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| The Blogettes Summer of 2011 (From left to right) Jennifer Rova, Jenny Leo, Elizabeth Briton, Mary Jane Honegger, Nancy Owens Barnes and Kathy Dobbs |
After nearly five years we have made the decision it’s time
to move on to other writing adventures and end our Writing North Idaho
blog. We thank those who joined us as
Followers and those who merely stumbled upon one of our posts through the serendipity
of the World Wide Web.
Now for analysis of our little online adventure.
1. Did we reach our goal?
2. What did we gain from the
experience?
3. Is writing a blog a worthwhile
endeavor for a writer?
1. Did we reach
our goal?
Yes we did. Much to
our surprise and delight, the simple blog we created with the goal of
providing a forum for local authors to gain knowledge and find encouragement
and support, eventually touched nearly every corner of the world and received
277,719 pageviews as of this morning. Each
time we signed onto the blog and glanced at the recent viewers, we realized the
scope of our blog was much larger than we ever dreamed; as readers from China;
Sun Prairie, Wisconsin; Australia; Newfoundland; London England; Kazakhstan;
Fayetteville, Georgia; Ukraine; and New York, New York had visited to view one of our
posts in the past hour. We found it
hard to believe that writers in Russia
were second only to our U.S.
viewers.
2. What did we
gain from our experience?
Each of us gained knowledge and honed our writing skills as
we researched and then wrote over 690 posts.
Our determination to post three times each week required us to meet
deadlines and do our work in a timely manner – valuable assets for any writer.
We enlarged our network of writing contacts and corresponded
with many writers along the way, but one of the most valuable assets of taking
this blogging adventure was the friendships we developed with one another. Writing is most often a solitary endeavor, so
our quarterly meetings to discuss our blog were looked forward to with anticipation. We met in a home or local
café, shared a meal, and talked about ourselves, our lives, and our dreams …
eventually we would even get around to talking about the blog. Although most of us are past the age for
nicknames, we had fun calling ourselves “The Blogettes” and belonging to a of group dedicated writers.
3. Is writing a
blog a worthwhile endeavor for a writer?
Writers are encouraged to blog to raise their presence on
the Internet, promote their work, and allow possible editors and publishers to
get a look at their writing. We are
uncertain whether or not WNI was valuable to us in that type of self-promotion,
but we do know it gave us great
satisfaction. Just this morning a viewer
from Kenya
visited to read my 2012 post outlining the AP Guide for using numerals. It doesn’t get much more rewarding than
that. I encourage you to give it a try.
So we say goodbye to this adventure with a little sadness, and a heap of thanks for the support and friendship of one another as we continue our writing journey.
Nancy Owens Barnes – (WNI founder)
working on a series of poetry and photo books and promoting her first book
Mary Jane Honegger - working on full feature screenplay
Jennifer Lamont Leo - seeking publisher for first and working on second book
Jennifer Rova - seeking publisher for first book
Kathy Cooney Dobbs - writing her own blog
Elizabeth S. Brinton - posting at www.elizabethbrinton.com as well as promoting her first book and seeking publisher for second.
Anna Goodwin - promoting her books and working on another
Elizabeth (Liz) Mastin (The Joy of Prosody) - soon to publish a book on poetry
And special thanks to Lila Bolme and B.J. Campbell for …
well they know…
That’s a wrap!
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