IT’S EASY TO PLAY ALONG WITH #WQW
This weekly writing challenge runs from Wednesday through Tuesday. The only rule is to use a quote. If you want to participate, create a pingback to link your post. Not sure how to do that? See how to create pingbacks here. Be sure to link to this post, not my page.
Featured Bloggers for …
Your friendships mean so much. Thank you all for joining in.
- BLOG OF HAMMAD RAIS
- CATH’S CAMERA
- DEB’S WORLD
- LADY LEE MANILA
- LOVING LIFE
- LIFE AFTER 50 FOR WOMEN
- NEW2WRITING WOTY ENTRY
- NEW2WRITING WRITER’S CHOICE ENTRY
- PRIORHOUSE BLOG
- ROBBIE’S INSPIRATION
- SECOND WIND LEISURE (SUNDAY STILLS)
- SHEETALBRAVON
- SO WHAT? NOW WHAT?
#WQW # – Topic:
Definition: Communication, the act or process of using words, sounds, signs, or behaviors to express or exchange information or to express your ideas, thoughts, feelings, etc., to someone else human communication nonverbal communication Miriam Webster
Quote Your Blogging Friends
This is a long quote from Sadje’s post last week about her Word of the Year (WOTY). Poetry is one way that many bloggers communicate.
One of the most important aspects of blogging is to read and understand what your blogging friends are saying and to respond back to them. We are all great at leaving comments, but sometimes we want to remember what they wrote on our post and allow even more people to interact with it.
We can and should always leave links, and we should, but quoting them gives our readers a chance to see why they should go read the link.
Without the shimmering robe of hope, Our souls stands naked, exposed The world looks barren and desolate Not a flower or tree in sight Like a fairy, a wisp of light vapor Condenses into a tangible form of hope It anchors our heart and soul to life Gives us a reason to wake up on the morrow Lifts us up from the doldrums of sorrow Dresses us in rainbows of dreams imagined Clothes us, protects us and nurtures us Without its shimmering robe we are defenseless ©Sadje 2022 https://lifeafter50forwomen.com/2022/01/28/my-word-for-this-year-hope/
Photos, Narration, and Comments Hold Valuable Words of Wisdom
Most people spend a lot of time on their blogs, writing the post, curating the photos, and responding to comments. Comments hold value for others as well. When I have the time, I love to read what other readers have said about the post I finished reading.
Flocks of migratory Siberian birds squawking and flying fearlessly near our boats had us up on our feet. Apparently, they love eating the namkeen sev and enterprising boatmen in tiny rowboats will urge you to do the boni (first sale) and buy a packet.
Sheetal Bravon
Using the link address to share a friend’s photo does a couple of things. It gives credit to the author of the post/photo, and you don’t store the photo in your blog’s memory. If you take a lot of pictures, that is super important.
“Stunning photos and evocative text – I almost feel like I have been there even though I haven’t yet visited. But of course now I want to even more than I already did. Looking at your photos I yearn to have the chance to attempt at least to take similar ones!”
Toonsarah on Sheetal Bravon’s post about her trip to Varanasi
Link Parties Bring New Friends
I joined the WOTY link party and Christy Hawkes came to my blog. I’ve included her post in my list because she posted about her WOTY and is a professional communicator. She has this to say about communication through blogs.
“Authentic communication requires vulnerability and messiness, and that’s where the meaningful connections happen. That’s where we help each other and ourselves. I make a conscious effort to focus on the positive, but that doesn’t mean I ignore the difficult or challenging…that I pretend nothing bad exists.”
Christie Hawkes from So What? Now What?
If you’ve been reading my blog for a while, you know that I have taken this advice, especially recently talking about having cancer and deep vein thrombosis. Like many other bloggers, I have learned a lot from my “messy” life that I try to share with others so that they can 1. know how to avoid or better deal with their situations and 2. feel free to share their stories with me.
Challenges and Interviews Improve Blogging Communication
Yvette Prior, my sixth interview in the Challenge Interview Series, is chock full of pithy advice for both challenge hosts and participants. I think it is a must-read. The post cautions bloggers as well as encourages them.
The challenges that we join allow us to network and build rapport with others. Or they can – depending on how active we are and how others in the group respond to newcomers or to your unique contributions and style.
