No matter how long you’ve been blogging, there is always more to learn. As part of the Weekly Writing Challenges,…
By No matter how long you’ve been blogging, there is always more to learn. As part of the Weekly Writing Challenges, once a month, we’ll be highlighting a feature in the WordPress.com Dashboard and challenging you to incorporate it into your blog. We want to help you take full advantage of all the tools available on WordPress.com to make your blog the best it can be — and to make your friends jealous of your web wizardry.
To participate, tag your posts with “DPchallenge” or leave a link to your post in the comments. Please be sure your post has been specifically written in response to this challenge; obvious attempts to link-bait will be deleted. We’ll keep an eye on the tag and highlight some of our favorites on Freshly Pressed each Friday.
Last week, Cheri announced a new WordPress.com feature: Instagram embeds. If you haven’t heard of it, or aren’t using it, Instagram is a social networking service much like Twitter, except instead of text, you share images.
I, for one, am a big fan of Instagram. The filters are kitschy and cute, and the concept of sharing moments captured via camera phone is endearing. Scenes of friends traveling together, your favorite meal, a new addition to your family: moments like these are often best captured in a snapshot, preserving all of the minute details and smiling faces forever.
Just as we can suspend a moment in time by snapping a photograph, an instant can change our lives forever. For this week’s writing challenge: tell us about a moment when your life was changed in a split second. The good, the bad, the funny, and the thought-provoking, our lives are composed of a series of meaningful events that help to shape who we are. Every now and then, we get a wake-up call where a snap decision or revelation changes our perspective completely.
As someone in the United States, seeing the photos of New York and New Jersey after Hurricane Sandy immediately got me thinking about being thankful and what my priorities are.
For an advanced writing challenge, try to incorporate the new Instagram embeds into your post to help illustrate the story that you choose to share. (For step by step instructions, be sure to check out our new Support document on Instagram.) Don’t have an Instagram account of your own, but want to try out this slick new feature? Check out the Instagram Blog for highlights of excellent shots from around the web.
If you need any assistance, please leave a comment — we’ll be here and ready to help.
P.S. We promised to tell you the true story behind the photo in last week’s Weekly Writing Challenge. Many of you were wonderfully creative in your interpretations, which made selecting this week’s Freshly Pressed posts very difficult.
Here’s the real deal: it’s a photo of Michelle’s father, brother, and sister getting ready to go to church in Jersey City, New Jersey in early Spring 1961. Rumor has it that although her father was a happy man, he didn’t start smiling in photographs until about 1982.
Do you have to have Instagram to do this week’s challenge then? 🙂
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Nope! Just write about a moment in time when your life was changed. If you’d like to add an Instagram photo, go ahead, but it’s not required 🙂
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Great! Thanks! 🙂
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I don’t think I understand how instagram figures into this writing challenge? Could you clarify it further?
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Sure! The writing challenge this week is to tell us about a moment when your life changed drastically.
It’s not required, but if you’d like to illustrate your post, you can include a photo from Instagram by using the new embed feature.
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oh…ok! I was hung up on whether the instagram sequence was the main component! I understand now…thank you!
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No problem! Looking forward to seeing your entry 🙂
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I think the “Challenge” is if you use an Instagram photo along with the “moment in time” when everything changed concept.
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when do we have to complete this challenge by
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Every Friday, we will bump some of our favorite posts from the #dpchallenge tag.
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Was a pity missing the deadline for the last challenge, and just discovering them today )
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OKKK what is the topic for this weeek xoxox
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That’s funny that the photo was actually in 1961 – I wondered what season though. It was a good challenge to write about, and the one for this week is going to be a major thought-provoker. So many instances to choose from!!
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can ones on pics be used as instagrams ?
