Mar 31, 2016 / Inspiration

If we were having coffee…

Get personal and make deep connections with other bloggers with the #weekendcoffeeshare community.

Have you noticed multiple posts in your Reader beginning with the line “If we were having coffee…”? No, you’re not missing out on a blogging mind-meld, but you are missing out on being part of a great community: the bloggers of #weekendcoffeeshare.

If we were having coffee, I’d tell you I’ve missed these chats over the past couple of months. I’ve missed lots of other blogging things, too, but the #weekendcoffeeshare is my favorite regular blogging activity, and I feel as though I’ve been away too long.

– “The Hard Year,” at Just Gene’O

What’s #weekendcoffeeshare?

Simple: each weekend, bloggers publish posts about what they’d say to their readers if they were sitting down together over a cup of coffee. Some bloggers do it every weekend, while others dip in and out.

There are lots of blogging events and communities, on WordPress.com and beyond, but I especially love this one because intimate posts it produces. One participant might offer an overview of his week, giving you a detailed glimpse into his life; another might reflect on a thorny emotional issue she’s been grappling with, offering a unique insight into her psyche (and maybe your own!).

All the quotes in this post are from pieces written for #weekendcoffeeshare, and you can see how differently each blogger reacts to the concept. But no matter the focus, the conceit of a post that speaks directly to me draws me into the blogger’s world and life in a direct, powerful way — and makes me want to share as well.

I think often of rituals; not the religious ones, but the ones that we do daily, the habits that make up our life. As a tea drinker, I realise the history of the tea ritual, though my tea routine is very far removed from the Chinese ritual of centuries past. There are small things I do every morning when I get ready for work, like slid a pen into my bun, or take things to my car as my tea is brewing so I don’t have too much to carry… Were we having tea, I would ask you about your daily rituals and perhaps what they tell you about your life.

– “Of Rituals,” at A Political World Tour

How do I join?

You take part in #weekendcoffeeshare by doing: just write a post, and give it the “weekendcoffeeshare” tag. Blogger Diana at Part Time Monster hosts a weekly link-up, where you can submit a link to your post and browse everything else that’s been submitted, or you can use the #weekendcoffeeshare hashtag on Twitter or Facebook.

That’s it! Participate every weekend, participate once or twice — it’s up to you.

The snowdrifts almost reached the roof of our little one-story house. I really wanted to leap from the roof into the deepest drifts, but our neighbor, the minister, was keeping a pretty close eye on me and kept calling Mom every time he thought I was trying something too dangerous.

I had my first kiss in that snowstorm. All of the neighborhood kids bundled up and met in Lexington Circle for snowball fights and games of King on The Mountain. We played until we were numb and the streetlights came on, and someone dared Donnie to kiss me under a streetlight. I remember that there were runny noses and chapped lips involved, and I went home wondering why people made such a fuss about kissing.

Where were you to stop that dangerous activity before it started, Reverend Buwalda?

– “Sunday Morning,” at A Goode One

Why should I care?

Many bloggers find #weekendcoffeeshare a useful way to carve out space for personal posts, and to reflect on the week-that-was and prepare for the week-to-be. And for folks with focused, topical blogs, writing more introspective posts can sometimes feel out of place or self-indulgent; #weekendcoffeeshare gives a context and structure to those pieces, which frees you up to try something new.

If you’re having trouble getting started with such a direct, audience-focused post, take a few minutes to read and be inspired by “Who is your reader?” from our in-house master of memoir, Cheri Lucas Rowlands.

#weekendcoffeeshare also has an incredibly supportive community of participants who are always ready to visit fellow writers’ reflections and leave both praise and thoughtful, constructive feedback. It’s fascinating to read the variety of takes on the prompt, and motivating to see how this community of bloggers lifts one another up.

Blogging has always been half about creating, and half about connecting with people. If you feel like you could use a bit more of the latter, give #weekendcoffeeshare a try!

 

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    1. Yay! Connecting! This group has a pretty high level of connectedness. You should browse the linkup the first time around and visit a few. Find two or three you like and comment, if what you like is to strike up conversations. It’s a friendly bunch.

