DIY MFA: Writing Sprints and a Marathon

Today I wanted to give you all an update on DIY MFA.  Over the next two weeks , I'll be doing a few lead-up "DIY MFA Orientation" posts, explaining some background (especially important if you're new to DIY MFA and didn't participate in the fall).  A week from this Monday, I'll be opening sign-ups for DIY MFA 2.O and I'll be announcing a sooper-seekrit, sooper-exciting giveaway.

But first off, I wanted to talk about two things that I'm really excited about but are new to DIY MFA this time around.  These are: writing sprints and a writing marathon.

Every Saturday during April, I'll be doing DIY MFA Writing Sprints.

Here's how it works:  I'll be blocking out a chunk of time (between one and three hours) each Saturday in April to make a mega-push on my writing.  Sure, this might mean making some sacrifices--like waking up an hour, or two, or three earlier than usual (ugh)--but we writers need to get used to making sacrifices for our work.  These sprints will be good practice.

I'm telling you about these sprints because I'd love for you to join me!

I'll be making some iggilicious badges that you can post on your blog to show off your awesome weekend accomplishment.  Also, you can use the twitter hash tag #diymfa to share how long or how much you wrote.  If you don't tweet, you can also share your results in the comments for that day's DIY MFA post.  Cheer-leading other DIY MFA tweeps is strongly encouraged.  The idea is to create an online community of DIY MFAers writing together and encouraging each other even if they're in totally different locations across the globe.

On Sunday May 1st, to celebrate the end of DIY MFA, I'll be doing a Writing MARATHON.  This idea was inspired by Natalie Goldberg's Writing Down the Bones but is a little bit different.  Rather than committing to a specific time/place, writers can commit either to a full marathon (~6 hours) or a half marathon (~3 hours), then write those hours whenever or wherever during that day.

I myself will camp out somewhere in NYC and write ALL DAY.  I'll post where I'm writing so that folks in NYC can come by and join even if it's just for a short sprint.  Also, like with the sprints, people are encouraged to tweet their progress and encourage each other to make it through the marathon.  At the end of the day, we'll have a post-marathon, post-DIY MFA twitter party!

So my question for you is: are you in?

Two Words about Social Media: Don't Panic

One of the sessions I was super-excited for at the Writer's Digest Conference was the Social Media panel.  After all, over the last year or so, I've become almost addicted to fairly comfortable with connecting to readers and writers through blogging or twitter or other webby things.

I've been to plenty of conferences with panels on social media and I find they always run into the same glitch.  The speakers are super-talented and the audience wants to hear what they have to say.  The trouble is, the panelists and audience are speaking in different languages.

I didn't do an empirical study, but here are a few things I observed during the session:

• Very few young whipper-snappers in the audience, tweeting the panel from their iPhones.  (OK, I guess I'm a whipper-snapper but I didn't tweet from my phone because I'm morally opposed to phones that do more than work like phones.)
• Hardly any people clicking on their laptops (fewer than what I noticed at other panels, in fact).  A lot of people taking notes by hand.
• When the moderator asked how many people in the audience had a twitter account, only a few people raised their hands.
• When the moderator asked how many used social media to interact with industry professionals who would be at this conference, no one raised their hands.  (I almost raised my hand, but then I was embarrassed because no one else did.  Remember, I'm shy.)
• Based on a lot of the questions that came up in Q&A, most of the people at the session were just starting to get their feet wet in the world of social media.
• As the discussion and Q&A progressed, I noticed more and more writers around me looking like they were about to have a nervous breakdown.

Despite these obstacles,  I was blown away by the awesome I observed from both the audience and speakers at the session.  This session had everything to be an incredible opportunity.  Writers hungry for information were present and motivated to connect with some of the leading industry professionals in the field of social media.  Both sides of the equation were there, but it seemed like there was one crucial piece missing in the middle.  What it needed was some way to bridge the gap.

How do we solve this problem?  Personally I'm a believer in baby steps.  When people get overwhelmed with too much information, they end up shutting down altogether.  The idea is to help them take one tiny step outside their comfort zones.  Once they've grown comfortable with that, they take another step.  And so on.

