•12:32 PM
"The game is afoot!"(Have you ever seen the movie Young Sherlock Holmes? How I love that film.)
Oh, and my post title? That's my Rowlingesque, fake Latin translation of 'Scavenger Hunt.' (For the real Latin, try Jenna.)
Since I have made the insane decision to participate both in National Blog Posting Month (Nablopomo) and in National Novel Writing Month (Nanowrimo) in the month that includes my birthday, that of our eldest child, and Thanksgiving (which I host for between 16 and 20 people each year), I figured I'd need some help.
Enter RaJ the Great and Terrible and his genius idea for a framework for Nablopomo: that of a scavenger hunt. For Nablopomo, I need to post once a day for the 30 days of November. I know; not onerous on the face of it, right? Except for the fact that there are MANY days when I wake up thinking that there's nothing very blogworthy going on. Ergo, I am silent.
And that can't happen in November. For I must win. And when I say 'win,' I mean 'finish without humiliating myself.'
RaJ suggested a way to get our readers involved: ask THEM (that would be YOU) to provide us with items/ideas as post subjects. They can be concrete items (a toaster) or abstract ideas (world peace). They can be burning questions you've been dying to ask. They can be topics you'd like to see addressed. They can be obnoxiously obscure things you'd like to see dealt with in a (semi-)creative fashion. It's up to you.
So I'm taking the first 30 ideas you, gentle readers, submit to me, reserving the right to toss any I deem inappropriate. Feel free to submit more than one, but if you do so only submit ONE IDEA PER COMMENT. Otherwise, I'll just take the first one you list and ignore the rest. What? It's my blogparty, and I'll be picky if I want to.
That's it! The first 30! So submit your idea now, before Halloween is over! (I really, really hope you can come up with 30 items between the lot of you, or I'll be shamed forever.)
RaJ suggested a way to get our readers involved: ask THEM (that would be YOU) to provide us with items/ideas as post subjects. They can be concrete items (a toaster) or abstract ideas (world peace). They can be burning questions you've been dying to ask. They can be topics you'd like to see addressed. They can be obnoxiously obscure things you'd like to see dealt with in a (semi-)creative fashion. It's up to you.
So I'm taking the first 30 ideas you, gentle readers, submit to me, reserving the right to toss any I deem inappropriate. Feel free to submit more than one, but if you do so only submit ONE IDEA PER COMMENT. Otherwise, I'll just take the first one you list and ignore the rest. What? It's my blogparty, and I'll be picky if I want to.
That's it! The first 30! So submit your idea now, before Halloween is over! (I really, really hope you can come up with 30 items between the lot of you, or I'll be shamed forever.)
**UPDATED**We're there! Thank you; I have the very best readers in all of Planet Blog.
42 comments:
Now this, this is a game I want to play. I love your definition of winning. Mine is slightly different. Mine is a myriad of people telling me how wonderful I am. But enough about how elementary school emotionally scarred me...I'm in!
Me.
What kinds of writing exercises you do (or prompts, maybe) that help you get your ideas on the paper.
PEZ, of course.
A comparative essay: life in the eastern part of the US versus life on the western part.
And please answer once and for all the age old question: Why isn't there a "Almond Mounds" candy bar, because wouldn't that really be better than a "Mounds" or an "Almond Joy" by themselves?
I've been trying without success to come up with a post today on this subject: Children are not all the same.
Maybe you'll do better than I did.
And, I see as I typed in that last comment that you have already responded via e-mail. Before I check, I will just FOR THE RECORD state that one of these suggestions was meant to be a joke.
I trust you know which one...
Global warming?
Here's my question--Why do we have an appendix? That would be anatomical, not literary :-)
Another question. What makes a book hit the best seller lists--content, or bells and whistle marketing?
Which VeggieTales is the best to date?
On a related note, which Silly Song is the best?
Have you heard of VeggieTales?
You can combine all my VeggieTales ones if necessary.
Your favorite book(s).
subject idea -- why do you think people really hurt others?
i can hardly wait to see another one of your writing challenges.
thanks,
kathleen
Guilt and it's many applications to your role of wife, mother, and woman.
for the record, an appendix is a place where the body probably stores good (and bad) bacteria, the theory being that the appendix was needed to deliver the good bacteria to a digestive system that was in need of the bacteria for survival (like, in the olden, olden days); plus, it is fun to try and locate one on a cadaver, to see if they have had it surgically removed during their life (oh, sorry, did I screw up the blog idea?)
here's my question:
Nine yards of what??? as in "the whole nine yards..."
please satisfy this question of mine, one that I have asked several people to tell me the stinkin' answer...
love you!
