Writers, Let’s Keep This Going Somehow

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I will admit that I had silently hoped that when I awoke this morning, there would be an announcement from the WordPress staff/editors similar to the one at the end of March wherein they would decide to keep the daily word prompts going.  I know that many of us in the blogging community have expressed how much we had missed sharing in each other’s lives through the daily prompt venue when the words came to an abrupt stop around this same time last year.  I also know that it requires both a time and energy commitment from those involved in setting it up, but it sure has been nice to relive in the good, old days over the past month.  Try as we might to inspire ourselves to do daily or even frequent writing, it is not quite the same when there isn’t a common forum for sharing in it.  I was thinking that it would have been nice if Ben Huberman would have repeated his Day one word, Joke, for today and then have proceeded to tell us that it is NO joke in that the prompts would continue or something to that effect.  It was a nice thought while it lasted.

For me, the routine of writing each morning has been a most welcome one and not just because of COVID-19; although I will admit that it has certainly been a good distraction from the overwhelming nature of what is going on worldwide.  Daily writing AND reading has been cathartic and reinvigorating for me in numerous ways, as I’m sure it has been for many of you.  When writing by myself so to speak, there is not the same sense of team/community which otherwise elicits more thoughtfulness, more inspiration, more everything on my part.  When we are all in it together, much like the coronavirus, there is just a different feel to it all.  I know that I don’t need to rely on others, such as the WordPress staff, to help provide content or ideas for my blog, but it’s not really about that–it’s about expressing ourselves within a common theme on a common platform wherein we can unite in thought, kinship, feelings, even expertise; in other words, a coming together of our human experience.  I can honestly say that I have enjoyed reading and commenting on other bloggers’ posts as much or more than I have enjoyed generating my own piece of writing each day, and I am grateful to have had this renewed experience.  I would dearly miss what we have created over the past month and if it were to just up and disappear in a manner of speaking, I would feel sad.  Plain and simple.  So it got me thinking… what if? and that lead to a couple of different ideas of how ‘we’ might be able to go forward from here.

As I mentioned in my first blogpost for the month, a kind group of bloggers got together last year when WordPress stopped their daily prompts and they created a Ragtag community of writers wherein ‘a word of the day’ is shared.  The Ragtag group remains strong and if you are interested in going that route, check out the following link as per today’s Ragtag prompt.  Be sure to read up on how to tag your pieces of writing appropriately so that they can be seen by others:

Ragtag Daily Prompt Thursday: Abstract in Black and White

Another option could be that for the next little while, I would gladly offer up a daily word.  If interested, you could pop onto my site briefly each day to see what the prompt is.  I have no idea what I am doing really and my word ideas might not be the greatest, but hey… we can figure it out together, right?  I am thinking?! that if you were to tag your posts with the words, jibberjabber (it’s distinctive enough), you could then use that same tag to search through others’ posts who would contain the word of the day, similar to how WordPress has run things.  Of course, I have no idea if that tagging system will actually work (I am going to try tagging my own post today with ‘jibberjabber’ to see), but I am guessing that it might yield a successful result.  If you are ready and willing to come along for the ride, I am certainly game to try steering us in that direction.  Since there is a good chance that my time zone may not match up with yours, I am going to do my best to post the word a day in advance, i.e. I will do one today for tomorrow.  That way, both you and I will have time to think of some ideas before having to write/publish our posts for each other to see.  

If something should go awry in my plans to keep this going, I am sure that I will ‘see’ you all again in one way or another, as each of us continues to navigate through this thing called, Life, via our passion(s) of writing and/or photography.  Cheers my friends!  It’s been a blast.  :-).

May 1st Word:  CRAZY     (Remember to try tagging your post with, jibberjabber.)

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Update:  June 2, 2020-– Our little jibberjabber community of bloggers is still going, so if you would like to participate or simply partake in reading others’ posts, drop by my site to catch the daily word prompt.  We’d love to have you!