This is where you come in.  Think back to when you were new at all this social media stuff.  For some of you, it could have been last week; for others, it was back in 1989.  The point is, somehow or other, you learned to get comfortable with it and to make it work for you.  All sans meltdown.

I want to know: If you had one piece of advice or one small step you'd recommend to a newbie, what would it be?

Here's mine:

From The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Google Reader

One of the most important ways to Boost Your Blog is to interact with other bloggers and read their blogs as well.  We've all heard this a zillion times: to get people to follow and read your blog, you need to read/follow other people's blogs.  Easier said than done, right?

A few months ago, my good friend Ghenet (from All About Them Words) showed me this awesome tool that has made keeping up with blogs I follow super easy. It's called Google Reader, but it should probably be called Blogging Lifesaver, because it's seriously changed how I read blogs.  OK, so this is probably not all that new to most of you and you must think me a computer dunce for thinking this is awesome, but humor me OK? 

This is what Google Reader looks like.  If you have a gmail or blogger account, then you can use that with Google Reader.  When you log in, your reader will look something like this:

Here are a few tricks I've learned to keep things organized and make checking blogs super-easy:

1)  Make folders for different blogs you follow.  I have one folder for publishing-related blogs, one for writers I absolutely must read, one for DIY MFA peeps (because during September I wanted to keep up with their blogs in case they posted about DIY MFA stuff), and so on.  Having blogs in folders works for me because in a pinch, I just check one or two folders, depending on what I'm looking to read at that moment.

2)  Use iGoogle and put a Google Reader widget on your page.  iGoogle is a personalized version of Google that allows you to put widgets on your Google homepage (weather, news, gmail, google reader, etc.)  I keep both my Gmail and Google Reader on my iGoogle page so that I can quickly scan it every time I search for something on Google.  That way, rather than sitting down for an hour or more to read blogs, I just scan my reader widget for a couple of seconds multiple times per day.  If I read a post I want to comment on, I'll just make a note of it and come back when I have time.

3)  Subscribe to your own blog.  This probably sounds narcissistic but there is a logic to this tip.  Here's my dirty little secret: I subscribe to my own blog on Google Reader, but I do this so I can see if my posts look right when viewed in a reader.  These days, so many readers use Google Reader or other such services that I want to make sure the post looks right both on the blog itself and in a reader.  Sometimes something that looks just fine on the blog can actually be hard to read in Google Reader and I want to make sure that my blog is user-friendly on all formats.

Also, keep in mind that when readers use Google Reader, they will not see most of the design elements on your blog (like the sidebar or the pretty header, or any of that stuff).  They will see pictures, but only the ones that are in the post itself.  Any other graphics or widgets will not appear.

What about you?  Are you a fan of Google Reader?  How do you use it to make blog-surfing easier?

To Blog or Not To Blog?

Here's the big question: Do writers need to have a blog?  Given how publishing is going more and more digital by the minute, is it an absolute must in today's tech-driven world?  Some experts say yes.  I say... it depends.

The way I see it, it all comes down to two questions each blogger should ask him or herself:

     • What are my goals?
     • Will blogging help me achieve those goals?

I know it sounds sort of cold and calculating to see blogging as a means to an end, but hear me out.  See, I think writers should have an idea what they want to get out of the blogging process before they jump into it.  Not only will this help them figure out if the blog is helping them meet their goals, but it will also help them shape the direction of the blog itself.  Here are a few classic blogging goals and how they affect the tone and style of a blog.

Blogging for Fun
Most people who have blogs do it because it's fun.  After all, if you don't love it, the project can quickly become a chore.  If you're doing it for your own enjoyment, things like number of followers or posting schedules don't matter too much.  The visual design of the blog is also not a big deal because you're doing it for you, so if you like how it looks then that's what counts.  This is a perfectly valid and noble blogging goal, and many bloggers out there do it for this reason alone.  In the end, even if your blog goals develop beyond just having fun, remember to take time to enjoy the process.

Blogging for Community
If your goal is to build a community and connect with other people through your blog, things start to shift a little.  For starters, you need to make sure your site is user-friendly.  A few months ago, I asked my sister (an e-marketing guru) to analyze my blog and suggest some changes to the interface.  I never realized it before, but little stupid things--like making sure your font is readable, or making it easy for people to click and follow your blog--can make a huge difference in terms of helping your visitors navigate their way around your site.

