Have you had a creative week? I have!
And it wouldn't have been creative at all, if it weren't for the participants of the Imagination Sparks Blogfest.
My focus lately has been on building a couple of WordPress sites (and my first post on how to start with your WordPress site is coming very soon). I've also taken a side interest in content marketing and analysing social media. Can't really say why, I think I wanted to know one thing or another and the subject became fascinating to me. My thoughts so far?
Connect, be yourself, talk to people not at them, drop the virtual - this IS the real world.
Another topic tickling my fancy is business philosophy, and how we can bring that to our decisions on how we exist and trade online. I am enjoying Tim Ferriss' The 4-Hour Work Week. I can relate to the line 'To have more quality and less clutter.'I get carried away with research, and although I'm enjoying learning how to surf the new marketing wave, I've neglected my creative writing. So, I'm very grateful to the participants of Imagination Sparks Blogfest for providing me with some great writing prompts.
We had musical prompts, changes in POV, character interviews and lists, photo prompts and even studying commercials for story ideas. I love that everyone was relaxed about their posts, without giving or feeling any pressure to post at particular times - that was the message I hoped to convey. The end result? I would definitely do this blogfest again next year (watch this space... or the one over at WordPress).
After all, I'm all about lifting the stress at the moment :)
If you get the time, pop about and visit some of our participants:
Mmm, philosophy...we'll have some interesting conversations then. It has been an awesome creative week for me too. I'll need to get around and read some more of the above posts. Everyone should have posted by now!
ReplyDeleteIn my time at the City Library today I'm browsing a book on Google+ (amongst all the other books I've desked) so went into Google+ and jazzed up my site seeing it looks like it's actually going to be around for awhile. :(
I've been looking at books on online subjects too, funny how we revert back to our paper manuals :)
DeleteYes, I think in some form or another, Google will end up dominating social media, they'll just wear us all down until we give in, so I'm not sure it's even worth a fight.
Look forward to our philosophical talks - if no one reads your tweets do they really exist? And I'll have to check out your Google+ page now.
The blogfest sounded like a create way to generate creativity. I'm sorry I missed it, but I'll pop over to some of the other participants' blogs. I know a few names on that list :-)
ReplyDeleteThat's okay Susan, anytime you want to share a creative idea, let us know and we'll all come check it out!
ReplyDeleteIt was a great blogfest, thanks so much for hosting!
ReplyDeleteYou're welcome Angeline, and thank you for such a good wrap up post on your blog!
DeleteI'm one of those weird people who can lose 2 hours reading articles and news stories on Yahoo. And half of what I watch on TV are documentaries (usually about crimes). I just love to understand things - so I think it's great that you're spending time trying to understand business, marketing, and promotion. Maybe you don't get so many words written on your WIP, but you're a smarter and wiser writer! (I added you to my blog roll so I can see whenever you put up a new post. Ha! The internet jungle will not defeat me!) Have a great weekend! :-)
ReplyDeleteI could spend all day just looking at people's websites. I'm wishing you had included links to those Wordpress sites you built because Wordpress are my favorite ones to look at. I can waste an entire day viewing my own with different themes and backdrops. So fun!
ReplyDeleteSounds like a successful blogfest!
ReplyDeleteI agree with Emily, it does sound like a great blogfest, would love to be able to join them all.
ReplyDeleteLove the philosophy behind anything - sounds an interesting book you're reading. I love this Imagination Sparks blogfest too so will look out for it next year.
ReplyDeleteHow awesome! That kind of makes me sad I didn't hop on board and join in--but then, we only have so many hours in the day, right? I could totally burn myself out being the social butterfly who has to be part of every party.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad it was such a great experience!
There is this kind of tricky balance of the business of writing vs the creativity of writing. Of course, intellectually I understand that I must market my writing and must write to have something to market, but that balance can get skewed sometimes.
ReplyDeletenice & helping Article for me.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed this blogfest. It's a great addition to your already wonderful blog.
ReplyDelete"Connect, be yourself, talk to people not at them, drop the virtual - this IS the real world." I love your thoughts!
ReplyDeleteHi, Charmaine,
ReplyDeleteSuch great attitude... I really enjoyed the blogfest... Even though I did stress about posting late.. Sorry, that's just me, I had to disappoint anyone, and if I sign up for anything, I want to make sure I come through.
Life's interesting now.... And I should have another 'juicy' installment to my novella for Denise's hop. Keep your fingers crossed. LOL. I have some interesting thoughts that hopefully will play out well!
It was a great blogfest, and I connected with some cool bloggers through it. I'm still not done hopping over all the other participants' blogs, but this is a relatively relaxed week for me (last couple of weeks were all travel, conferences, and such), so I'm going to enjoy connecting with some more people.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with your philosophy of talking to people and not at them. Quite often, writers fall into the habit of looking at the world as a market instead of a community. That tends to undermine their social networking efforts. I think people are coming to realize this, and hopefully we'll reach an era where toxic marketing tapers off and genuine connections begin.
I enjoyed reading the prompts for this blogfest, even though I didn't take part myself. There really were some great ideas. :-)
ReplyDelete