Yvette Prior from Priorhouse Blog
Personally, this post generated a huge email flurry of communication between Yvette and me about my purpose in blogging. She also helped me redesign my menu, my blogging motto, and a widget I was working on. Some of what she had to say was hard to hear but it cemented our friendship.
Not only that, she followed up the interview/guest post on my blog with a summary post of her own. At the time of this interview, I had taken a break from what I called my hobby blog to attempt to create a professional blog. The result was that I had to almost start over to remake connections with the blogging community that I loved.
The effort that she made in her follow-up post on her blog to reinforce the work she had done on my blog welcomed me back into the warm and caring community of bloggers I had loved from the start of my blogging experience. She taught me a lot about protocols – from her perspective both as a challenge host and a challenge participant.
Take Blogging to the Next Level
When you comment with your friends on your blog or theirs, the communication is online for the world to see. Sometimes we want a more private connection. Even though we might live across the world from each other there are other ways bloggers communicate. Here are several ideas.
- Zoom is my favorite means of communicating now because I can see the friend as well as talk to them and if we talk about blogging or another hobby, we can share screens. It is a great mode for teaching and communicating on a deeper level. I’m involved in a couple of weekly conversations with Cee Neuner to talk photography and to share blogging ideas with other bloggers. Some bloggers get very creative with these meetings. Check out my interview with the producers of “What’s on Your Plate,” Debbie, Jo, Donna, and Sue.
- Messenger and other face to face accounts like Skype and Facetime, allow you to chat face to face with your blogging friends. I am old enough to remember phone charges for long distance. These options have opened up the world especially to bloggers.
- Phone, Email, and Snailmail all have their places in bloggers’ communication. My teddy bear, Manny travels via UPS or USPS all over the world. In return the other bloggers and I have an amazingly strong connection. It’s almost like Manny is real. Email provides a valuable option for planning and sending word docs and jpegs. Google allows us to share documents and collaborate on projects.
- The ultimate communication between bloggers would be meet-ups, trips and vacations together. Those are lifetime and lifechanging. I have met several bloggers, but only traveled overnight with three bloggers at this point. I have talked a lot about my time with Carol, the Eternal Traveller and our friend Leanne Cole from Australia. I spent three weeks in Australia for the sole purpose of meeting up with them. Terri Webster Schrandt, Second Wind Leisure blog and I have spent a couple of nights together with local travel following. We are planning a meet-up with several Northwest bloggers this summer – hopefully in August centering in Portland, Oregon. If you life or might be traveling into the area, let me know if you’d like to meet up. Cee has promised us some photo shoots! You can meet my crazy brother, too! 🙂
Other Challenges that Inspired WQW 2022 #5
CMMC: Pictures with V Words in Them
I’m a week behind with CMMC because it comes out the same day as WQW. Last week I was done in time to connect to the week before so it messed me up.
Last on the Card Challenge
Square Odds
Yesterday I posted crazy odd pictures of my brother riding a carousel at age 60. Last night I found these wonderful pictures of carousels at antique stores in Sedona or possibly mislabeled at Senora. I’ll check one of these days. But I thought, “How odd is it that I would find these pictures minutes after his post posted.”
If you want to link in with Becky B, click this link for Square Odds #2.
February is a month of Squares, and theme is odd. So basically nearly anything goes as odd includes odd numbers, odd balls, the exceptions, follies, and even odds and ends. Just remember to keep your photographs square and it would be great if you could use the tag SquareOdds. If you want to know more here’s my challenge poster.
Becky B
UPDATES ON ALWAYS WRITE
- If you host or participate regularly in a challenge and would like an interview on Always Write contact me by email at marshaalwayswrite@tchistorygal.net.
Now it’s your turn.
Tell us …. Thanks so much for stopping by and having fun with quotes and fun communicating on your blog.
Marsha Ingrao - Always Write 
54 responses to “WQW #5: Communication Through Blogging”
You are absolutely right, Marsha!
Blogging has provided me, an introvert, a unique opportunity to see the world in a whole new perspective. It has also gave me enough inspiration to let myself open up in a way I may not in the real world.
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That’s wonderful, Hammad.