In addition to the look of the site, it also becomes important to engage in dialogue with your readers and other bloggers.  Blogging for community is kind of like when you find yourself in a serious relationship and suddenly you're thinking in terms of "we" instead of "me."  All of a sudden you go from wondering "what do I want to write" to asking "what does my audience want to read?"

Blogging for Promotion
I think when people say "writers should have a blog" this category is what they mean.  After all, writers will need to promote their books when they get published, so what better way to do that than with a blog, right?  The irony, of course, is that of all the writer blogs I read, very few of them (if any) go over the top to promote the blogger's published work.  More often than not, the promotional stuff gets tucked in discreetly--in the sidebar or as the subject of the occasional post--but rarely does it make up more than a fraction of the blog's overall content.

In the end, each writer will probably take an approach that combines all three to varying degrees.  It becomes something of a balancing act and depending on what you want to accomplish as a writer, you can give each of these categories more or less weight.  Also, remember that it's perfectly OK for your goals to change over time, so don't be afraid to allow yourself the freedom to shift gears with the blog as well.

Boost Your Blog: The Journey Begins

As I was writing yesterday's post on Myths about Blogging, I realized had a lot more to share on the topic than I could ever fit into one post.  I do not pretend to be a master blogger, after all, this blog has only recently come into it's own and I'm still learning new things every day.  I have, however, picked up a couple of tips and techniques (often learning them the hard way... through trial and error).

Enter my new project: Boost Your Blog.  Over the next few days (or maybe weeks) I'll be doing a series of posts on all things blog-related.  I might throw some twitter in there for good measure too.  My goal is to share with you some tips that have served me well with iggi&gabi.  I figure, if I can help just one person avoid the pitfalls I ran into, then this project will have been worth it.

The journey begins with a little history about how iggi&gabi came to be.

I was really late on the blogging scene.  Like, years and years late.  I remember when blogging first started, my friends would say "hey, check out my blog" and I'd say "your what?"  The idea of keeping an online journal that the whole world could see just didn't do it for me.  (I mean, you're talking to a girl who still keeps a pen-and-paper journal to this day, and whose hubby is under strict instructions to burn all her notebooks in the event of her death.)

It was only when I discovered the wonderful world of knitting blogs that it all started making sense to me.  At first, I read blogs to learn about knitting techniques.  (How do you block a lace shawl?  How do you knit cables without the cable needle?  Etc.)  Eventually, I grew to like certain blogs because of each blogger's voice, and I started reading for entertainment as well as information.

At one point, I even tried my hand at a knitting blog but I quickly realized that I couldn't knit fast enough to keep up with a daily (or even weekly) posting schedule.  My posts began humming to the tune of: "still workin' on that sweater..." ad infinitum. Thankfully, that blog died a quick, merciful death.

Around that same time, I decided to start a blog on writing (because one blog just wasn't enough).  I had no idea what to write about so I just did writing exercises.  Online.  For everyone to see.  I later discovered that there's a reason writers don't publish their exercises: because they're usually awful.  The whole thing was an embarrassment.  Thankfully no one read it.

After two failed blog attempts, I swore off blogging altogether.  Then the MFA came along and tons of my classmates had blogs and I really, really, really wanted to be one of the cool kids, so I caved and started yet another one.  This time, things worked out better.  I even got a few comments too!  For a while I was flying high, but two problems lurked in the shadows:

1. My blogging schedule was very erratic ("feast or famine" as my hubby calls it).
2. The blog itself lacked focus.  I didn't have a thread or concept to hang my hat on and I just picked topics willy-nilly.

One morning in April, I woke up early with an itch in my fingers.  I grabbed a pen and started doodling and this little guy is what came out on the page:

iggi inspired me to reboot the blog as iggi&gabi and that's when everything started taking shape.  Suddenly, I knew what the blog was about and, more importantly, what I was about as a blogger.  Through the iggi persona I could try out ideas and take risks that I would never have attempted on my own.  I'm like the kid who blames her imaginary friend for breaking the cookie jar.  Having a partner in crime (even though he's just lines on a page) gave me the confidence I was missing in order to navigate the blogsphere.  iggi is the heart and soul of this blog.

