What's #best09? Q&A
A lot has happened in the past 48 hours.
I started The Best of 2009 Blog Challenge to help others reflect on their year. And it has done that for the 285 people now signed up for the challenge. In two days there have been 461 tweets and 226 contributors to the #best09 tag (thanks to Derek from 20SB for pointing out WTHashtag - it aggregates all of this information for you). In that time, a few questions have come up. Here are my best answers.
Do I have to write on every topic, every day, for all of December? Do I suck if I don't?
No and no. You can write on the ones that speak to you. You can write on five at once. Or thirty-one at once. You can tweak the prompt. You can link back or not link back. If the topic is "restaurant" but you hate eating out and don't have a good restaurant tale to share, you can share a bedtime story about a red double-decker bus. If you don't have a clear best, write your best/worst in one post.
What if I missed the first day of the challenge?
No sweat. Start today.
Well, I don't blog. And I don't want to blog.
Ok, no problem. Simply tweet on the topic of the day, say your best _____ and use the hashtag #best09.
What's the point of this?
Personally, I enjoy looking back over the year. I like mining my memories for lessons. And reminders. I have a stack of thank you notes next to my laptop. As I remember someone who touched my life this year, I write down their name. And request their mailing address. It's a simple way to think about what we're grateful for over the course of a year.
Is this really a challenge? Can I win anything? Because we all know blogging is about the winning!
Ok, I have to disagree with that last bit. But yes. There will be a few giveaways throughout the month. You don't have to write every day to be in the running. Just write a post on the giveaway day and make sure you're on the link list. The "and" is that this is unfolding as we speak - I'm not announcing giveaways in advance.
How will I know which posts you're reading?
You will know I've read it if it's in my Delicious links. Also, I tweet some of the strongest pieces I read.
I'm not creative. How can I participate?
You're creative. Creativity is something you practice.
Any questions?
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
Reader Comments (13)
I am really loving this so far, Gwen! Great project!
I cannot express loudly enough, often enough or sincerely enough how brilliant I think this whole project, and you, are. But someday, when I'm 80 and you're an annoyingly significant number of years younger, I'll remind you of the profundity of it all and thank you again.
Thank you so much for starting this project. If I do the whole month it will be one of the first times I've gotten all the way through this kind of thing. I'm great at beginnings -- not so much on follow-through. Thanks for helping!
Gwen,
First and foremost, this is just a lot of fun. I'm loving reading other posts, tweeting about posts, and enjoying how many ways we can interpret a simple prompt.
Secondly, I love the sense of community-within-community your challenge has created.
I'm glad I jumped in and know it's going to be a great ride.
Julie
Tara I'll pull out all the stops to help you get through the end of the month/year with blogging.
Bonus: I've got a fun prize at the end of it all that will make it worthwhile. Promise.
I'm glad I found this via Andrea at Superhero Designs. You have a beautiful blog and are great creative inspiration.
Thanks for starting this project, I think it's fabulous and it makes me write down some of the good memories of 2009 :)
Okay - obviously I need to play catch-up with all this technology stuff because when attempting to post my link to your site, I get a server error message. Let me know if I'm going about it the wrong way - appreciate your input in advance...
I'm not creative. I don't even know how to practice creativity!
www.juicycourtship.blogspot.com
Hey Gwen, I'm glad you posted this further explanation as I didn't completely understand it the first time.
But this is very cool and I'm going to try to catch up on my daily tweets. (I thought it was a one time post before... silly me.)
Susan I look forward to reading yours! I know my explanations are sometimes complex. I have to keep working on simple answers to complicated questions! My tango teacher once told me I over-dance. That makes sense. And usually, the simple answer/dance is best. Thanks for dancing along.
Going great so far.
Bob Weisenberg
http://YogaDemystified.com
Practecipating every day...so cool! :-)