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[…] WQW #5: Communication Through Blogging – Marsha Ingrao – Always Write […]
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[…] poems – whatever holds meaning for you. Sneak in your last minute WQW posts or thoughts about socializing TODAY. Check out my WQW page for a calendar of […]
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[…] is Marsha’s theme for Writer’s Quote Wednesdays this week as she explores the art of socializing and relationship-building. What better way to […]
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Thank you marsha for always provoking thought! I enjoyed your thoughts on this. Also as always your photos. Here is my link for the week, though I feel it’s a bit fragmented (kind of how I’ve felt this week…lol)
https://troyerslovinglife.blogspot.com/2022/02/wqwtheme-communicationthoughts-on.html
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very kind post, Kirstin with shout outs to friends.
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Hi Marsha, here’s my post;
http://lifeafter50forwomen.com/2022/02/04/blogging-a-way-to-communicate-and-connecting/
Thanks. I hope it meets the brief
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This was way more than I expected, Sadje! 🙂
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Thanks 🙏🏼
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[…] Written for; WQW # 5– Topic: Communication through blogging, hosted by Marsha […]
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Great post, Sadje. Everyone should read this one and say hi to old friends or gain some new ones. 🙂
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Hi Marsha, I love all the connections we make as bloggers and your friendship is no exception. All the points raised in your post and by those commenting are spot on.
I also like the way you combine all the challenges in your post. I have linked up today with you for WQW and Becky’s #SquareOdds.
Thanks for all you do for the blogging world.
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Thanks to you too, Deb. You inspire me constantly!
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[…] Also linking up with Marsha’s WQW#5 […]
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Marsha, I wasn’t expecting such a wonderful shoutout to my post so this was a fantastic surprise. Thank you.
You are an inspiration, to do all that you do with your blog, week after week, so efficiently and effectively. I’m so happy that our paths crossed. I look forward to reading all your posts and checking out the links you shared.
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Thank you Sheetal. You put a lot of effort into your post and it took us on a journey that most people in the US have never been. Thanks so much for allowing me to “borrow” your work. 🙂
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Hi Marsha, thank you for including my post here. I do like the idea of a word for the year. Communicating through blogging is a great topic. I haven’t had any external input but my blogs have both evolved over time . My main themes of book reviews, baking, cooking, and a few prompts haven’t changed, it is more my approach. My posts are more like conversations now and not just a poem or a prompt.
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Thank you so much, Robbie. I think my posts have evolved so much, too. I love supporting others as well as telling bits and pieces of my story, too. At first I was so new that I did a running commentary or I made a stretch to participate in a challenge. Lots of time the challenge pictures were a stretch because I didn’t have many, and I didn’t have much of a theme when I wrote them. I do enjoy your poems. Your style, especially the one you wrote for the WOTY post is funny as well as having a form. That’s hard to do. 🙂 It’s going to be a great year. 🙂
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Hi Marsha, I am very pleased you liked my poem. I seem to be more humorous with my poetry, but only occasionally, than with my prose.
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Hello Marsha. Thank you for the shout out and for the list of blogs you included in this post. I see some I know, but also some new ones I will be visiting soon. Blogging opens the door for communicating with so many people from around the world. Those connections are truly my favorite part about blogging. I haven’t had the pleasure of meeting any of them in person yet, but hope to in the future…perhaps after I retire from my full-time job.
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Working full-time is definitely a determent. When I started blogging I was working full time. I did that for about six months and I was exhausted because I wrote late into the night.
Blogging started out as a big experiment for me. It turned out that I loved it and have made so many friends, some of whom I talk with every day. It’s an amazing process. I’m so glad we met.
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[…] WQW – Communication/Thoughts on Blogging […]
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Thank you for the link to my entries, Marsha. Wow, what a marvellous post. I love all the advice about communication and it was so lovely to hear your stories of meet-ups etc. I feel very lucky to have found your brilliant blog, and value your feedback. Those connections are definitely one of the best things about blogging.
This is my entry for this week:
https://new2writing.wordpress.com/2022/02/02/i-write-for/
Take care.
KL ❤
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Thank you for your kind words, KL. BTW, your story comes up on Feb. 8th. I’ll get you a Word copy of it to do a final proof probably on Monday. (I’m always pokey!) I haven’t doen any artwork yet and that’s what holds me up. 🙂
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Thanks Marsha for the shoutout and sharing the poem. It lovely how you’ve connected personally with so many bloggers! Lovely post.
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Thank you Sadje. Connecting is one of the great things that happens in blogging, I think. It gives me hope, that’s for sure. 🙂 Keep up your writing, Sadje, you are very talented.
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I appreciate your kind words Marsha. I’ll be submitting my post tomorrow.
