Reflections on a Month of Slicing

It's the last day of the March Challenge and I can't believe how quickly it has gone by. This is my second year. Last year I sometimes found it hard to write each day. I loved getting comments from people -- feedback is so valuable -- and I loved reading other people's blogs. At the end of the the month, I was energized and confident and ready to write more, but I was also happy I didn't have to write every day any more.

Finding the Two Writing Teachers community was one of the most valuable parts of my first year. I have continued reading their posts and have used some of the ideas in my teaching. This year I decided to join the Welcome Wagon in addition to blogging every day. I was a little nervous about the commitment, but it turned out to be one of the most fun parts of the challenge this year. The Welcome Wagon volunteers are assigned to several 1st year bloggers, to comment on their blog posts every day. I so enjoyed following the same people through the month - I felt like I actually knew them. I was awed by the talented writers, the touching and funny stories, and other people's daily lives. I hope to join the Welcome Wagon again next year!

I've been reading other bloggers last day reflections and pretty much everyone says the same thing -- I wrote some good posts but I also wrote some posts that were not so great. Me, too! I know that's an important part of being a writer. If you wait to write only good stuff, you'll never write anything. But what I learned this year is that I'm happiest with my writing when I challenge myself. I wrote a few poems this year. Poetry is more challenging for me. I was also inspired by another blogger, Diane at https://dianeandlynne.wordpress.com, to step up my storytelling. I tend to tell stories as a narrative, but her stories were so alive, with dialogue and descriptions, that I tried it myself. Again following her example, my best effort (in my own opinion) was a story from my childhood, Best Friends, Mud, and Grandma.

I hope to keep up with the Tuesday Slicing and I'll definitely be back next March!