2012 in review

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2012 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

600 people reached the top of Mt. Everest in 2012. This blog got about 5,000 views in 2012. If every person who reached the top of Mt. Everest viewed this blog, it would have taken 8 years to get that many views.

Click here to see the complete report.

 

E.C.’s and Finite Walls

Microsoft Excel spreadsheet (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I recently learned that a controversy brewed about the real use of the editorial calendar. I’m new to this tool of the writing business, but I never realized that such a tool could have so many sides. Who knew that which deadline date one uses was controversial?

Here you have spreadsheet with columns and rows of items. Columns, for me, relate to the days of the week. The rows house the activities required for those days. Some people use the opposite approach. Call me traditional with calendars. Days belong across the top of the sheet.

Those activities plugged into the spreadsheet range from book chapters that must go to a critique partner/group to poem revisions necessary before submitting a packet to a magazine. Everything goes on the calendar; at least in my work world. I also need to allot for time spent on said activity. I know. I’m a bit anal due to having so many projects on the board.

The one thing that I don’t understand about this calendar debate is why it exists. Yes, some writers use a submission deadline date supplied by the magazine, publisher, agent, etc. Others like me, like lots of cushion to account for unforeseen circumstances, and plug a project into a day prior to the actual deadline date.

Isn’t it a matter of needs?

Everyone has a specific way of thinking about work and deadlines. I see deadlines as finite walls. There are no doors in those walls. If I can’t make a deadline, it’s my fault. I knew it was there. I knew what I needed to do. If I don’t make it, it’s because I didn’t prepare adequately to get the job done. It’s really that simple.

In order to make the deadline, I place a date a few days prior to that of the finite wall. In the back of my mind, I know that cushion is built in. In the day-to-day work, though, that realization tends to disappear. My calendar tells me that I need to have something done on a specific day. And that’s what I do.

Others may not need that cushion. They work better under pressure to make deadline. That’s how their creativity erupts; but a sense of immediate need.

I work on a monthly calendar and a weekly one. One gives a longer overview, especially because of coursework I need to keep in mind. The short week calendar gives me detail on upcoming work and deadlines. They operate in tandem to give me all I need to keep my activity level constant.

I haven’t been doing a calendar prior to May. I don’t enjoy the time spent creating them. For me, it’s tedious, but the hour or two I spend on those spreadsheets saves me tons in frustration, panic, and unnecessary backtracking. It’s time so well spent that I doubt I would ever go without one again.

Tell me about your experience with editorial calendars. Has your E.C. friend saved you from disgrace, time lost, lack of production? Drop it in a comment. Sharing is always good. If you have different take on this subject, let us see that, too.

Later, all. A bientot,

Claudsy

Related articles

• Editorial Calendar Is About When to Post, Not When to Write (zemanta.com)
• Editorial Calendar: Mark 1 (jslawcenter.wordpress.com)
• 5 Keys to an Editorial Calendar that Keeps Your Content on Track (contentmarketinginstitute.com)
• An Editorial Calendar: Best Strategy for Sustainable Blogging (zemanta.com)
• 3 Components of a Content Marketing Editorial Calendar that Works (copyblogger.com)

Poetry’s Microscope: PAD Challenge 21

Price Gun (Photo credit: Magic Robot)

Participants were handed an interesting writing challenge this morning. We were asked to write an “under the microscope” poem; either literal or metaphorical.

I doubt many of us can leap into our labs, scan a few slides and take up the scientific poetic slant, but you never know. I may try one later today; I do have a couple of ideas that travel that path.

My first attempt to satisfy this challenge is below. I’m not sure why Muse took me on this tangent, but it was the first thought to jump up and demand my attention.

I hope you enjoy the resulting fare.

What Price Celebrity

 

What price paid for fame

That we seek this scrutiny?

What price extracted in a game

Of hide and seek and infamy?

What price do innocents pay

For camera shots at school,

Where others are brought to bay

And thrill-makers stand to drool?

What price for bodies abused

For weight, highs, lows, or sleep?

What price to be so pursued,

In the name of love, admiration deep?

What price paid for a moment’s peace

Within the fish bowl of personal making?

Related websites:

• http://miskmask.wordpress.com/
• http://clownponders.wordpress.com/the-poetry-challenge/
• http://poetryblogroll.blogspot.com/

Related articles

• A to Z Challenge ~ “O” over here… over there… places to play (haikulovesongs.wordpress.com)
• First Award 😉 (littlefurrow.wordpress.com)
• A Thing of Beauty (littlefurrow.wordpress.com)
• A Poem We Will Go (claudsy.wordpress.com)

NaBloPoMo

Yes, folks, your eyes aren’t deceiving you. There is yet another challenge for the writers who just can’t stand going without one.

I found this particular one when I joined the BlogHer Network a couple of days ago. The challenge is to write a themed blog post each day for the given month, in this case, February.

BTW, this should in no way intimidate or discourage any writer from picking up the gauntlet of that which has beaten back many a writer. After all, there are many writers and other bloggers who already post each day. I know, because I used to be one of them.

According to the BlogHer challenge, February’s theme is “Relative,” meaning that each post must have something to do with family in one form or another.

Now, having redefined what constitutes “family” many times across the span of my life, I don’t seriously feel challenged as to topic. I have entire state’s worth of pseudo-family to draw from.

What might concern me, if I allow myself to think about it for more than a nanosecond, is the fact that I have three blogs—not counting an inactive one in the UK—which might, technically, fall under the auspices of this challenge.

Should I be held accountable for only one of my blogs each day, or, do I have to include all of them in the challenge?

That’s a big question and one I have only a few days to answer before beginning the keyboard shuffle.

I’m counting on all of you to help me with this decision. Am I supposed to do all three—that includes Trailing Inspirations on WordPress—or can I muddle through doing only one of them? And if only one, which one—Claudsy’s Calliope on Blogspot, or Claudsy’s Blog on WordPress?

Comments are encouraged, indeed, required on this one, peeps. HELP ME DECIDE!

Claudsy

Looking for a Mystery?

I stumbled upon a website this evening that made my heart go pit-a-pat. It was a library blog. I know I’ve a bit slow on the uptake sometimes, but who knew that libraries had their own?

I’ve found Nirvana again in the form of another link between my love of libraries and my inability many times to patronize one when I want to. I know very few writers of any age who lack a deep respect for and love of libraries. It must come from our childhoods when those lofty and spacious rooms stood as enchanted realms where almost anything might pop out to take you hostage until you could wrestle it home.

When I read this blog, I chuckled to myself at the wonder of it all, and the sweetness of the gestures involved. It left the mystery of itself behind for me to ponder and within which to find meaning. I cherish that kind of reading material.

I know that I’ll return many times to see what’s happening on this site. If you’d like to share in the mystery, come along to the link below. Take a chance. You might find yourself exploring far more than you thought possible in one short session. I’ll hope to see you there.

http://talesfromanopenbook.wordpress.com/2011/09/16/mysterious-paper-sculptures/#comment-3698

Until then, a bientot,

Claudsy