The 20 Days of Chill — 2015 edition — is in the books.
With my first foray into running a writing challenge, I enjoyed it. I liked having the posts done and scheduled ahead of time, thus making it a little easier. There was only one or two times where I was finishing things before I went to bed the night before.
When I first started this, I had hopes of a fun little challenge to fill in some gaps of challenges that were no longer happening. Only a handful of people participated in this challenge, which kind of stinks but, at the same time, was OK as it was easy to keep up with people.
Maybe it can grow next time.
I think one of the disappointing parts was that I had reached out one of the blogging groups I am active in, to no avail. Part of the issue there is I truly believe bloggers rest in certain categories. (I think I would have been better off reaching out to a different group, in hindsight). Unfortunately, the group I am in is heavily based on bloggers who are mommy bloggers and/or into giveaways and different types of linkups. Needless to say, taking some odd and offbeat themes and doing a post about them would be difficult to mix in with photos of junior, or outfits that are being worn this week.
Don’t get me wrong — I have no issues with those bloggers, but I thought there were a few who would get involved. Unfortunately, only a few posts from some in that group appeared.
Still, I thought it was a success.
What it made me do was focus on several aspects — of running it, of posting themes ahead of time, and of actually doing my post with the linkup.
That seems easy enough, but there were times that I just wasn’t into it.
By my count, there were four of us who completed the challenge in its entirety:
First, I tip my cap to those who got through the entire challenge without missing. It’s always fun to know others are completing the challenge.
Several others took part throughout the challenge and I’d like to totally thank them as well. The beauty of the challenge is that there aren’t rules of having to do it every day, rather just doing it when you can or when you liked the theme.
So what to do to make it better?
- Recruit more people
- Find a way to make it more interactive
- Different themes (some easy/some harder/some crazy)
I learned a lot by doing this. I don’t have a massive blog following, so it’s not the easiest to host a challenge like this. Maybe challenge hosts have larger followings and people who would participate in said challenge. That makes it easy to recruit. Maybe that’s part of the challenge here — in growing this writing challenge, maybe I need to continue to attempt to grow my own blog.
A writing challenge is often about the writer. In other words, it’s about getting the challenge done and doing the themes to the best of your ability. There’s a sense of pride with it to know you completed it. The comments and other things? A total bonus.
So where can I go from here with the challenge?
Obviously I want it to grow, so I need to decide if it will be a yearly thing or if I want to do it twice a year (with a tweak of the name, most likely). Will people want to do it twice a year, or is it best left to holding it every January? I do the Photo Blogging Challenge each month already, so a writing challenge for two months out of the year might be hard.
But maybe it can help, too?
I truly liked only doing it during the weekdays. It allowed other days to catch up on other blog posts one might have wanted to do. It also gave a breather to some. Other challenges I have been in are every day and, though pretty fun, it can also be very hard to not have a “break” throughout it, especially if trying to do the whole thing.
One thing is for sure — I am glad I did this challenge and it really kind of amped me up to really keep pushing with my blog and do different things. I have a bunch of things with my Day Zero Project in conjunction with the blog, so this was a great start to 2015.
For those who took part, I hope you enjoyed. And should we just keep it yearly? Or … something else? For those who read, I hope you also liked it. And for other bloggers … I hope you join us with the next one!
Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog@gmail.com. Also, please “Like” HooHaa Blog on Facebook!
Sorry more people didn’t participate from that particular group, myself included. I think you are right about making it hard to fit into the various themes/genres of people’s blogs and getting people to commit to a challenge for a long period of time is a challenge itself! For myself if it was something gearing specifically towards to my life “20 days of kids activities” etc then it would be easier to participate! I’m NOT in any way putting down your challenge, because I thought it was an awesome idea! I honestly would like to join a writing challenge, but I would have to make it my second post of the day each day since I already have so many other posts going on! Maybe next time try advertising it more in the blops group?
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Oh, believe me, Rachel, I’m not blaming anybody. I had a feeling there wouldn’t be much participation when I saw no responses on the pages. Challenges aren’t easy and don’t yell out to everybody, so it can be difficult. I was definitely hoping for others — in other places, too — to join up, but in the end, it happens. We had a small, but fun group doing it. And there was a lot of fun things to read.
It truly is the beauty of blogging — everybody has their own thing. Makes for a diverse crowd. Sometimes, things stick. Others, not so much.
To be honest, I’ve very surprised I made your short list, but I decided to persevere and finish this one.
I’ve had other posts get more views and comments, but never anything like this, as as consistency goes. My last couple of posts since then have generated next to nothing. And so it goes.
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Yeah, that often happens with challenges, Paul. I know that feeling. As for the short list, I just went through the linkups and found everybody who posted each day! It’s pretty cool to finish them. Writing challenges can be tough though!
Gee thanks for the no mention P.J.
Tami — I only mentioned the people who did every post. When I looked back through all the linkups, you didn’t post for all 20 themes.
I really enjoyed the challenge, and was also disappointed that we didn’t have more people. Last time we had several series going on, but sadly those folks chose not to participate this time. I was pleased to be able to complete yet another challenge without missing a day – that makes 4 now. I am feeling the downturn in blogging and comments, and often wonder if I should keep going. I mean I enjoy it but like you said, it’s good to see that others are getting something out of it too. If I think of anything that might improve participation next time, I’ll let you know. Thanks again for hosting!
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Yeah, I definitely would have liked to have had a few more. I thought it was nice that a handful finished and a few others did some serious posting, too.
As for going forward… though I like the comments and such, I do look at the stats enough to know people read the blog some and that’s good. If I only got like three views a day, I’d fully reconsider everything. I still love blogging and coming up with things to do and write, so I’m happy with it. Should I ever lose that fun, then things could change.
I’m glad you enjoyed it, though, and I look forward to the next one… whenever I do it. 🙂