-Cee Neuner
Always Write Series: #Bloggers Hosting Writing and Photo Challenges
I’ve been asking some of you to participate in an interview about hosting a writing or photo challenge. Seven of you have already responded, and we have learned the back stories behind your great challenges. Through guest posts we understand how and why bloggers choose to participate in challenges.
Kevin Cooper asked me to send him a link to the post explaining my new series of interviews. I slapped my palm against my forehead. I hadn’t posted any reasoning for my interview series of the bloggers behind the writing and photo challenges. How dumb was that? (Rhetorical question)
So this post is to rectify that wrong.
My Thesis Questions
The most important question when I started on this quest was, who is hosting writing challenges? Are there as many independent writing challenges hosted by volunteer hobby bloggers as there are photo challenges?
The bigger question is why do hobby bloggers, not professional paid staff, take the time to create challenges? All the challenge hosts have great answers for this question in their interviews. I hope that you will read them all.
My Challenge Backstory
When I first started blogging in 2012, I quickly discovered photo challenges and awards. Both tools helped new bloggers like I was to make friends and create a presence on the blogosphere. It only takes a few posts written to empty air to realize you need friends.
I made some lasting friends through award giving on WordPress. However, the process of giving and receiving awards tired me out, took hours to complete, and didn’t add much to the overall purpose of my blog. Photo challenges molded my blogging style.
To up my game and my WordPress stats, I created several photo challenge pages. No sweat – post a picture and a theme, give participants choices, and thousands of talented bloggers would flock to my blog and share their stories. Right?
Of course, no!
I got zero responses and gave up. Must be more to it than to leave it up on a page and hope someone saw it and wanted to join in. I didn’t know what to do, and I was so busy experimenting with just writing that I couldn’t focus on one thing. (That hasn’t changed over the years, which is why I still don’t host a challenge – yet.)
I participated in challenges that fit the stories I wanted to tell. I wanted to meet people. Then something happened and the photo challenges started to determine what I wrote, what pictures I took and published on my blog.
I got hooked. The challenges gave me a topic to fill up my blank screen, and new friends to read what I wrote. Impressed by people like Sylvia and Carol, I used challenges to tell the stories of my life.
Writing challenges are a new adventure for me.
Motivation Behind the Interview Series
This project got me excited about blogging after a long dry spell of not wanting to write. Let me tell you a few reasons I got so excited about interviewing other bloggers.
- No one else writes the back stories, the history behind hobby blogger’s challenges. Aha, a new niche. Doesn’t T C History Gal have the responsibility to record some of these stories for posterity?
- These bloggers develop communities. I want to be part of their communities. I like these people! I would love to see these communities intersect and reach out beyond themselves as a result of these interviews?
- People have had such positive responses to doing the interviews and guest posts. Charli Mills said, “It’s nice to have someone take an interest in what I do and ask me these questions.” Awww
- I wanted to collaborate more with other bloggers. Charli from Carrot Ranch invited me to host a challenge for her Rodeo Contest coming up in October. Norah Colvin and Irene Waters both agreed to judge for my week. I’m super excited about this.
- I had a chance – an excuse really, to slow down and study my interviewee’s blogs. Slower is better if you want to have strong relationships.
- I wanted to have more fun blogging. For example, here’s my limerick for Esther Chilton’s blog this week’s prompt – Zoom.
Does Zoom work better than Skype?
If not, then what’s the big hype?
It’s free, mercy me,
But all we can see –
Your scalp and the chat you type.
What Is Success for the Interview Series?
It would thrill me if the blogger who writes a guest post or has an interview on Always Write had a sudden surge of visitors and people liking their work. My stats have definitely grown during this series of interviews, but I suspect that it will take time to realize tangible results.
If the challenge hosts tell me that the interview questions gave them a chance to reflect on their work and examine their own motives and practices, then I have done my job.
Primarily, this project is to honor the hard work bloggers do as challenge hosts and give them a little recognition and hand clapping for their many hours they pour into their blog and their challenge. If they feel encouraged, I am fulfilled.
If the interview itself is something the challenge bloggers can use on their own blog to promote their challenge or use as part of recording their own history, I feel useful.
