OMG THE AVENGERS EYE MAKEUP

 Comics, Inspiration, Superheroes, Things Worth Sharing  4 Responses »
May 082012
 

Please see all caps title as an example of what happened when I stumbled across this awesome make-up blog called Makeup Your Jangsara. Dude, I didn’t even know I liked make-up blogs until I discovered this. Where do I sign up to be this awesome chick’s fan club president?

From Makeup Your Jangsara as proof of how much awesome this girl is made of:

JANGSARA FOR THE WIN.

A-to-Z April Challenge 2012 Survivor Reflections

 Blogging  14 Responses »
May 082012
 

 

  1. Having a theme made the challenge easier and more rewarding. I didn’t feel like I was just doing a post to fulfill a letter. I felt like I was mining my genre for all its squirrely bits. I was able to bring some of my readers over to the comicy dark side and I was able to explore some of the themes in my superhero WIP I didn’t even know were lurking there.
  2. I did not listen to my own advice and force myself to write under 400 words a post. Sometimes I did ok, but many of my posts wandered on much longer. The longer posts seemed to be those where I used examples and explained a lot of back story. While I don’t think I could have shortened them, I think I have a serious problem with staying succinct.
  3. I did not visit half as many blogs as I’d wanted to. About halfway through the challenge I felt burnt out on reading blogs and they all kind of started looking the same to me. I think this is a problem. I wish there was a way to categorize or sort the participating blogs so I could visit other YA writers or jump over and visit sci-fi writers or get really different and visit a fashion blogger instead, but do so knowing what I was getting into. There were a lot of blogs I looked at that were either A) Not really participating or B) Weren’t really putting much effort behind their posts which leads me to point 4:
  4. By midway through the month, I wanted substance. It was hard to connect or comment on blogs that posted sort of random word posts that just…kind if didn’t add much to public discourse. It made me think that this blogging, thinking, idea making machine had serious discourse potential, but couldn’t focus long enough to reach into the internet mire and expose gems of insight, hilarity, or new knowledge. That’s not a criticism of the challenge, just the nature of the blogging beast.  I think it is something we all struggle with every day as bloggers.
  5. It made me think that I would love to see a blog challenge like A-to-Z that asks and answers ideas and builds on a wider discourse. How amazing would it be if 1600 people talked about diversity in literature one week, the naked nature of comedy another, and the reality of women’s roles in social media the next? The idea sort of blows my mind. It’s an idea I would really like to pursue in the future.
  6. I experienced total blogger burn out after the last post. This happened last year and I had to take time off to recover. I didn’t require quite as much time off this year, but still, there were a few days there I didn’t even sign into the internet and checked Twitter from my phone only once or twice. Like, if I saw my blog in those few days I might have set it on fire.
  7. I lovedlovedloved the comments left about comics this month. They were all really well thought out and I loved the recommendations I got. I’ll be shopping for some new graphic novels soon.
  8. All in all, it was really enjoyable. I saw a couple of the hosts pop by my blog and I couldn’t help but think OMG YOU GUYS ARE INSANE AND ALSO, AWESOME. I am a big fan of all the A-to-Z hosts.
  9. Can’t wait for next year!!!