For the last many years, challenges have come and gone on this blog and in my life in general.
Some I like, some I don't. Some were fun, some were not.
January is a fine chance to reflect a bit. Which ones are keepers, which ones are not?
Keepers:
Words for Wednesday - Link - hosted by Elephant's Child perfectly enjoyable writing Challenge.
Poetry Monday - Hosted by Diane - Link - Poetic fun.
Sunday Selecions - Link - a good idea. I will participate, maybe not every Sunday. And it combines perfectly wit my new Colour of the Month - Link.
Simple Daily Drawing* - Link - I do this, but post the results on my dedicated drawing blog.
Duolingo* - Link - Yes, learning Japanese this way is good fun. I'll keep it up.
IWSG (Insecure Writer's Support Group) - Link - A question to answer every first Wednesday - can do!
Wordle* - and many more such letter-games. I just like this kind of games.
Fredagsfrustrationer / Friday Frustrations - A way to vent my grumpy so that it does not pervade the whole blog.
Tirsdagstips / Tuesday Tips - Suffering, but not abandoned.
Birthdays - of people known and not so known, mostly poets and writers. I like to cite and celebrate.
Not Keepers:
Na-No-Wri-Mo - too stressing, I write this much only when I have an idea, and no other writing obligations.
A to Z Challenge * - too stressing as well; it might just be that anti-streak-imp roaring his head again, I suppose. And in the later years I think it has turned more into a social media event, where the thing is likes and views, instead of a blog-fest. Not something I like. I might do a light version without signing up.
Temperature Charts * - link - Beautiful, fun, but what's really the purpose of it? I stop here. And I'll show off the Temperature Charts for 2022 at a later date. Maybe I could integrate the temperature in my Simple Daily Drawings?
Back to the Classics - Nope, not going to happen. I'm not a stickler for political correctness in my reading. Reading is for fun and relaxation, not to flaunt militant feminism, wokeism or whichever recent fad-ness.
European Reading Challenge - Link - It was a good idea, Only I never succeeded.
TUSAL (Totally Useless Stitch Along) - Link - It was very fun, I looked forward to it every new moon. Sadly it has morphed into a Facebook thing.
WEP - (Write, Edit, Publish) - Link - Basically a great idea, but somehow it feels like it's only being a contest, not the help it was in the beginning. It might be me turning more sensitive towards this, I do not know.
Genjuan Haibun Contest - Link - Discontinued.
InkTober & InkTober52 - Like A-Z it turned too much of a "Look at me" Social Media event - and the people behind InkTober does not update their homepage any longer, only Instagram, so I'm out.
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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. Because keeping a streak, be it in Wordle, Duolingo, Simple Daily Drawing or any other Streak-oriented Challenge stresses me, makes me focus on the streak instead of on the thing that is really the purpose of the Challenge.
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.
Recently Wordle greets me like this - almost enough to make me want to stop playing:
Selfishly I am really, really glad that W4W and Sunday Selections are keepers. I really enjoy all of your posts, whether they are part of a 'challenge' or stand alones.
SvarSletI have stepped back from WEP for a while. Partly because the themes haven't been to my taste, but also because I feel daunted and outclassed. Which is me NOT the organisers. I am far too lazy to attempt the A-Z, and don't play FB or instagram.
WfW is far too fun to let go! WEP - yes the prompts were not me either, and I feel like somehow I'm not serious enough, not in the writing itself, but in the subject matters.
SletPS: None of the challenges mentioned are on FB or Instagram. I do not like FB; and IG does not like me! I've had my account deleted now THREE times - so IG no more for me.
SletYour keeper list is just what i'd hoped it would be.
SvarSletIt can be fun to keep a streak going, but it's not necessary and i keep doing it if it's enjoyable. If i get tired of it, then that's enough.
Exactly. I do challenges for the challenge, not to maintain a streak. If I'm out of town, ill, or just don't feel like it, then I don't do it - mostly I return ;)
SletI keep to only two of these; Sunday Selections and Words for Wednesday. I used to do Musical Monday and a long time ago there was Thursday Themes, that was before the Sunday Selections began and was a similar meme. For a while I had Tuesday Thoughts which quickly became Timeout Tuesday where I didn't post at all. I use up far too much of my time just keeping up with blog reading and commenting, I may have to let go of some of them.
SvarSletBlogging should be fun, something we do because we like it, not a second job. Feel free to be "read only" here if that helps. For me it's a bit in waves. Right now I do a lot of blogging, reading, and commenting; maybe in a couple of weeks, I'll only post twice a week (for those challenges), hardly read and only comment sparsely. And that's how it should be, at least I think so.
SletSo many challenges. I get why it's stressful to participate in some of them. I like Words for Wednesday but I think to write something in a one day is hard so I'm often late.
SvarSletI still do A-Z challenge because I like it but now I'm thinking there is no reason to sign up anymore. People don't even visit you even if you sign up and visit them. But the challenge for me is to think up posts quickly.
WEP - yeah, I also find this is more of a contest, it's good to get suggestions and corrections but the prompts are just so dumb, this year's prompts are movie titles and last year was music titles, why can't they be normal prompts?
Have a lovely day.
Luckily the prompts are often up already Tuesday for us, as many post them when Tuesday turns into Wednesday in Australia - that's 2 pm my place ... I think ;)
SletA to Z I think I am going to give it a try this year too, depending on my ability to find a good theme, but no signing up unless they change the format drastically.
WEP I have given up for now, I don't like the prompts either and I think it has grown too ... serious for the lack of other words.