Bloggers: May You Come Out of The Closet – #May Challenge Day 1

No, not like that. By “Come Out of The Closet” I just mean to reveal yourself to your readers. I know, I know, you MAY not consider yourself to be that much of a blogger to have “readers”. It MAY feel arrogant in nature, narcissistic or whatever, but the truth is that its not. It doesn’t matter how big or small your blog is we all have readers. There is someone somewhere who reads your blog. Someone somewhere who is always watching, silently and consistently keeping track of everything you post. Scary isn’t it? In some ways yes. You MAY feel that one day you’re going to be judged, called out, accused. I wouldn’t worry about that. First of all, no one reading this is my judge. Neither of you have the power to give my breath or to take it away from me. So for me personally, if I were you, judgement is not something I would worry about.

Today is the first day of the #May Writing Challenge and my first message is MAY you come out of the closet. For most of our lives we’ve been taught to keep our skeletons in the closet, which means to keep those most intimate parts of ourselves, those mistakes and faults secret. The closet represents something hidden, the heart if you will. We are taught to keep our deepest darkest secrets in the deepest darkest places of our hearts. The problem with blogging this way is that readers will never get the chance to see who you truly are. It is not about airing dirty laundry (My motto is always to: Keep Ya House Out Ya Mouth” meaning everything that goes on in your home should not be shared). So obviously we’re not talking about that. What we’re talking about is the kind of openness and intimacy that will allow people to get to know the real you because that’s what people want to connect to. Not something fake, something transparent, something real.

Bloggers: May You Come Out of The Closet

Tell us something about you that is personal. By personal I mean your favorite food, music, movie, your mistakes, your experiences. By personal I mean something that we can connect to. Something we can bridge to. Experiences are what connects us. Sure, we MAY make mistakes but that’s the beauty behind the whole process. Re-blogs are cool, writing tips are always good, and quotes are uplifting but sometimes that gets boring. It gets boring because people read blogs not just to be inspired or encouraged but to be informed. People want to know who you are on the inside, what your life is like, or did that new recipe work out for you? Yesterday I read a post about a woman’s journey to conception and it was truly touching and close to my heart. Truth is you never know how sharing your experiences can help others. In the end its about blogging without fear. Don’t be afraid to share a piece of yourself with your readers so that they can have something to connect to. Its the only way to build.

May you join me? – New writing challenge

Sounds fun! Plus May is my birthday month…yesss.

KL Caley's avatarNew2Writing

Hello Blogging World,

May I take this moment to invite you all to join in a brand new challenge. The Challenge is pretty simple. The word MAY is not just a month such a popular word, I’d like you to use it every day in May and create a post on your blog.

I’ll post a quote every day at 9.00am bst featuring the word may on it to inspire you. You may use that or indeed create your own. Try to write a memory, short flash fiction, poetry or whatever may take your fancy and pingback.

Let’s prove the adage that “Everyday maynot be a good day but there is something good in every day”.

May your words make you happy and help find your voice.
May inspiration find its way to you and help keep you writing.
May others find you and enjoy the peice you create.

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EC Quote Friday

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Well hello there lovelies, and welcome to week one of EC Quote Friday. I suppose it could’ve been EC quote Monday or EC quote Tuesday. However, I just made this up. No, seriously, like just now.

I love quotes. Quotes that inspire. Quotes that uplift. Quotes that bring truth, peace, and tranquil. So, I thought to myself, “Self, why don’t you start to incorporate your own quotes?” Well, I must say that self that is a very good idea!

OK, let me stop talking to myself before yall think I’m crazy for real lol hee hee.

But no, seriously, welcome to EC Quote Friday, where I’ll be posting some of my own quotes. I’m re-posting a tweak of a recent quote so these quotes can be on accord with what I post to social media. I hope that they are inspiring and uplifting to your Friday as you ease on into the weekend.