If I make some new friends and reconnect with bloggers with whom I lost touch, I’ll be over the top happy.
Challenge hosts invest hours of time and tons of passion. They don’t offer participants cash prizes. They aren’t from huge photography studios or literary magazines. But their success is worldwide. Let’s celebrate their hard work.
Do You Know a Challenge Host?
This has to be a community project. Maybe you already participate in a writing or photo challenge. Write a guest post about why you chose the challenges. Refer one of your favorite challenge hosts to me for an interview.
Help me update my list and create a new one. Photo challenges are already listed on my menu. I did not have the same resource for writing challenges, and so this series was born. After I started, I found that Cee Neuner had developed an excellent Writing challenge resource on her blog.
Related Posts
- Suzanna Burke Flash Fiction Interview #1
- How to Lasso a Wild Carrot in 99 Words-No More-No Less Interview #2 – Charli Mills of Carrot Ranch
- How Responding to a Photo Challenge Focuses Your Writing and Increases Your Followers – Guest Post #3 Terri Webster Schrandt Sunday Stills
- One-Word Writing Prompt Challenges Interview #4 Esther Chilton
- How to Run a Successful Writing Challenge for Four Years Counting Interview #5 Colleen Chesebro
- Why One Blogger Chose to Participate in Rather than Host Photo Challenges Guest Post #6 Susan Gutterman
- How Four Strangers from Around the World Coordinate a Weekly Photo Challenge Interview #7 Lens-Artists, Tina, Patti, Ann-Christine, and Amy
Marsha Ingrao - Always Write 
36 responses to ““For the Love of Challenges” Explained”
Have you come across Cadyluckleedy and her new challenge ‘Just One Person Around the World’? If not, you should check it out – https://thecadyluckleedy.com/category/photo-and-writing-challenges/just-one-person-from-around-the-world/. I think she might be up for an interview especially as it’s a new venture and deserves wider publicity.
I’m currently torn between taking on all the inspiring challenges I come across versus getting on with other things I’d like to post about. So I tend to do the ones that fit in with my usual style and choice of subject matter 🙂 They can be addictive and are a great way of connecting with other bloggers (I only started on WP last summer, my lockdown ‘new hobby’ project!) but I also have a framework for my blog in terms of subject matter, focusing on travel, photography and therefore on travel photography!
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I love it. That’s my blogging philosophy. I started years and years ago. It is useful because you can post whatever you interested in and someone out there will usually befriend you and your sphere grows. Thanks for sharing the link., Toonsarah I will check it out. 🙂
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Great – I hope she’s up for it (I think she will be). And you’re right about the challenges helping your sphere grow 🙂
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Yes, look at this, we are friends now, and we weren’t until a challenge brought us together! 🙂
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Exactly 😊
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[…] “For the Love of Challenges” Explained – rationale for interview series. […]
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[…] Do you host or participate in blog challenges? It’s a lot of work. The enjoyment I get from blogging is to promote other hobby bloggers. So if you want to write a guest post or have an interview about the Challenge experience, please contact me. I’d love to feature you and your challenge on Always Write. […]
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[…] “For the Love of Challenges” Explained – rationale for interview series. If you host a challenge and would like to be part of this series on Always Write, please contact me. […]
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[…] “For the Love of Challenges” Explained – rationale for interview series. […]
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[…] “For the Love of Challenges” Explained – rationale for interview series. […]
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[…] “For the Love of Challenges” Explained – rationale for interview series of bloggers who host challenges. […]
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[…] “For the Love of Challenges” Explained – rationale for interview series. […]
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Well said Marsha, your reasons make tons of sense and it was very thought-provoking for us when we were interviewed for your challenge series. I think most bloggers are generous and help each other whenever they can. Your series will hopefully open new doors and facilitate more connections as it grows. Kudos to you for your hard work and your interest in others’ success.
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Thanks, Tina. I think the bloggers in our circles are wonderful and do so much for each other. In my eight years of blogging I haven’t met any obnoxious bloggers. We will see where this series leads. I am hosting a writing challenge for Carrot Ranch in October as a result of this series. That will be a first.
