New Year ~ Challenges ~ A Review

As usual, as I look back on my blogging year, I look at the Challenges I have participated in or set myself

I can repeat much of what I said a year ago:

The turning of the year as always have me thinking ~ Challenges? Why? How many? Which ones? And so on.

For the last many years, challenges have come and gone on this blog and in my life in general. Some I liked, some not so much. Some were fun, some were not.

This past year has been an ungentle year ... I once heard the saying "waiting for the other shoe to drop", well for me 2023 was a centipede. Much - among those my family, this blog, all kinds of fun challenges, my garden, oh so many things - have been suffering from my lack of energy and joy in anything ...

Like 2023, 2024 has been an ungentle year of the millipede variety. The less said the better. But as for the blog challenges this last day of the year is a fine day to reflect a bit. Which ones are keepers, which ones are not?

Keepers
Words for Wednesday - Link - hosted by Elephant's Child, and a perfectly enjoyable writing Challenge.

Poetry Monday - Normally hosted by Diane -  Mimi and I have taken over while Diane enjoys some family time and travels the world.  Link to Diane and Link to Mimi - Poetic fun.

IWSG (Insecure Writer's Support Group) - Link - A question to answer every first Wednesday - can do!

Sunday Selections - Link - good photo fun. I will participate in the coming year, but maybe not every Sunday

Colour of the Month- Link - A new year with a new idea. It did not work out as intended, but it has grown into something different. It's a keeper.

365 days of drawing prompts - A new drawing challenge. It has a Facebook group, that's neither very supportive, nor very talkative, but on the other hand quite active. The prompts are different enough to be mostly inspiring, and not too woke. And it is not streak-oriented, which is a huge positive for me. You won' see much of this on this blog, but on my dedicated drawing blog, something might happen.

Birthdays - of people known and not so known, mostly poets and writers. I like to cite and celebrate.

Maybe-keepers
 A to Z Challenge* - very stressing but also very fun. For the first year ever, I finished the challenge in 2924. I suppose. I might do a light version without signing up in 2025. I bit off a great deal more than intended with Susan's co-apprentices, but it was fun.

InkTober - InkTober has turned too much into an Instagram event - and the drawings are very professional, people putting in hours a day. This scares me off. I incorporated the prompts in October when it fit, but I did not post anywhere but on my own blog

Sleepers
Fredagsfrustrationer / Friday Frustrations - A way to vent my grumpy so that it does not pervade the whole blog. This too has been suffering - and the grumpiness is spreading as a result -  but it's going to stay.

Tirsdagstips / Tuesday Tips - Suffering, but not totally abandoned.

Duolingo* - Link - studying Japanese, Italian, and a couple of other languages this way is good fun. I'll return, as this has been suffering, and try to keep it up.

Wordle* - and other games of the same kind. I  like this kind of games. They have also been suffering


Not keepers
InkTober52 - InkTober 52 has sadly been discontinued, after lacking for a long time.

        I found two new drawing challenges in 2024:
Doodlewash* - Link It seemed old and well established, but I just never really grasped the Doodlewash concept.

        Then I tested out
Sketch Your Day* - Use one random drawing prompts to record something from you day. From Artists Network. The recurring nature of the prompts did not suit me, I tried adding an element of randomness, but it was not fun after the first three weeks or so. 

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* Many of these Challenges are centered around maintaining a streak (participating on a consecutive series of days) the longer, the better.

For such Challenges I regularly skip a day on purpose so as not to accumulate long streaks. I do this because keeping a streak in any streak-oriented activity is a big stress-factor for me. I  know I'm strange this way and that this streak-business keeps many people focussed, but I really, really hate it and wish that I could opt out of it being counted.