What about you?  How did you find yourself on this blogging journey?

Myths About Blogging

Today my writer's group had a discussion about online presence (in particular blogs and twitter).  Not that I'm any expert on either subject, but since I'm the only one in the group who blogs and tweets regularly, it ended up being more of a How-To session.  Even though I haven't had this blog for more than a few months, it's been easy to forget what it was like not to know how to navigate this world.

This morning, all the memories came roaring back and I remembered what it was like to be a newbie in the blogsphere.  I remembered all the things I used to believe about blogging and have since discovered are not necessarily the case.

Here are some blogging myths that have proved false in my own blogging experience.

• You have to be known in the blogsphere for people to read/follow your blog.  If you're a newbie, you might as well give up because you're just writing to the ether.  For the longest time, I thought the only person reading my blog was my mother.  No, seriously.  And the worst of it was, for about the first month or so of this blog, that was actually the case.  Even bloggers who now have thousands of followers didn't have any when they started.  The key is to remember that we all have to start somewhere.


• You need to blog every day, even if you don't have anything useful to say.  OK, on one hand, there is some truth to this myth because posting regularly does drive traffic to the blog.  However, from the beginning, I decided that quality of posts for my blog would always trump quantity.  I made the conscious choice that I'd rather post fewer times per week but make sure each post was up to snuff.  I figured, you all (my awesome readers) would be more likely to forgive occasional gaps in my posting than a series of lame articles.  :)

• Bloggers are narcissists who only talk about themselves (or their kids/cats/hobbies/etc).  Good blogs are not about the blogger at all, they're about the audience.  The key is determining the audience and then staying consistent.  iggi&gabi is about writing and creativity, so unless something relates to one or both of those topics somehow, I don't post it.  Sure, I have snuck in some pictures of my cats now and then.  I may have even made some Brazil references or used knitting lingo from time to time.  But this blog is not about my cats, or my Brazilian family, or my obsession with knitting.  It's about writing so unless these other topics relate to that, they're left out.

• Blogging takes hours a day and if you start a blog, you will have no time left for writing/living.  Again, this is all about finding balance.  At first, I spent WAY too much time writing posts, reading blogs, commenting on blogs and responding to comments (OMG when I got my first comment ever I almost died!).  Bit by bit, I figured out ways to do things more efficiently.  Now, I try to write my posts during the weekend prior and schedule them to post automatically.  I've set up Google Reader so I can scan through and choose which blogs I want to read each day.  A lot of it has been trial and error, but slowly I am figuring out which short cuts work best for me.

• If you don't have earth-shattering things to say, you shouldn't have a blog.  When I first started blogging, I felt very isolated.  I felt like I was all alone at my computer, writing words and sending them out into the void.  Sure, I followed a few blogs, but was too shy to comment because I kept thinking: "Who would anyone want to hear what I have to say?"  When I finally got up the nerve to comment (and started getting lovely comments back!) I realized that the blogsphere wasn't some big scary place as I imagined.  It was a community.  Blog posts were no longer something I had to "produce" out of nothing; they became a way for me to respond to what was happening in the world of writing.  When I started thinking of blogging as being part of a dialogue, it took the pressure off me as a writer.  After all, it's a lot easier to join in a conversation that's already going on, than it is to fill the void with a monologue.



What blogging myths have you discovered were not true?

Hooray! And a Contest!

Hello friendsies and a Happy Monday to you!

This week is chock-full of happy news:

1)  As some of you may have already figured out, I finished the first draft of my WIP.  Whee!  I feel like baking everyone in the blogsphere a cake.  Then again, smashing cake pieces through the computer screen would be rather messy (not to mention I'd get crumbs all over my keyboard), so here's the next best thing:

 

 2)  I got to 166 followers on my blog this weekend!  That means I'm closer to 200 than to 100.  Woot!  200 followers, here I come!

3)  I met fellow blogger, Bess of It's the World, Dear, last week to discuss my critique of her piece (she was the winner of September's DIY MFA contest).  Anyway, I had so much fun reading her work, I thought to myself, "gee gabi, you gotta do that more often."

