Friday the 13th of October in the Blogtober 2017

 

Friday the 13th of October in the Blogtober 2017.

Its Friday the 13th of October in the Blogtober 2017. Is Blogtober scary? Or is it indeed something to celebrate like a festival ?

Just two weeks back I was enjoying the festivities in India, it was Navratri in Delhi and my family was visiting me. One fine evening during Navratris I was reading this book -“The Power of Now” by “Eckhart Tolle”! The book stresses on living in the present moment and hence under its influence, I was in a mode too, do it all in the NOW. I saw this message on a challenge called as Blogtober where one need to post one blog every day. Just after reading this book I said to myself, let’s do this “Now” !!

I was thrilled to meet other expert bloggers (if they are participating in this challenge, they will be expert for sure). I was looking forward to learning a lot in this process and reading so many posts because I love travel reading. I am relatively new to writing so I wasn’t sure about that part but I was looking forward. Its thirteen days in the challenge and there’s a lot I have gained.

IT’S MORE THAN JUST WRITING AND READING

First few days were totally awesome as everybody was sharing different topics and it was fun to read them. But soon I realized that Blogtober is more than just writing one blog daily. It challenges you as a person too. One need to have traits like Discipline, Punctuality, Creativity, Focus, Dedication, Calmness to be in it.

It is the discipline required that day you have to take the time out. There are cut off times in which you have to post and read all the other posts and if you miss the link closes for the day, hence the punctuality is required.Focus and more Focus is required on reading blogs of different topics from different bloggers across the world. Creativity is required to write a fresh post daily and again focus on your thought process to continue writing on your own topic. Dedication no doubt, unless you have that driving force behind why will you challenge your limits here.Calmness, yes one needs to stay calm. It can really stretch your limits,  as you read posts all day, write in evening and then get up in morning discovering that there are fresh posts already shared to start it all over again!

It is going to be so much more challenging going forward because the fresh topics are gets exhausted and so is the focus. Hence, it is a challenge indeed for the writers to compete with their own self and qualities and move up to improve.

YOU ARE GAINING A LOT IN IT

In the end, we all are gaining as well. Before Blogtober writing was an event for me, now writing daily is something I never thought of. Friends and family are motivating me but more than anything else they are actually thrilled and astonished that I am actually doing this ! it is not easy but its worth it and its fun! You will get hooked onto it.

In the beginning, you change your schedule because you have to adjust to understand how you will “create space” to write fresh content every day.This space is not only at the time but in the mindset also because there is a creativity which is required so you need to declutter your mind and thoughts and let the fresh ideas come in and start writing.You gain thought control while in Blogtober.

Reading blogs of other fellow members also makes you learn so much that it’s a kind of crash course into how to blog well.  I have actually made notes of so many things I can improve my writing skills, learning from posts of my fellow participants in Blogtober.

TIPS TO MAKE IT TO 13 DAYS

Its Friday the 13th of Blogtober and since I have made it for 13 days here are few tips I want to share which helps sailing in this Blogtober Festival

1) Planning – Get Blogtober ideas by planning. Plan your topics well in advance. Get a theme you want to write on. I chose a theme on my recent travels and hence could get more posts out of it.

2)Take time out – Say goodbye to your relaxed evening LOL, Yes, in case you have a scheduled plan for your entire day you come back to home with a thought in your mind that today I need to write a certain topic. Once you start writing on to the topic you have to add related stories and pictures so you need to work on your pictures as well.

3) Internet Backup – You need to make sure that the Internet speed is fine and there are no technical issues coming to you. Plan a back up as well.

4) Keep extra content ready Every day comes with new challenges in our life and no matter how much we plan there is always something unexpected which comes up and you should be ready with some additional blogs to cover up for ensuring that there is no default.

5) Say No – Be ready to say No to few things, like I said No to few friends get together or few extra commitments. Its just one month I will cover it up later.

6) Travel in October  – Being traveler can we say no to travel …Nooo of course not, so like me all the fellow bloggers in Blogtober are also traveling in this month. So blogging while traveling is yet another challenge you will face. Think and plan about it. A fresh blog post from your travel will bring in that fresh energy into your writing.

7) Challenge yourself – One of the main reason and driving force for me to write a blog every day as I wanted to see if I can actually do it.If you have a lot of creative ideas and topics this is the best opportunity for you.

8) Be ready for instant feedback – The best thing a writer wants is feedback on writing as soon as possible.Blogtober will spoil you forever. As soon as we post a blog we not only have instant feedback and response we also learn how the reader will react to a particular post.

9) Share as much – Sharing is caring. Do not hesitate to share fellow participants post as much. You will only get the same in reciprocation. We also have huge support in multi-share which happen so that your writing will reach the larger audience than ever before. How cool is that isn’t it?

10) Take care – Most importantly take care of yourself and your health. This is going to be an exhausting phase. You need to sleep well, relax, exercise, hydrate your body regularly. read about “ergonomics” before you stretch for long hours on the computer .

So, we still have a lot of days ahead and  I want to write daily. Even if I don’t make it till the end I have gained a lot.

I have read some amazing blog post in last two weeks with great writing skills, seen beautiful photographs, read interviews and added knowledge on amazing travel destinations with so many travel tips. It’s not always about increasing your views, it’s about gaining knowledge and experience.

It’s good to listen to your inner voice ( Check out the blog on Innervoice ). I am glad that I did this time too. I want to thank the organizer as I understand the efforts they are putting in are a lot. Blogtober is about challenging you but in the end, you are going to take away so many other things.