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blogging101, Creative Writing, Friday Favorites, Guest Poets, Poetry, Uncategorized, Writing 101
I was just this morning commenting back and forth with the wonderful poet Miss Book Thief from Literature Is My Porn about how I had to purge some of the great blogs I was following because I became too overwhelmed to keep up with them all. Obviously when you love a blog enough to want to support the writer, you want to be able to get to know them and then spend some time commenting regularly on their work. I was following over 80 blogs and it got to be too much.
As a result, I ended up unfollowing quite a few of them. Not because I didn’t love them, but because I don’t, at present, have a couple of clones at my beck and call! It hurt having to do that. It was a real sacrifice because I loved those blogs. Now I’m missing them, and am looking for a way to get back in touch after these few months. I haven’t quite worked that out yet. Obviously I need a plan! And as I said in my Blogging A to Z Reflections post, I don’t do plans well. I tend to fly by the seat of my pants!
But I am going to make a start. I will be adding a new feature to Impromptu Promptlings twice a month in conjunction with my Friday Favorites post, Poet’s Corner. Every month I plan to “showcase” two of the wonderful poets I’ve met on Word Press. I already have a list of more than 24 whose names I will throw in a box and draw one out at random every other week. I will, of course, invite them to participate because I’d like them to submit a little paragraph about themselves and/or their blog as well as their favorite poem so folks can get to know them. (And if they’re brave enough to submit a picture of themselves, that would be great, too!)
I’m excited!!! These folks have inspired me, made me laugh (not mentioning names, Jane. 😉 ), and more than a few of them have made me cry. I really want you to meet them if you haven’t already!
So beginning this Friday look for a new feature along with Friday Favorites. And if you would like your work to be highlighted one week, please drop me a note via my Drop Me A Note tab. I’m really looking forward to this! See you Friday!
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DAILY PROMPT: Sacrifice
Picture Credit: etims.net
Impromptu Promptlings 
man, do I know what you mean. How do people who follow all those blogs you see them commenting on have time to do all that? I don’t even have time to post when I want, once a week. I don’t even know how you, and Fim, and others, have time to post every day, and now what, twice on Friday?
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It’s because we actually have no real life! 😀 Sad, but true… If we did, we probably wouldn’t even be on here!!! ❤
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Ha! I’m thinking your life is more real than mine! Mine’s just real different.
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Oh it’s real alright. Real boring! That’s why I love your blog so much. Some people slip into a hot bath and beg Calgon to take them away. I wait and wait for Badfish’s blog to do that for me! 😉
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I see I have GREATLY confused everyone by including the contact for above. So I’m going to take it out. In the meantime, here’s a comment from Oneta Hayes that came to my email. Sorry for the confusion, Oneta. ❤
Calen, I understand completely about the desire to follow more bloggers than I can follow. I sometimes covet the readership of blogs who have followers in the thousands, but I have to give myself a good talking to! Why am I here? I want relationships. I want to recognize the little pictures that appear by the likes. I want people to know me well enough to know that when I tell something amazing, I'm not lying. Well, more of that some other time. Right now I'm going to share something that is working pretty well. I also try to follow about 80-100 people. In the reader under the manage folders, I have marked about 20 who do not write often as weekly e-mails, about 30-35 are daily, and 30-35 are instant post. That way I can be sure to catch most bloggers at least twice a week, sometime three times if they write often. That has helped me a lot. If I read 30 per day, make comments and respond to posts and comments, my cup is full! I always visit and respond to new followers, and often to people who leave likes also. Such a fun lot of stuff to do.
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You know, I’ve never thought of using folders to divide my followers up. Sounds very manageable. I’m going to have to put some thought into that. Thanks for the tip, Oneta!!!
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This dilemma of following a multitude of blogs and “keeping up” with them all, along with making comments is one which I struggle with. I’m fortunate in having more “free time” than most to read and comment, but returning to my computer and seeing over a hundred new posts since i had last read, with more being added every other moment can seem overwhelming, to say the least. I don’t know what the answer is, where the sacrifice needs to be made. I suppose if that is one my big dilemmas right now, I should consider myself lucky.
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A few weeks ago I finally relegated all but about a dozen of my follows to the Reader. Turned off the email notifications for the same reason. It overwhelmed me STILL after unfollowing so many of them. I didn’t think I was going to be able to keep up with the ones I had left, but I’ve found that when I get my e-mail box empty I’m wandering over to the Reader and just catching up on things. It’s actually working pretty well. The other thing I’m determined to do is visit the blogs of folks who leave likes without following them. Since they tend to be the same people that probably means I’ll see them at least a couple times a month. Would either of those things help? (I still have your blog on daily digest.)
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thanks, and you are on my instant email.
actually i hadn’t thought of using the email with the reader when time permits approach. that might help indeed.
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Just switch the button on the blogs in your manager to off. Then all of those will show up in your reader. For one thing, going from the Reader to the site is almost instantaneous and saves a lot of time. 🙂
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That’s how I manage it. I have around 100 on my follow list, which I monitor and try to keep to that as it seems to be a manageable number for me. It just means that I need to unfollow some when I find new ones that resonate strongly. Always hard decisions.
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You sure can get attached to them, can’t you…
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LOL, see how I don’t read everything? You want to know who wants to be highlighted.
Well, no need to include me, as I’m not currently writing poetry. Though I was considering trying. 🙂
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So write me something!!! 😀
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Hmmm. Who was that masked message box? I thought it was a NEW form of commenting, but it wasn’t, ignore it when it arrives somewhere other than your mail box… WEIRD.
Anyway, what was I saying? Oh, I remember now. There are so many people I’m following, and often I don’t get to read so many because time is a thief, and we can’t get back what was stolen.😦
Anyway, I in fact, noticed there were some folks from those I was following in my reader no longer have a blog. I need to do some weeding of my own. It is a difficult thing to do.
Now, why did you change your comment thingy? Let me know so I can see if it makes a difference on my blog.
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LOL! Just responded to your email about this. Appears you figured it out!
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I’m a bit slow on the uptake, but I eventually get things 🙂
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It’s a pert of the process, I think. Just like my FB or Twitter or Instagram…every now and then it’s time to declutter….we all change and evolve, and blogs we started out with may not suit out needs and vice a versa…..though some folks do turn into ‘friends’…. The Poets Corner sounds great!! Looking forward to seeing how it all plays out…I’m getting ready to play around and revamp my page in the not so distant future!!!
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You’re on my list!!!
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😘😘😘
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Your on my list too GF!!! ❤️
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I think from time to time we go over our reading list and we have to give a few blogs the axe, because if not we would end up spending more time in front of the computer then we do in real life.
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Lordy, isn’t THAT the truth!!! And yet to not EVER add any new ones keeps you from expanding your neighborhood. I guess it’s a balancing act.
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Some blog we simply outgrow, because we moved on and they are still hovering over the same subject. Some blogs take a turn and we might not like the new direction. And then there are the repeaters -the ones that over and over post the same pictures, the same messages. So axing a few blogs is not necessary a negative thing and you should never feel guilty about it.
You can give me the axe anytime 🙂
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Bridget! That broke my heart. I’ve learned so much from you and your blog. You’re a fascinating writer. I would never take you out of my reader. But I do hear what you’re saying about outgrowing blogs. I’ve kind of been doing that all along. Or if they go quiet and only post every few months.
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I meant I know how to get ahold of you LOL.
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