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Thanks for such an interesting back story Marsha. I can attest to the time host bloggers put into their challenge and thank you for giving them acknowledgement of that. I hosted Times Past Challenge which was a memoir challenge which wanted to not only have those wonderful personal stories that every one of us have but to look at how things have changed from generation and also location. Unfortunately health issues saw the end of this challenge but you never know one day I might resurrect it. Looking forward to being one of your judges. Carrot Ranch has had a wide reaching impact on writers with not only the challenge but also the publishing of an anthology and the annual writing competition. Cee has done a great job compiling the challenges and I can see you doing a great job letting us know the faces behind those challenges.
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Thank you so much for your comment Irene. When you have time, I’d love to do an interview about your challenge. Maybe someone would love to help you get it back online. It sounds like it would be super interesting, and might even spark some books. 🙂 It would be good to do just before our own Carrot Ranch challenge comes out, too as an introduction to one of our star judges. 🙂
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Yes an interview would be fine Marsha. I have had two posts that for me went viral and one came from this series – how you were punished as a child. Obviously there were huge generational differences with this one and still generates community interest. Sadly those that visited didn’t leave comments which would have been very interesting.
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Awesome, Irene. That is an interesting topic. Another one that we used as an ice breaker in teacher trainings was “favorite toys you played with.” That is very generational and produced some emotional sharing – even among strangers. Let’s chat about your interview by email. I’ll email you tonight or tomorrow. 🙂
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I think we did toys also. Yes there are lots of differences over the generations. I’ll wait for your email. 😀
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I really enjoyed reading the story behind the series, Marsha. I so enjoyed being one of your guest bloggers!
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Hi Susan, Thanks so much. I enjoyed having you. It was a great post, I thought, as did many of my readers. Thanks for keeping up with the posts as they keep coming. Cee Neuner is one of the next Photo Challenger hosts to be on stage. 🙂
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I used to participate regularly in photo challenges and even hosted my own for about six months a couple of years ago. It started feeling too much like a job, so I stepped away. I’ll still jump on a photo challenge from time to time if the whim strikes. 😀
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Well, you know how I feel about blog challenges, Marsha. Having a theme from which to inspire ideas, along with those sharing their take on the same idea, really creates community and is fun to see how the creative process works in others.
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Interesting post, Marsha. I participate in writing challenges including Sue Vincent’s, Charli’s, Linda Hill’s SoCS, Colleen’s poetry challenge and the weekly Blog Hop. I am a bit random about them all these days as my writing takes up so much of my time now. I find it hard to write for a challenge when I am deep into a story of my own. I also do some photo challenges including Terri’s occasionally and I’ve recently started participating in Norm’s Thursday doors.
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Thanks Robbie. A couple of those writing challenges are new to me. Thanks for sharing. I’ll check them out. When I’m writing, everything else goes out the window, so good for you for even trying. You are amazing! I love both of those photo challenges.
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*host – not hots
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PS – I do not really hots a challenge – but I did try it twice – and could share more about my experience with that – and with other challenges I have done and still do – so if you want Priorhouse in the queue for this series – would love to participate – 🙂
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That would be awesome, Yvette!! I’d love to put you in the queue!!! 🤗🤗🤗🤗
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yeah. 🙂
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Hi Marsha – I used to have a blog page with a list of like 50 challenges that I liked – I took it down a while back to streamline my blog menu – but I was amazed with how many “hits” that page got on a regular basis – and I also like how Cee lists the many challenges on her blog.
and I like Cee’s challenges —
ok-
so this backstory to your interview goals was a nice idea and I look forward to following along –
🙂
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Yay! I’m so excited that you want to participate. Email me at tchistorygal@gmail.com and we can chat.
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sounds good – and I think what spoke to me was because I did start two challenges and would love to share why I walked away (or retired them)
email soon
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Perfect. I can’t wait to hear from you. 🙂
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Wonderful – I will be back online later tonight – east coast time –
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Hey – I will email you this Friday – just wanted to let you know – have a nice day my friend ☀️
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Perfect, that’s today, so I’ll be watching for it. Can’t wait! 🙂
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