So, in light of all these exciting things, I've decided to throw another contest called:

The Road to 200 Contest

Here's how it works:

To enter the contest: Leave a comment below.  That's it.  No tallying entries or or all that icky math stuff, just your shiny happy comment to this post.  Isn't that easy?

Prize: One lucky winner will get a critique of their first 25 pages from yours truly.
(Standard formatting: double spaced, 12pt font.)

But wait... it gets better!

If you're not already following this blog, you might want to join the fun.  And spread the word because...

If I make it to 200 followers by the time the contest closes, I'll double it to two lucky winners.

Contest closes this Saturday (11:59pm November 20 EST)

Hooray!

Just to Say Hi

Hi everyone,

iggi and I have been pondering something.  See, every so often, we come up with wild and crazy ideas like DIY MFA and other cool stuff and we want to give our loyal readers a preview before we make it public on the site.

Or sometimes we're thinking something could be a good idea but we want to test the waters and see if there's interest before announcing it to the whole world.  We need the eyes and ears of our trusted readers to give input.

Or sometimes we just have fun news to share and we want to get the word out to all our online friends.

To that end, I've set up a little sign-up form in the about tab and if you don't mind sharing your email and twitter name, iggi and I would love to have you on our contact list.

And don't worry, iggi and I don't spam and we will only email the whole list if it's something REALLY important.  Also we will never, EVER share your emails with any person or group.

And of course, iggi and I LOVE to hear from you so feel free to email or tweet and share your thoughts.  Or just say "Hi."  Whatever you like.

Radio Silence

Dear friends,

I realize that I've been a bit absent the last two and a half days and I wanted to let you all know that I'm still here and still have plans to continue my writing projects!

Here's what's been going on.  First the embarrassing.  On Monday I injured my right thumb, you know with all that hitchhiking I do when I'm not writing.  Anyway, I spent the week hopped up on ibuprophen and my right hand was out of commission, which made it hard to write.  I couldn't get a doctor's appointment until this morning and that was precisely when my thumb magically healed itself.  Feeling like a total idiot, I went to the doctor anyway and learned that there was nothing wrong with my thumb.  Never was.  The most that must have happened was that I flailed around in my sleep and banged it somehow.  I felt like a world-class moron.

But it wasn't just the thumb that hindered my posting this week.  Truth is, I have a big deadline coming up and I've had to focus all my writing energy on it.  That said, this deadline will soon have passed and I'll be back to my frequent posting schedule as soon as I can.

Finally, this fall has been a time of some big life decisions.  I can't share specifics just yet, but anyone of you who's ever had to make a BIG decision knows how it can take over your brain.  That's what's happened to me.

In the end, I just wanted to write a quick something to let you all know that yes I'm still here and I will continue to post.  But for the next week or so, it just won't be as frequent as I promised.  I miss you guys and can't wait to be back full-swing.

A New Leaf

Today is my first non-DIY MFA blog post in over a month.  Part of me is still feeling a bit of withdrawal from the September extrabloganza but part of me is relieved too.  Here are some things I learned from this month-long blogging project (and I think they relate to writing in general too).

1) Blogging every single day with no breaks is hard, but totally worth it.  Don't get me wrong, it was totally worth it and a lot of fun too, but it was still a challenge.  A worthy challenge, sure, but still a challenge.

2) Planning makes all the difference, but over-planning can kill creativity.  During September, I had a plan for each post I was going to write and when I would post it.  I wrote the posts usually the weekend before they were due to go up and programmed them to go live at the right time.  This was all well and good, but it did take some of the spontaneity out of the writing so the trick was finding a balance between over-planning and planning just enough.

3) I can do it.  I know this one sounds like a no-brainer, but before September I had no clue if I had a project like this in me and if I could sustain the writing for a whole month, every day, no breaks.  Part of the reason I decided to embark on this project in the first place was to prove to myself that I could do it.  Now, when I start to doubt myself--"Can I really finish this novel?"--I'll just remember September and remind myself that if I could do this project, I can tackle a novel too.

4) Having a topic you believe in makes all the difference.  Having readers who also believe in your topic is even better.  Excitement is contagious.  No matter how excited one person is about a project, the level of motivation will only go up if you put him or her together with equally motivated people.  You guys are a big part of the reason why I made it through this project.  Without your enthusiasm and great comments, it would've been really tough.

