Rev Up Your Writing with Our Blogging U. Challenge
Want to flex your blogging muscles? Get ready for Writing 101: Building a Blogging Habit, starting Monday, June 2.
Lots of us start blogs with the intention of writing regularly, but quickly find ourselves struggling to sit down at the keyboard. Cultivating a consistent writing habit isn’t as easy as starting a blog — but we can help!
Writing 101: Building a Blogging Habit is a write-every-day challenge designed to help you create a writing habit, publish posts that mesh with your blog’s focus, and push you a bit as a writer. It’s also a great way to make new friends and find new favorite reads. All bloggers are welcome, whether you use WordPress.com, are self-hosted, or use another platform entirely.
Here’s how it works:
- We’ll post a new writing assignment just for Writing 101 each weekday in June on The Daily Post. Assignments will publish at 10:00 AM EST (14:00 PM GMT). You can follow The Daily Post to get assignment notifications.
- There are no weekend assignments — you’re free to expand on a weekday post, write something unrelated, or (gasp!) spend some time away from your blog.
- Each assignment includes a writing prompt and an optional “twist.” Prompts are your inspiration for the day, while twists push you to experiment and stretch your writing chops.
- You can mix assignments up however you’d like. Respond to the prompt, and ignore the twist. Try the twist, but write on your own topic. Use both the prompt and the twist. The only goal is to get you writing every weekday.
- There’s no need to publish every day if you don’t want to — publish the posts you’re happiest with, and use the other days as private writing practice. How much you publish is up to you.
Participants will also have a private community site, the Commons, for chatting, connecting, and seeking feedback and support. Daily Post staff and Happiness Engineers will be on hand to answer your questions and offer guidance and resources.
Interested? Fill out this quick form to register. You’ll receive an email before the challenge begins with the above details, along with instructions on how to access the Commons and connect with other participants. Get ready to get writing!
- May 27, 2014
- Better Blogging, Community, Writing
WordPress.com News 
Reblogged this on Stacks and Ranges and commented:
Sometimes I can’t resist a challenge. I have waited with baited fingers to hear about Blogging U. Nothing like a blog challenge to kick off June.
Tally-hoooooo!!!!
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Hi, is this challenge only in english language ? Regards
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The instructions and assignments are all in English, yes, but you can respond in whatever language you choose.
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Reblogged this on kayabernathy and commented:
Getting ready for the challenge to write each day!
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Sounds good. I’m already a daily writer but inspiration will be great for new posts.
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I’m looking forward to the daily challenge beginning June lst.
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It begins June 2, so don’t worry when you don’t see an assignment on June 1 ;
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I’m looking forward to cultivating good writing habits. I can’t wait for the writing assignments and chatting, connecting with other participants and getting feedback and support. I invariably love a good challenge, so bring it on :-).
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Quite a terrific idea, sounds like a lot for someone like me just starting. However I almost anything is worth a try! Thanks!
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You can take it at your own pace, so welcome!
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Thanks much! 🙂
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Will there be snacks?
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Just brain snacks. Well, that, and the weekly pizza party.
😉
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Okay, I’m in.
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Actually looking forward to this. Am also going to re-blog.
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I’ve been contemplating doing something like this but I’m really new to word press and I’m inky just starting to creat a blog here that I’m truly proud of. https://kaboodlemum.wordpress.com.
I’m on holiday from June 2nd for a week so won’t be able to post anything that week. Are these types of competitions run regularly? X
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Yes, we have them frequently on The Daily Post — you can learn more here: https://wordpress.com/dailypost/blogging-university/
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Thank you 🙂
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Willing to have a shot – managed 30 days for NaPoWriMo 2014 but this will be different.
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Getting ready for it and so much more!
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I’m giving this a go! I’ve never done anything like it before… so I don’t know how it will turn out, but I’m prepared to try!
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I’m in!
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I’ve just started blogging. Soooo much to learn but Hey Ho I’ll throw myself in the deep end and accept the challenge! 🙂
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This is such a good idea. Thanks!
