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Apr 17, 2014

Blogging 101, Day Three: A Penny for Your Thoughts

Today’s assignment: write the post that was on your mind when you decided to start a blog.

Welcome to Blogging U! This course isn't currently active, but you can learn more about what we offer and register for upcoming courses on the BU home page.

When you first thought about blogging, you had a post idea; something you wanted to say, a photo to share, a story on the tip of your brain. Maybe you just wanted to cultivate a writing habit — but you probably had an idea for a post, no matter how nascent. Today, you’ll write it.

Today’s assignment: write the post that was on your mind when you decided to start a blog.

Why?

  • Because it’s an idea you were passionate enough about that it motivated you to become a blogger — there’s something to that.
  • Because you’ll feel a sense of accomplishment and ownership for following through on the idea, the blog, and the post — and that will make you a more confident blogger.

Open a new post, and let the ideas flow from brain to fingers to keyboard to screen. Spew it out without worrying how it sounds, then review your ideas and give them more shape.

You don’t have to publish this post if you don’t want to. Maybe your ideas about blogging have already changed and you plan to focus your posts elsewhere, or maybe you’re not quite ready to share Your Big Idea with the world just yet. That’s okay — save the post as a draft, and hang on to it. Revisit it at the end of the month, and see how it feels then.

Don’t have an idea, or you began blogging simply to have a place to practice writing? Great, do that: publish a post that responds to today’s writing prompt. Feeling less-than-confident about your idea? Take a look at our post on breaking down your internal critic.

Have more to say? Head to The Commons.

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  6. I began my blog, not long ago, as a place for literary and film criticism, or, more precisely, a place to which I could transfer my Amazon reviews so they’d actually get some reads and less passive aggressive comments haha. I’m afraid I had no big idea, though I do love blogging!

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  11. So glad to be in the right place, finally! I did the assignments for day 1 and 2, but I was in the 201 section, so I couldn’t comment here.

    For day 3, I kind of stepped sideways. I started to blog because I was told I had to, to promote the stuff I was making. Boring.

    Yesterday’s challenge started a whole train of thought, though. So I wrote about that instead. You can find the post at http://robinwoodent.wordpress.com/2014/04/17/dreaming/

    Hope you like it! (It’s kind of full of pictures, so I hope it loads quickly.)

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      1. Thanks! I’m glad you liked it. You can find more pictures on my site, at http://robinwood.com if you want to see more. Not sure how many paintings I’m going to post, but I promise at least one new photograph every post, if I don’t use a painting instead.

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  14. Hello Everyone:

    I really didn’t have an idea for a post, just an idea for a blog on my travels with my guide dogs that would be entertaining, informative and fun. Once I got the bare bones of Six Legs Will Travel up, we were off to the Annapolis Boat Show. That was when I decided to write my first post, and it didn’t take me long to get it posted. Before that, it was just the general idea of the blog as a way to practice my travel writing and to promote myself as a serious travel writer. My post can be found at

    http://sixlegswilltravel.com/six-soggy-legs-annapolis-boat-show/

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