Your five fave books of all time and WHY ;-)
a report on the conference you're going to shortly!
what's your favorite trite cliche and why?
oh ack! the pressure to come up with a topic for someone else! ack! Ack! just one more reason that I think that NaPoBloMo is a device of evil. Evil, I say!
Hmmm... blog that!
On blahhhhing: the sometimes subtle difference between blog posting that is "for clicks" and those that are truly an endeavor by the author to engage the reader... and how to tell the difference between the two.
Oooooh!!! This sounds SO FUN! And of COURSE you have a spreadsheet. Wow. I kinda wanna do this idea too... Would that be stealing?
Okay, my suggestion is something that you and I have in common: Being a Mormon AND being "Liberals" in politics. It makes us odd ducks indeed. I'd love to hear all about it, from the stupid things people may have said to you about it, to your reasons for choosing such a "strange" combination of politics and religion.
I'll ruin Anjmae's because I'm such a word nerd--There's no linguistic evidence as to where "the whole nine yards" came from. There are boatloads of theories, but none of them hold water when researched. (Learned that in "Word Myths." Awesome book.)
As for an blog idea, I'm going with your toaster example and just throwing out a single word as a prompt for you to do with what you will:
PINK
What would you do if….
You knew you had exactly 5 years to live? (Assuming you are in completely good health for at least 98% of the time.)
I hope this isn’t a morbid question as much as a thought provoking question. It is a limited amount of time, but not so short that people would do something crazy. What might you add to your daily/weekly life? What would you remove? What would you try to accomplish?
What would you do if…
You could wave a magic wand and completely remove from the world, or at least from the English language, one each of the following;
A colloquialism
A common written grammatical error
A single abbreviation
A homonym, in whole or part
A ‘mis-definable’ term (example if a tin-whistle is made of tin, then what is a foghorn made of? You probably even know the linguistic name for such a thing.)
Or you can pick just three of the above if you prefer.
What would you remove and why?
I saw that on RaJ's post somewhere and thought it was a good ideal. But, I have been pondering what I was going to do for NaBloPoMo and have come up with some ideas. But, I still may do this game when my mind turns blank. Good luck on doing both. I'll be reading!!
your weirdest travelexperience...stories of other places you've visited?
ah and maybe more about being a mormon...as I hardly know anything about your faith and traditions and the things I do know are probably prejudices and weird stories ;)
A rutabaga.
How to use alliteration in your writing without channeling Dr. Seuss.
Oh good LUCK to you on both Nablopomo & Nanowrimo!
You are a fantastic writer. I am sure you wont have too much trouble with accomplishing your goals.
I did both last year. I just dont have it in me this time around. They are great fun.
Your ten favorite books of all time
Your ten LEAST favorite books of all time
If you had the job of naming nail-polish colors, what are the best names you could come up with? (Including actual images containing these colors would be a bonus... not that I'm awarding points or anything.)
Pezmama's latest comment about nailpolish names is funny :p. Very original post that could be.
Hmmm.... I'll be bookmarking this for potential NaBloPoMo ideas if the barrel I'm scraping comes up dry. Sweet!
Here's one for you: your favorite piece of artwork (or the one that disturbs or moves you the most)
Here's another one: a song that represents something significant. Maybe it's the song that you listened over and over to after your first heartbreak. Maybe it's the song you danced to at your wedding. Maybe it's a song that rips your heart up because it tells the story of your life. Or maybe it's the first song your son/daughter sang all the way through or the one that would make him/her dance no matter where they were.
Is this your trick to get lots of comments? Good grief!
I can't wait to read all of these!
How about how/why you decided to serve a mission?
Jenna: a trick? Wouldn't that involve some sort of subterfuge? Yet I blatantly specified one idea per comment? ;)
Thanks, everyone! This is going to be fun.
Here ia a fun one. A story using photos between the words. You know the proper word for it. I did one with artwork and words on clothing a couple Monday's ago.
Wow, that's certainly a lot of ideas...Looks like you have enough here for the month!