5) I still have a lot of DIY MFA to share so it's not over yet!  Though September is behind us and I've covered the basics of DIY MFA, there are still plenty of topics to share.  Here's my plan for this blog going forward:

Monday/Wednesday/Friday: I'll continue writing about DIY MFA and topics relating to it (like craft or literature), though I won't separate topics according to day like I did with the DIY MFA "classes".  Every so often, I'll do a Monday-Friday week-long series on one topic (and I'll try to announce when those are coming so you'll know to check back during that week).  For the most part, though, I'll be posting more organically, as topics come to me.

Tuesday/Thursday: These will be my "wild card" days when I'll post things that strike me more spontaneously, though writing and creativity will usually be central to the topic at hand, I may branch out to other topics those days as well.  I also may occasionally give myself a day off on a Tues. or Thurs.

Saturday/Sunday: iggi and I will take a much-needed weekend break so we can come up with new and exciting blog posts for the following week.

Sound like fun?  I hope so.  I'm a little nervous about abandoning the DIY MFA structure but I think this plan will work nicely and if it doesn't I'll change things up.  Of course, if I do decide to change things on you, I'll make sure to let you know.

Writers on the Interwebs

http://icanhascheezburger.com

I've been stalling for a few days, trying to figure out what to say for this post.  See, I wanted to talk about online communities, how to find one that fits your style and how to make the most of them, but I kept running into an impasse.  The internet is a BIG place and there are so many options that it seemed any selection of online communities I mentioned would be horribly minuscule and wouldn't come close to representing all that the internet can offer.

The second part of the post (how to make the most of online communities) was also giving me trouble because who am I to tell you all how to make the most of your blogging/tweeting/web-surfing?  I'm basically a newbie at it myself.  I mean, I've only had this blog for six months and I joined twitter even more recently.

http://icanhascheezburger.com

This is why, instead of giving advice in this post, I've decided to tell you all a little about my own journey, what I've found that works for me and resources that have helped me along the way.

I started blogging back in 2007 with two blogs: one for knitting and one for writing.  Both were terrible, or at the very least, seriously unfocused.  I had no idea how blogging "worked" and what the "rules" were (mostly because I spent all my time writing and very little time reading other blogs).  I just wrote about whatever came to mind on that day and since my mind was often empty, I didn't post very often.  I mean, for crying out loud, I had more pictures of my cats on those blogs than I had of stuff relevant to my actual posts.

So I put those blogs out of their misery.

Then in grad school, I decided to give the blog thing another go with swimagainstthegrain.blogspot.com  It still exists… I left it up, because some of the posts are not terrible.  Early one Sunday morning, I started doodling in my notebook and before I knew it, I had drawn this little guy.

I kept doodling and by the time my hubby woke up, I had pages and pages of iggi scattered across the office floor and I had transferred the image to the computer.  It was at that moment that I realized iggi was my "brand" and I needed to adapt my blog accordingly.  So I rebooted my blog, moving from the old url to this one and iggi and I have been a team ever since.

Along the way, I've found a series of really useful resources that have helped me figure out the big scary world of the internets.

• inkygirl's Writer's Guide to Twitter taught me everything I know about tweeting, twitter chats and twitter etiquette.  She also has a list of twitter chats relating to writing.
• Adventure in Children's Publishing does a recap every week of Best Articles for Writers every Friday.  It's organized according to category so it's easy to find topics you're looking for.
• Jody Hedlund's blog is chock-full of useful posts about writing, blogging and social networking.  Here are just a few of the goodies you'll find on her blog: Learning How to Use Social Media Effectively and How Important is Blogging for Unpublished Writers?
• Elana Johnson just wrote a great post on Monday about building a blog audience: Blogging Trifecta Explosion!
• And no list of online resources would be complete without the fabulous group of writers that brought us WriteOnCon!  Though I was in Ireland during the conference, I have browsed through some of the recaps and I'm continually amazed at all the wealth of information that's there.
• Don't forget also to look up professional writer organizations.  I found this list of Writers Associations that looks to be pretty good.  At the very least, it can serve as a jumping off point.

