Porthole

Assessment of my role in the blog challenge.

An entry inspired by Mighty "a nice leadership moment. and, burning down the house." 

"you have no deadlines. You see a pile of work with no priorities and you are panicking."

Now you know my home situation! I need to unclutter... 1. by when. 2. where do I start and what's most important. 3. PANIC!

My high anxiety is real; the depth of my depression is real.

I have no 'boss' to help straighten me out although a friend has helped. I just freeze.

With the just completed 30 day blog challenge: I communicated with prospective participants, encouraged those signed up, messaged the judges, owners, this month's boss, read over 400 blog entries, sent out a bunch of merit badges. I'm exhausted but I did it all in a timely manner.

So glad the month is over. I couldn't have done my 'job' if it were an obligation (I did it on my own). I say this because I can't run the contest, refuse to judge it, find prompts trigger my traumas.

In other words, I am not 'employable' in a strict sense. I couldn't do either B or J's job. I'm not good at asking permission (I can't be micro-managed) but I've gotten better at communication.

Maybe this will be my blog tomorrow! An assessment of what I did and didn't do.



30dbc stats: I wrote about 24k words in 415 comments. I gave 56 merit badges to 19 participants.

Prompts: they weren't equal. Donuts#5 and Regresa a mi#20 (video) were especially difficult. Hay#10 impossible except for Apondia in "Make Hay When the Sun Shines" . Food#16 seemed to be easiest.

Prompt responses: non-fiction, fiction, personal experience, poetry, opinion, humor? Yep. NaNoWriMo? A few.

Participation waned after the first two weeks, but this often happens. Over 10 made it through which is more than normal. A couple first-timers made it through!

The quality... Annette made a good point about how one can respond no matter how silly the prompt. But I still believe in stronger prompts. "Yes" or "no" is the answer to a question, not a blog entry. That said, it didn't feel like a mere recycling of old tired prompts. That lead to some excellent writing, and not just from the usual 'suspects'.

Interaction: I did notice folks commenting. And I did get feedback from my comments as well. However, as oft happens, someone posts in the wrong place, or late, and they receive no comments... except from me. I did add one comment today to Shadow Prowler-Spreading Love's blog "Invalid Entry" . It allowed me to give a badge for the 20th... the prompt that no one seemed to like or respond to.

About that... I still contend that a video/music prompt is a good idea. Just not one sung in any language other than English or outside of the Anglophile musical world. An 80s song by a famous singer ... like Michael Jackson... would have invoked less ire. People just didn't connect to singers who are now in their 80s and 90s singing in a style from another era. And Mexico? It might as well have been Mars.

Personally, I think it's easier to fictionalize reality than the other way around. In a previous round participants couldn't handle "what if you child brought home a same sex partner to dinner". It lead to disbelief or preaching. Mike however, wrote about how his daughter did just that. It was 'personal' not fictional.

Taboo topics continue to be avoided. No sex/drugs/guns allowed. Current news topics were 'missing people' and 'anti-maskers'. Both elicited strong responses, but the best were related to personal experiences.

But... certain prompts may not have been taboo but the responses were:

Rape? "30DBC Day 4: For Maggie"  by Charity Marie - <3
Suicide? "Ruined by praise - #30DBC"  by THANKFUL SONALI Now What?

And then there were 'dark' entries:

Frighteningly Dystopian "A Productive Day"  by Robert Waltz because we're headed there.
Parent from Hell "Alpha's Letter "  by Cappucine because it was chilling horror.
Nordic Noir "Another Brick in the Wall"  by Ray Scrivener because it triggered strong responses.

I am thankful for humor:

Personal gallows humor "Testing...testing... [30 DBC entry]"  by Writer_Mike.
Greed! "Caffeine and Sugar - 30DBC 11/5 "  by LeJenD'.

Choosing a theme can help. SandraLynn Team Florent!'s ongoing Dust Bunny Excapade was amusing. Sox and Sandals's characters Raen and Beaoul also worked well.

We seldom see someone who joins late, but Jenn wrote great entries re fasting and organization as well as commenting on other bloggers. She really got into the swing of things.

Will newbies THANKFUL SONALI Now What?, Redtowrite, Sox and Sandals, who slugged through the month, come back again? Will a different month fit better into people's schedules? WakeUpAndLive️~scary 2024, dogpack:saving 4 premium: DWG, Marvelous Friend made it though in spite of personal issues. What about those who dropped out? Or faded in and out?

The regulars will be back again regardless; but, their input is needed as to what worked well this time... or not. My opinions are just that. They aren't fact and don't reflect the reality of each and every writer.



Earlier last month I wrote to Blimprider: "I am NOT a judge for the 30dbc... but I decided to comment on all entries. There may be close to 500 by Monday. I recruited (not my job); I cheerleaded (not my job); I cajoled, reminded and even communicated to owners, judges, participants (not my job); I gave out badges (not my job) and need to give out over 40+ merit badges this weekend based on the quality of a particular entry (still NOT my job). I decided to make a difference; whether I have succeeded can be assessed come December. I will make suggestions before January. But on December 1st I can walk away (and keep walking and not look back) if that is my choice.

All that said, I will have made someone happy this November and whether that matters to anyone else or not... it matters to me.

Wisdom from Jimminycritic:

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