(Quick note about today’s art by Anna Walker:  I found this adorable illustration by Googling “Busy Dragon,” which is what I am as you’ll see when you read this post!  It’s from her book called “I Don’t Believe in Dragons,” which you can find out more about at that Goodreads link.  Go check out more of her wonderful work here.)

I know, I know, I said I was going to post something about my actual book for once, not about blogging or writing or whatever.  As soon as the post is done, I’ll put it up, promise.  I can tell you that I’m writing about the dragons in my world, and going into quite a bit of detail not only for you, dear readers, but to solidify some concepts in my own mind about how my world works.  It’s a great exercise, but as I said, I don’t want to rush it.

And since I have a free lunch hour, I thought I’d use it to check out all the Blogging 101 assignments I’ve let slack over the last… it’s been awhile.  (Also, I’ve just discovered the “horizontal line” button on the toolbar above… let’s see how this looks.)

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Day 6:  Today’s assignment: create and publish your About page, then either adapt it into a widget on your home page or add it to your menu.

“… take a look at our About Page 101 tips. If you’ve already got something, try your hand at About Pages 201. Take your About page from ‘here’s a list of things about me’ to ‘here’s a compelling story that will make you want to read more.’  Once you’re happy with your About page, distill it into one or two sentences and add them to a text widget — shoot for the widget to have no more than 10 lines.”

Oh yeah.  I really wanted to do that one.  I should start a list…

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Day 7:  Today’s assignment: create and upload a simple header, background, or both. Already done? Try a widget.

Oh good… I have actually basically completed this one.  I may eventually change up my theme, header, backgrounds, etc… but I’m pretty happy with what I’ve got for right now.  And I’m constantly adding and moving my widgets, so I’m set there too!  Whew.

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Day 8:  Today’s assignment: leave comments on at least four blogs that you’ve never commented on before.

I’ve done okay at leaving comments on the blogs I follow… but I could definitely be better, and I’ll make that a goal moving forward.  Leave at least three comments a week.  I can do that.

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Day 9:  Today’s assignment: write a post that builds on one of the comments you left yesterday. Don’t forget to link to the other blog!

Hmmm… write a post inspired by a comment on someone else’s blog.  I imagine it would be easy to do on say, another writer’s blog, but perhaps I need to stretch and check out someone’s photo blog and write something based on that.  All right, put that in the queue of everything I’m trying to accomplish — I mean, who needs sleep anyway?  -_-;

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Day 10:  Today’s assignment: create a blogroll to share links you love with your readers.

Oh, yay!  Another one I’ve actually already done!  I have the widget “Blogs I Follow” at the bottom of my page, showing the most recent people I’ve followed.  I also do have a Links page, but I admit I’ve been slacking a little bit on updating that.  Add it to the list…

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Day 11:  Today’s assignment: publish a post based on your own, personalized take on a blogging prompt.

To find our Daily Prompt, head to the The Daily Post… Today, practice turning a writing prompt into a post that fits seamlessly into your blog. Read today’s prompt, and interpret it. Focus on a particular word. Take a broad-brush view. Use it metaphorically. Find an alternate interpretation.

So, this is an interesting one.  When I started this blog, I was originally looking for daily writing prompts, and as I’ve discovered through this Blogging 101 course, there are plenty of WordPress-driven ways to find a writing prompt if ever I’d want one, I really don’t have to go buy another book.

Today’s daily prompt is just “Alphabet.”  Aha, I would have said before — my characters come from a world before writing, this doesn’t work for me, bah humbug!

But as it says, there should be some way I can interpret this… I mean, my main characters come from a pre-literate society, but there is a more advanced City setting in their future, and I could talk about that maybe?  Okay, it goes on the list.  (Maybe by the time I get to it, I’ll have a slightly easier prompt to get me started.)

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Day 12:  Today’s task: read six posts written in response to the same prompt, and leave comments on at least two of them.

This will have to come after I’ve gotten to that post, then… but yep, in the queue it goes. Maybe I’ll make this a weekly feature… I’ve been really impressed with the way many of the more experienced bloggers I follow have weekly features, so actually, I think that gives me an idea for what to comment where, and then what to write a whole post about using that comment for inspiration!   See, it’s all coming together.  For this Day 12, I’ll just be sure I post two comments on whatever prompt I eventually do write.

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Day 13:  Today’s task: pick a blogging event from the Community Event Listings, and participate in the next round.

Wow.  That link took me to a whole new world of writing prompts and groups to join, I didn’t even really get to check many out, but it could definitely be a great resource for me.

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All right, so according to this posting, here’s my list of things I plan to do (rearranged into priority order):

• Finish my Dragons essay, and get it posted!
• Work on the actual novel (should be in this list somewhere… lol.)
• Leave at least 3 comments every week on other people’s posts.  (I can’t really mark this DONE! but I’m doing well so far!)
• Write a whole post inspired by a comment I make somewhere else, and link back (first, a photo blog…)
  • Part II:  Write a comment about someone’s Weekly Feature, so I can write a post about how I may start my own weekly feature, DONE!
  • using the daily writing prompts from WordPress’s Daily Post page.
• Complete one of the Daily Prompts on WordPress’s Daily Post page, then read other responses and comment on them tomorrow.  DONE! (I realized I kinda wrapped a bunch of the assignments into one thing, so…)
• Dig into the Community Events and join an event, as possibly another weekly feature?
• (Not from B101, but I need to) Update my Copyright Notice.  DONE!
• Update and revamp my About Me page.  DONE!
• Update my Links page.

That, folks, is a lot of stuff to do.  But lists are great for helping me break my overall goals down into more manageable ones, so I’m excited to get started.  This is it for me today as far as posting, but I’m on my way home to write my heart out!  (Unless this cold I came down with last night kicks my butt… but I’m not going to let that happen!)

As always, thanks for reading!

Image credits:
“Busy Dragon” by Anna Walker
Thoughtful Green and Gold Hoarder Dragon by How Many Dragons?