For those who are new at following blogs, one great tip I got from my friend and fellow blogger, Ghenet, was to signup for Google Reader.  If you have a gmail account then you essentially already have it, you just have to set it up.  As you subscribe to blogs using RSS feeds, the blogs will appear in your reader, allowing you to browse all the new posts of the day in one screen.  Kind of like a newspaper.

Long-term Goals: if you don't already have Google Reader (or something like it), set it up and start connecting with different blogs.  If you've been resisting Twitter, consider setting up an account, even if all you do at first is follow tweets.

Today's Task: Since we're talking about community, today we're doing a group project!  Please share in the comments which online communities or resources you visit and tell us why you find them especially useful.  If we all pitch in together and give one or two unique answers, we can collectively put together a comprehensive list of online communities and resources.  Later in the month, I'll go back through the comments, add some more links and put together a user-friendly Resources list to post at the end of DIY MFA.

Blog Hop!

Edit (to add more info): I'm joining this a little late, but I'm so glad I did because I think it's a fantastic idea! Here's how it works: you add yourself to the list if you fit the topic of the week, then add the list to your blog by pasting in the code. Then join in the fun! A little about me: I write middle grade fantasy as well as literary middle grade and teen fiction. I'll also do the occasional story for grown-ups.

A Few Random Thoughts

Hello!  I have so much to tell you all that I hardly know where to start.  You know when you have a bazillion ideas for blog posts and not enough days to write them so you try to cram it all into one post?  That's this post right here.

That said, I've decided not to fight the random today and share all my crazy thoughts with you all at once.

Random Thought #1:  I am sorry to say I will be leaving the blogosphere for a short vacation starting the second week in August because... I'm going to Ireland.  SQUEE!  For years I've had visions of frolicking in verdant fields, stocking up on tons of wool and maybe even hugging a sheep.  Still, it means fourteen days of limited internet.  I'm thinking of trying to sneak my laptop with me so I can get my internet fix, but I don't want my hubby to go all gregzilla on me.  So, the way I'll leave it is this: if I can post while I'm away, I'll post, but if I can't you'll know it's because I'm getting my knit on.

Random Thought #2: DIY MFA
As most of you already know, I've become intrigued (READ: obsessed) with this idea of a Do-It-Yourself MFA.  I've since come up with this crazy (READ: utterly insane) idea of doing a month-long blog extravaganza on this topic.  I'll be challenging myself to post an article on this topic every day for a month, with the idea that by the end of it, I should have touched on all facets of the DIY MFA.

September is the month when most people start back at at school so it seems fitting that iggi U should open it's (virtual doors) at that time.  The idea is to create a space where writers can find as much information on this topic as possible in one place so that they may put together a program of study that fits their own writing needs.  The plan: I'll be posting every day on some aspect of the DIY MFA through September, the idea being that by the end of the month, you should have all the info you need to put together your own personalized writing plan.

My question for you all is this: is this idea completely crazy?  Is this topic something you'd be interested in hearing more about?

Random Thought #3:  Last, but certainly not least, is a quick reminder.  The Writing Through the Senses challenge ends tonight at 11:59pm EST.  If you're doing the challenge, please check to make sure I've got you on my list so you'll be included in the contest.  And don't forget to read the Writing Through the Senses posts and give your comments.  Thank you to everyone who has participated!  I'll be posting the winner tomorrow.

To Blog or Not To Blog?

Last Thursday, Literary Lab published a post about blogging, aptly titled: Who Cares if You Blog?  This post dispels all those myths one might believe in about how a meek little writer-blog suddenly gets a book deal simply on the merits of it's wonderful blogginess.  Sure we've all heard of bloggers who ended up with book deals but in many cases it's tough to know which came first: the hefty blog readership or the book.

As Literary Lab eloquently puts it: "you're just another person with a blog, and we all have blogs and it's nothing special. What is special is writing a good book."  Which then begs the question: why do we blog?  I blog because it keeps my otherwise unstructured life on a schedule and gives me focus.  I blog because I love being part of a community of writers and readers.  I blog because it gives me a low-pressure venue for my writing.

Who cares if we blog?  Clearly, we're here because we do care, because the blogosphere gives us something of value, whether it be simply a procrastination tool during a dull workday or something more.  So now I turn this question to the blog authors out there: why do you blog and why do you read blogs?