I've always loved the look of wings on a pagethe way the wind blowswhen they flap against the airthe way they soartaking my mind with them

Remember to Breathe

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I’m excited to say that I started my workout again! Its been soo long and you know once you stop its extremely hard to start back up again. I’m hoping to possess enough endurance to make it a permanent part of my routine, if not everyday at least a few days a week. I really do not want to stop again, picking it back up is the worst! So anyway, about breathing.

OK so you know how when you’re exercising you get tired really fast? One thing I’ve noticed that helps me, and maybe it will help you too, is to always remember to breathe. It sounds simple but you’ll be amazed how we forget this when caught up in the moment. You see, when I get overwhelmed with a routine its mostly because I need to catch my breath. I know some of you may be thinking, “But I do breathe!” No, not like that. When I say breathe I mean breath out. Exhale and get a rhythm going. Instead of breathing regularly and trying to catch your breath, breathe to the beat. When I exhale at the end of the beat, letting all of the air out of my abs, I find myself being able to endure much longer than when I breathe normally. And by normal I mean without control. Controlling my breathing was the difference between doing twenty minutes yesterday and thirty minutes today.

A Good Review on Basics: Avoiding Writing Scams

Must Read Information For Self-Publishers On Promo. / Marketing Scams / Request For Manuscript Submissions From Scammers

vanderso's avatarJust Can't Help Writing

This piece from Just Publishing AdviceBlue computer distills some important basic considerations to attend to for those of us trying to learn the book-publishing and marketing process. I get “requests” to submit manuscripts quite often and have usually wondered who it is that’s so desperate to see my work when traditional agents turn down hundreds of submissions each week. This article helps to put the situation in perspective.

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Dear Deception

You try to hide, but I know you are there among them. I can hear it when they walk and smell it in their smiles. The truth is that you inebriate them with lies. Overflowing their presence like air under pressure. Shame that some of them can’t even stand up straight, staggering through social media unaware that their ignorance is showing. You have taught them to expose their nakedness. Now their heart is blackened with the scars of falsehood, and their minds poisoned with comfort. Sometimes they are even unaware of the stench they carry like walking viruses and destructive pestilence. They sit among graves and befriend the first corpse they see smiling. You think you know wisdom, but foolishness is bathed in your shadow and kindness is a game you play on the minds of the weak; snickering behind the concocted words of flattery and the secret winking you perform under the mask you wear. You have even fallen prey to your own fabricated illusions. Casting manipulating spells on the unknown, yet you wrap yourself in white and wear a silver wig. Indeed you are deception, a lie that is made to look like the truth.

Building Mental Strength

For many of us we hear a lot, and some of us even speak a lot, about change and revolution and encouragement and just overall maintaining a quality of life we have come to understand as a positive one. This is the reason  many of us have decided to blog. We post motivating quotes, speak about our struggles, triumphs and overall how we maintain the daily grind. In return some of us hope to  receive insight while others hope to spread it. It is the reason for life coaches and therapy sessions. We do these things to improve or to heal so that we can go on to implement those very important changes and become overall better people. One thing however that sticks out to me from all of this is mental strength. Building mental strength in our lives and maintaining it on a daily basis. This is not always easy but it is worth more than the physical changes we tend to seek after as we strive to implement them in our quest to do better in whatever area we need to. This is important because most of what we need to go on in life requires a certain level of mental clarity and strength to produce. Achieving this often requires work on the mind itself, ridding it of everything that acts as a negative force against positive change. It requires we empty ourselves so that we can be built back up again. Otherwise nothing we try to alter on the outside, no dream job or career, no encouraging word, will matter. It probably sounds personal and that’s because it is; building and maintaining mental stability is a personal journey for each of us as we strive to improve our lives but it is critical to the operation. It is critical because it is we who often get in our own way; it is our own thoughts and our own fears. It is critical because you are only as strong as your mind is. To change the way that you live, ultimately, is to change the way that you think.