they let me know in a comment so it is obvious to me.   Silently following me does not guarantee a follow back.   I want to be told.

3.     There is no limit for me as to the number of blogs I will follow, but no matter if I'm following 200 or 20,000 blogs, I will not be "following" the majority of these in the sense of reading them on a regular basis.  I will prioritize according to the commenters on my blog first, and then the ones that happen to catch my interest.

4.   If the follow has to do with reciprocation then I don't think there is anything fake about it.  I believe it is a ritualistic blog act that is often found associated with blogfests and "follow days".   When most of us hit the follow button I think we know that there is no guarantee of a close, lasting, on-going relationship.  It can develop, but it is something that relies on mutual interests and goals.

5.   I will unfollow only if a blogger is rude, crude, or is in such extreme opposition to my values that it might hurt my reputation if anyone knew I was following that blog.   That has happened very few times.

6.   I tend to be wary of those bloggers who invite me to follow their blogs as though they are in some way so special that they never have to visit or follow anyone else's blogs.  Unless the content of that blog is so utterly amazing that I am compelled to stay, I will unfollow them eventually if I have happened to follow from their original invitation.  Those bloggers do strike me as fake and not at all interested in any mutually beneficial relationships.

7.  I only hit the follower button if I feel that there might be a possibility of some future blogging relationship, even if it seems remote at the time.  There have been blogs that I have followed that initially seemed of little interest to me, but there was something there that spoke to the future.  The act of following may amount to nothing in the long run or it might eventually blossom into something special in the future.  It's like a business adding people to a mailing list.  Not everyone will become a customer, but maybe someday they will.


            Those are some of my rules about following.  The main thing is to distinguish between the ceremonial ritual of following as in collecting numbers of little portraits, the building of an actual list of potential blogs to visit, and the literal act of following as in reading blog posts.   I wish Blogger had come up with a different term than "followers".

           On Monday I passed 700 followers and currently the sign-ups for A to Z are most certainly destined to go past the 600 mark.  That's a lot of blogs that neither you nor I will ever be able to visit on a daily basis.  I don't think anyone has been fooled into thinking otherwise.   Just like the local library has more books than I'll ever be able to read in a lifetime--but it's nice to know that they're all available just in case there happens to be one I'm looking for.

            Have fun blogging.   And enjoy the treasure hunt.
            What are your blogging rules?   Are there any of mine that are still unclear or that you disagree with?

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Why Would I Want To Do That?

The Big Question

          I'm sure many bloggers look at the A to Z Challenge and ask themselves, "Why would I want to do that?"   In fact, some of you who have signed up already may be having second thoughts and asking the same question.   You might as well be asking yourself the question, "Why do I want to blog?" or perhaps even, "Why do I want to write?"

          The last two questions I have seen frequently asked in the blog posts of others.  It's easy to question our actions when we are tired or frustrated or just unsure what our efforts bring us. And yet we persist from whatever inner motive drives us onward.  So in answer to the "Why" question about the A to Z Challenge we might just as well ask, "Why not?".

Another Take On It

          Jeffrey Beesler's World of the Scribe addressed some very genuine concerns about participating in a blog event like the Blogging from A to Z April Challenge.   It's interesting to see the varied reasons why people don't want to participate or do want to participate.  I left a reply to Jeffrey's post.

My reply to Jeffery's post:

This is a great post, Jeffrey.

You, Summer, and Bryan have all made excellent points that illustrate the way I see the Challenge. The comparison to NaNo is a good one. Blogging from A to Z is a personal challenge--it has different meaning and purpose to each participant. The best thing about a Challenge of this nature is that it allows us to make whatever connections we want--with ourselves and our own abilities, bloggers with similar interests, the blogging community in general, etc. The reasons for doing it are as varied as the bloggers participating.

The main thing is to have a good time and get what you need from it. Stressing or self-deprecation is not a good thing for anyone to do, so I hope the Challenge doesn't have this affect on anyone.

 I know a lot of other bloggers have reservations about participating because of some of the things you mention.

Love posts like these that stimulate thought. That's what blogging should be in my world.

Lee
Tossing It Out and the Blogging From A to Z April Challenge 2011
February 2, 2011 9:03 AM

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Some Additional Points Of View
The Words Crafter from The Rainy Day Wanderer has a post which reviews some things we should remember during April and offers some new suggestions that I do not recall having seen before.  Her post is worth checking out.

Be sure to also check out the post by Nicki Elson where she will be delving a bit more into the subject of self-promotion through the press in her whimsically titled blog bit called Self-Promotion Sucks.  I think it will be worth your time since it comes from the voice of experience.

Marcus from Writing Investigated has an interesting A to Z navigation badge that some of you may want to check out.   See his post about it and you can direct any questions to him about this.

How About You?
Is there any news from any of you?   Anybody get press coverage yet besides Nicki?   Any major werewolf events after this past week-end's Supermoon?



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