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If you have an Instagram account, you can use your own photos from your Instagram feed to take advantage of the new feature:
http://wp.me/pf2B5-3gB
Otherwise, you can certainly use your own, non-Instagram photos as well 🙂
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Life changing instant for me: http://thewritericouldbe.wordpress.com/2012/11/12/the-instant-my-life-changed/
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Here’s my entry
http://wp.me/P2ddEF-MI
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My first trip to Europe: http://artisthippiecalichic.wordpress.com/2012/11/12/in-an-instagram/
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All it did was help me quit smoking
http://flusenkopp.wordpress.com/2012/11/12/weekly-writing-challenge-in-an-instagram/
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Well maybe it’s cheating because I wrote it awhile ago, but so far getting engaged was a moment that changed my life in a split second. It meant the search was finally over, what a feeling.
http://theothercourtney.wordpress.com/2011/09/03/the-proposal/
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http://bluerosegirl08.wordpress.com/2012/11/12/day-201-click-the-kodak-moment-that-changed-everything/
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Trastornos De Ansiedad (Anxiety)
http://trastornosdeansiedad.wordpress.com/
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Becoming part of the GSA (gay straight alliance) changed the way I accept people and changed the way I look at the world.
http://happyclamblog.wordpress.com/2012/11/12/tough-enough-to-love/
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my entry:
http://plaridel.wordpress.com/2012/11/12/the-good-life/
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I got the season & year & activity (going to church) right in last week’s challenge! Am pleasantly surprised. Will need to think a bit for this week’s.
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I am ADDICTED to Instagram (@boozedancing)! Thanks for sharing this tip.
Cheers!
G-LO
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Here is mine http://diannegray.wordpress.com/2012/09/29/souls-child-wins-ywo-book-of-the-year-award/
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Here’s my 1st entry in this challenge!
http://adayinthelifeofjennay.wordpress.com/2012/11/12/weekly-writing-challenge-in-an-instagram/
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My take: http://rolbos.wordpress.com/2012/11/13/the-most-important-moment/
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Reblogged this on 0ReBlog0.
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listening to a child explain how his fingers were chopped off to add to the ingredients of what would be a powerful magical potion moved me instantly, and it inspired much in me… here it is (there are pics too) http://aphrojunkee.wordpress.com/2012/11/12/africa-albinism-and-action/
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The purpose of my blog is the digestion of something that changed my life in an instant. I know I’m skirting the rules by posting the introductory page to my blog that describes the worst day of my life, but I couldn’t resist participating. I promise I’ll follow the rules next time!
http://writerightmel.wordpress.com/about/
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Phew! Glad we don’t have to use an instagram for this challenge… I’m a tech lover but when you don’t have access to an app, that’s that! As a Blackberry user, there’s no instagram app for us yet. Kevin Systrom and partner are fine tuning it for iPhone and Android… and nothing for us for a while. I’m okay with it. Great topic… Will think of something; the hurricane threw me for a loop and I couldn’t get to last week’s writing challenge.
TY Cheri! 🙂
Eliz
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Wow, that was… cathartic. Here’s my sad story:
http://beadstork.wordpress.com/2012/11/12/weekly-writing-challenge-in-an-instant/
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My entry: http://kkline922.wordpress.com/2012/11/12/life-is-too-short-for-indecision-or-second-guessing-listen-to-your-intuition/
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See my story here: http://expatalien.com/2012/11/12/life-can-change-in-an-instant/
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It’s such a coincidence that this challenge came at the same time as my life changing moment. I’ll never take anything for granted again. Here is the link http://chicenvelopements.wordpress.com/2012/11/11/one-very-long-cold-night-for-cooper/
Thanks,
Beth (one mama that will never be the same!)
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Now that is a real life- (and perspective-) changer!
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It definitely changed my perspective on life! Thanks for reading it!
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Had a first go at Instagram, wasn’t quite sure in the past if I’d use it and see it around a lot on my Facebook from friends. Here is my attempt at a bit of photo art, came out quite well I think.
http://fairweatherinside.wordpress.com/2012/11/13/storm-clouds-instagram-challenge/
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Writing changed the course of my life: http://happytimestoday.wordpress.com/2012/11/13/weekly-writing-challenge-rebellion-of-minds/
Writing for me before was a stressful activity but one click made me think writing as a leisure and fun thing to do.
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