WordCount Blogathon 2013

I'm going to participate in the WordCount Blogathon 2013 and you should, too.

It's as simple as that. 

I hope you will join me and several hundred other bloggers.  You will never regret it.

Three years ago this past April 30, a woman who has been in the life of one of my cousins for many years sent me an email encouraging me to join a blogging challenge called the WordCount Blogathon. She's a published writer and she had signed up.  At that time, I had been blogging for a little over two years, posted sporadically, and had no idea what I wanted to do with my blog.

I knew I wanted to write.  I've written all of my life - well, ever since I learned to read and write.  As a child, I wrote (bad) comics and (bad) stories. I was on my junior high school's yearbook staff.  I stopped creative type writing as an adult, but always wrote as part of my jobs-even if it was only letters to customers or business clients of my employer. 

Blogging was a natural for me because it ties in with photography, another interest I had never -um, developed.

I liked blogging but I didn't know where to go with it.

On April 30, hours before the sign up deadline for the May annual challenge, I took a leap of faith and signed up for the WordCount Blogathon challenge.  The challenge sounds simple but is possibly the hardest thing you will ever do in blogging - post each and every day, no exceptions, no make up days, no excuses, for 31 days straight.

There were possible prizes if you made it through the 31 days, and I admit that was part of the reason why I completed it.  It was hard.  As we say in the Binghamton area of upstate New York, it was WICKED hard.  But then, several months later, I realized I had kept posting every day, and decided I would keep posting daily-for my personal satisfaction.  As of today, I haven't stopped the daily blogging.

So, what about the WordCount Blogathon?  I did it again in 2012, and I am doing it again this year.  Last year, I even won a prize! (and then, I joined another blogging challenge and won prizes - perhaps I should have purchased lottery tickets, too, because I'm one of those people who never win anything.)  Not anything big. But, if I ever seriously decide to take up non-blog writing again, my prizes will be valuable.

In 2013 the Blogathon moved to June but the challenge is the same - blog every day for a month.

If you join this challenge, what can you expect?
-You will be able to blog what you want.  There will be several theme days, but they are strictly optional.  If it is like past years, there will be a Haiku day. There will also be an opportunity to find a kindred spirit in the Blogathon, and guest post on each others' blogs.  Unlike some blog challenges, there are no direct prompts.  But you won't be left without support.  No, far from it.
-You will be stretched to your creative limit
-You will have the chance to discuss blogging with fellow bloggers, and learn from them.
-You will be participating in a professionally run challenge - Michelle Rafter, the founder, is a professional journalist and she knows what she is doing.
-You will have fun.  Yes, really!
-You will meet new people.
-You will find fame and fortune.

No, the fame and fortune part may not happen.  Not right away, anyway.  That will have to depend on you.

Me? It's time to refresh my blog, and I am going to use the 2013 Blogathon to make some needed changes.  What changes? I don't know yet, but by the end of the Blogathon, I will know.

Don't be afraid.
Just Do It.