Who Do I Think I Am??

This one's about having it both ways.

THE PROMPT: "Day 28 is really leave it to you prompt."

Thanks. That clears things up.

Perhaps a little unfairly, I did some bitching and whining about not having a prompt on day 28 nor being told we could write whatever. I was a little miffed when I saw people posting entries anyway...and of course, as soon as I saw day 29's prompt later on, I completed it while wondering what was gonna happen if I skipped the day completely. Being that this is a challenge, I assume the role of competitor, and take my role to heart. I was worried I might cede some form of advantage.

Then I got to thinking...this challenge is to write an entry based on a prompt...I get that. But most blogs are generally a free-for-all, "anything goes" proposition. Even in your more topical blogs, entries are still of the author's discretion and without the constraints of having to nail certain words to others to essentially construct similar projects. Sure, we might pound the square block into the round hole with any given prompt, and all of our enties on any given day look and sound different, but the idea is the same. It sort of compromises the uniqueness of an individual's blog, knowing that 20 others (give or take) are writing about the same thing. After 27 days of being told the entire class has an assignment to write about a specific topic, an exercise I found difficult at first because I don't feel like that fits with what I do, I started to get a little more comfortable with it. Were there days I felt like it wasn't worth it? Of course. Did I just tell the world something I really felt should've been left unsaid? Absolutely. I had a pocket full of skepticism heading into this journey. I finally felt like I was starting get the hang of it, and really ease into whatever the next prompt brought.

And then, day 28. It came like the repo man. No prompt, no notification, no nothing. Like your lover leaving you with about as much of a thank-you as an explanation rather than a satisfactory explanation.

Or more simply put: If the blog is the free expression to write whatever you'd like about anything you want, a blog challenge almost feels like it's the blog being regulated by a higher industry/government/power. That last sentence in itself had to be the biggest obstacle for me to overcome before I decided to join the fun. And then to turn it around at the end and say "Open Prompt! Say what you want!" sounds kind of like preparing the students all month for a test every day, and then one day the teacher turns around and, sans preparation, says "Come up with your test." Admit it...it feels a little weird. At least to me it does.

This isn't meant to be critical. Everyone who's a part of this challenge, from the creators to the judges to the bloggists to even the people that feed into our creative urges by reading us, plays a huge part and does a lot of work to get from their own personal Point A to Point B (that being the judges having to sift through the entries and create prompts, the writers working out their entries, and the casual readers who have their favorites and find time to make some new ones along the way). That's not lost on me. I'm thankful for this opportunity to build my own fanbase and spread my words around in a way that I may normally not have otherwise. I'm glad I did this. And that's all I'm going to say about it. Thanks for stopping by.

DAY 30'S ENTRY TO FOLLOW SHORTLY!!