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I signed up to do it this month but never even had time to read the assignments- is there any way I can start over?
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We haven’t started yet, so there are no assignments to read 🙂
Going forward, though, the assignments all live in Blogging U. – https://wordpress.com/dailypost/blogging-university/ – so you can refer back whenever you need to.
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I’m very much excited for this new challenge – from Blogging 101 to Writing 101.
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Hello Michelle,
Is this then a different class from the Blogging 101? I am interested as a way to keep up with the challenge of writing.
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Yes, this is just about writing — there are no blogging-related assignments at all (although we hope you’ll publish what you write on your blog).
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Curious! What types of topics/themes/questions will we be writing about?
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All the prompts are designed to be accessible to any blogger, and cover a wide range. The twists are totally independent of the prompts, so you can try them even if you’d prefer to ignore the prompt, or your write on a niche topic. You can always check out the first few days’ assignments before deciding whether to throw your hat into the ring.
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Michelle, would you remind me how to create a sidebar list that contains the posts I’ve written that I want people to see…but didn’t make to my top post readers list. I thought you said to use a text widget but I don’t know how to turn the text list into links.
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You’ll need to use a text widget, and paste in HTML linking to the posts you want to highlight.
There’s a great shortcut for creating the HTML, no coding knowledge required: https://wordpress.com/support/links/text-widget-links/
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Thanks so much. I will save your response this time!
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This is what i inserted into the text widget.
All that comes up is the title. Do you see any errors?
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That looks correct. If want to display something other than the titles, you can go into the HTML and replace the title with any text you’d like.
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Can we join in, sometime mid-June?
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Feel free to pop in whenever you’d like.
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This is awesome! Before I sign up, I do have two questions.
Does this include creative writing (poetry, fiction, etc.)
Also, if I’m on vacation and drop the ball will I be totally messing up this awesome idea?
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All writers are welcome and included.
As for dropping the ball, while the goal is to help you carve out a bit of time in each day for writing, you should take the challenge at your own pace. If there are assignments that interest you that come up while you’re on vacation, you can always circle back around.
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I’m all in! Thanks for this opportunity!
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I’ll give it a go. Not sure I’ll be able to write every day, but it will be good to be pushed!
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This is a wonderful idea! What a great way to get some inspiration and re-vamp my writing. LET’S DO THIS BLOGGERS!
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I will look forward to participating…
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A relative novice at blogging….I just signed up for this…..excitement, nerves, panic….all at once. I hope to hone the writing skills, hope I can keep up….looking forward to the challenge!
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This is a wonderful idea! And a great way to get some inspiration feed back from the public, I will try to keep up. not a writer just love to share my experiences in life.
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@michelleweber I have registered a few times but haven’t had any form of confirmation, should I have something in my inbox?
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The first assignment was only published this morning at 10am EST — so there’s no reason for concern as long as you received that one by now.
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Thanks, I am sorted now. It was just weird to have no confirmation or welcome e-mail come through.
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I am up for the challenge! Bring it on!
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I’m relatively new at blogging…been lurking and reading other people’s blogs for years. Finally decided to jump in feet first. Can’t wait to get started and nervous at the same time.
When do we get the email with instructions? I haven’t received anything yet.
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The first assignment went out this morning at 10am EST. Let us know if you still haven’t received anything!
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My first time taking part. Quite excited! I’m in Australia though, so the timing is gonna be a bit off. Hope I can keep up.
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Hello! I’m.supposed to be signed up for this but I don’t see a link on my account.
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I just sent you an invite to join the Commons! You can catch up on our daily assignments on the Writing 101 main page. Enjoy the challenge!
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Challenge accepted! Looking forward to this 🙂
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I signed up – but never got my “instructions.” I believe it was supposed to send the first email on June 2! Where are you?
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Hi Maureen — I see you’ve already been added to the Commons, which you can access with your WordPress.com user name and password. If you’re subscribed to The Daily Post, you’ll receive each new assignment by email. You can also find the assignments on the challenge’s main page, and each day’s assignment is also posted in the Commons.
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Very excited for this! 🙂
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