      Liked by 3 people

    1. I highly recommend it. It’s a great way to make friends, especially if you visit a couple and comment or jump on the other social media and use the hashtag 😉

      Liked by 4 people

      2. Haha! Yep. I do believe so. We’re passing this one around Facebook as I struggle to answer all these comments expressing interest while being spammed with likes and occasional responses. I’d have see this half an hour ago if my notifications weren’t being blown up.

        Liked by 5 people

    1. It’s a very great idea, and it’s proven. I can’t even remember when it started. I’d have to dig in the archives. But well over a year. And always at least 20-25 bloggers joining in. From the very beginning.

      Liked by 4 people

    1. It’s a long story how it got started, but the article pretty much covers what you need to know. The linkup opens at 8 am Central Time on Saturdays and stays open until late Sunday.

      Liked by 4 people

    1. Any time! The great thing about the posts is they are flexible. I’ve written long ones, short ones. Ones that took 20 minutes to write, and ones that took two days. Most often, I wake up on Saturday and spend 45 minutes talking writing my week while I actually drink my coffee.

      I’ve used them for all kinds of things: working out emotional problems, talking about my family, promoting other blogs, talking politics.

      The possibilities are endless. All mine start with this one line: “If we were having coffee . . .” and that makes it easy because the first five words are done.

      Liked by 3 people

    1. You can definitely make a friend or two with this one. The trick is to visit a few blogs after you join the linkup, comment on the ones you like or identify with, and strike up a conversation if you get a reply. Then visit the ones who responded to you again later.

      Liked by 4 people

    1. I thought so, back when Diana and I and a few other bloggers were writing these, and she told me it needed a linkup and a hashtag.

      Apparently you and I have good judgment in these matters. 😉

      Liked by 4 people

      1. I was new once, and it wasn’t that long ago. I have a thing I say from time to time, both to people way more experienced than me, and to people who are new. Just keep blogging.

        Liked by 5 people

    1. I am so happy you are interested! I’ve been writing these coffee posts since before we had a linkup or a hashtag (I might have had something to do with creating the hashtag 😉 ). It was awesome for me the very first time I did one of these posts. I just had that feeling it would be good.

      Liked by 4 people

    1. I helped with Diana a bit on the startup of this and policed the hashtag on Twitter every weekend for months while we were growing it and getting it stable. Conversation over tea counts! Or any beverage, really. We’ve had people use “If we were having cocktails” to frame their posts. The important thing is that it’s conversational.

      Liked by 5 people

    1. I find it very useful for that. I am extremely prone to monkeymind. I use it to get stuff out of my head and onto a page so I don’t have to think about it any more.

      Jump in any time!

      Liked by 4 people

  24. I’ve been doing these almost since the beginning of my blogging journey and they are definitely some of my favorite posts to write/read. I encourage you all to join in, it’s a lovely little group 🙂

    Liked by 9 people

    1. Fancy meeting you here, Lisa! *waves.* They’re some of my favorites, too. These days, when I can write only one post in a week, it’s the coffee post.

      Liked by 4 people

      1. Hello, hello! *waves back* There have been a few times that my posts went up late because no matter what I had to do that day I refused to go to bed without my little coffee chats with my readers 🙂

        Liked by 4 people

  29. This sounds good and I’m definitely willing to join in, I’ve been doing a similar thing posting on Friday mornings as a Morning Coffee theme but this sounds a lot more ideal. Thanks for sharing!

    Liked by 8 people

    1. We have a rule that it doesn’t matter what day of the week the post is published, as long as it’s published in the week before the linkup opens, and as long as it’s a post framed as a conversation over beverages, it’s good to share.

      If Friday posting works best for you, keep your schedule. We know a blogger who sometimes does them on Monday and shares them with us the next Saturday.

      The linkup opens at 8 am Central Time on Saturdays and stays open until late Sunday, so having the post ready to go means all you need to do over the weekend is drop the link and visit a blog or from the list if you have a mind. And share to the hashtag on Facebook or Twitter. All of which are optional.

      Liked by 6 people

  30. Oh wow! Thank you for this awesome feature on the coffee share!! It was just mentioned to me that I was on the Daily post, so I had to hop over and see what this was about.

    Always happy to have more coffee share-ers!!

    Liked by 13 people