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Awesome, I’ll look forward to it. 🙂
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🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼
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We sure have had some fun together and I consider myself so fortunate to have met you, not only online, but in person – three times! How amazing.
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It is. What is interesting is that we spent time getting to know the whole family. That makes the videos of August feel as if I’m still connected. We have shared so many day to day thoughts and concerns together, which is like we were living close and checking in on about a daily basis as I would do with my family, well my mom. I don’t do that with my brother. There aren’t many people in the world we do that with, and seldom thousands of miles away! LOL
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I love sharing August with you.
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We love him to death. He is such a happy little guy. So much fun.
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I just sent you a new video.
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So cute. He’s going to be a hard worker.
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[…] Marsha’s WQW, the topic is {Communication through […]
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You really bring home the essence of communication and how this leads to fundamental relationships and friendships being built as a result of blogging. There was a point when I almost quit in early 2018. How sad my life would have been without blogging. From that point onward I have probably met IRL 20 bloggers in various states, from Hawaii to Washington to Arizona and beyond to Canada and Sweden (Not that I’ve been to those countries yet). It really is a small world. Marsha, you’ve really taught me the value of building friendships through blogging and how you mindfully reach out to people and genuinely engage. Bravo for you, my friend! Too many bloggers hope to make money with their blogs and don’t realize the more valuable currency is the social aspect. I always appreciate your shout-outs and support.
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We do have a mutual admiration. People that make money from their blogs do have a different mindset. I floundered around in that world for about four years. It was super uncomfortable. I don’t know how you would marry the two. Lisa came as close to anyone I know, but she’s not blogging anymore as a hobby, I guess. So the two really don’t mix well. I can’t even define why they are so different, can you? For me the real change has been my commitment to challenges. With the commercial blogging efforts, the whole thing is titles and wording them so they draw in people. When you play challenges, the title and the challenge are married and there isn’t the push to make your title draw readers. The challenge name does the drawing for you. The other big difference I think is the linking and the comments that go on between challenge bloggers. Even commercial bloggers that had comments (and there weren’t many of them) they rarely linked back to someone else’s blog to support them. That does take a lot of time because you not only link, but you stop to read and comment on the blog you link. If you are blogging for commercial reasons, I don’t think there is time to do that.
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This is a comprehensive post full of wonders and people, fabulous. Thanks for the mention and including your great Last Photo of such tall pines. 🤗💕
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Thanks, BB. I had fun with the post.
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also, here is my link for this week – pulled out a quote from a Toby Mac song (because songs communicate such potent messages and then we can share them on our blog to share our message or communicate through the sharing, eh?)
https://priorhouse.blog/2022/02/02/the-elements-wqw-sunday-stills/
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Love your post. It’s perfect for communication and elements! 🙂
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thanks so much
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Hi Marsha – such a fun post and to see that section mentioning me completely edified- and you and I really did connect (and communicate) so well with that interview and discussion.
It brought back good memories and I am glad to be blog friends
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It was a great post with such good words of wisdom, just what I was looking to share. At that time, I wondered if I could EVER host a challenge, it seemed overwhelming. It’s kind of like having a baby – you grow with it. 🙂 That interview process really got me back into the kind of blogging I love and helped me define my reason for blogging. I am exactly where I want to be because of it. We started a great connection that has continued to grow. 🙂
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🙂
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[…] song is “if I go down – I’m a gonna go down swinging.” and that is for #WQW, which is communication this week – because songs sure can be powerful ways to deliver messages (and that is why I am careful […]
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wow what a find on the carousels 🙂
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I know, huh? Who knew I’d find those. 26 more fun days ahead of us! 🙂
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How wonderful to see the memories. I’ll show Danny, 🙂 So lovely to see Manny in all of these stuffeds!
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Wasn’t that fun. I had all my files transferred to an external hard drive, and so I’m seeing some of them again for the first time in several years. Thanks again for those lovely memories. 🙂
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What a journey you took on with this post. I adored your V photos. You came up with some great titles and photo are wonderful. Thanks for mentioning our calls, They are fun and the communication is great. 😀 😀
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I hoped you wouldn’t mind. It definitely takes blogging to the next level. I think more and more people are doing that, too. Maybe not in the groups like you have organized just for fun, but one on one and for specific purposes. Zoom and the other platforms are such a great tool. 🙂
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