Welcome to Marketing for Romance Authors 52 week blog hop challenge. Each week, a lovely group of romance authors blog on a common theme. Visit them all here.
Blogging inspiration is something I am searching for at the moment. Years ago, I was part of a multi-author blog, where we each blogged every two months to a common theme. All the writers were paranormal and/or science fiction romance authors, and so the themes reflected those interests.
I loved it.
Seeing 14 different authors show the variety around a single question was super stimulating. From favorite villain to perfect date with an alien to best vampire on television to writing a round robin, I found being part of a joint approach to story telling improved my writing and my ideas. So much so that I generated a large number of the theme topics. One of the reasons I joined this blog hop is that provided a similar environment, seeing different writers tackle the same theme or question. However, I must admit to missing the paranormal bent, the inclusion of fantasy into every post. While I suppose nothing is stopping me, the fit is not always there.
What I have discovered through my participation in the MFRW blog challenge is a new love of visuals. For the first time in all my years of blogging, I paid for an istock subscription to use photos at a higher level. As a writer, I should focus on words, but the blog is a different opportunity. And I am loving the process of words and pictures. I spend hours on istock looking either for the perfect photo to fit my words. Sometimes I fall in love with the picture.
Here’s one I could not resist. How would you caption it?
Thanks for dropping by.
Whoa, that is really a striking image, Shari! No caption comes to me right now–it will probably hit me a few hours from now!
I agree that images are important in blog posts. Finding just the right ones can be tricky.
I’m struggling to caption the photo myself. But I love it, it hit me just right.
Images are important. I’ve not paid for a subscription, but I’ve learned of a few free sites and have been making use of those. Since expanding on my social media use, sites like Instagram and Tumblr are big on the visuals.
I agree that this blog hop has been interesting this year. Seeing the same topic answered so many ways. Learning differences as well as similarities. it’s been great.
I should probably move to the free sites too. I didn’t know of them when I got started.
I agree that visuals add something to a blog post. I’ve never been one to write to prompts, the 52-week challenge is my first. But if I had the time that other group sounds interesting. I miss the mental stimulation I used to get the mental stimulation from an online writer’s group I was with for many years, but we aged and parted ways. Nice post.
I don’t mind prompts if they are broad interest to me. Since I love fantasy, paranormal and sci fi, the posts generally got the creative juices flowing easily, and I had a lot of fun.
Totally agree! Love how everyone has a different ‘take’ on a single subject/question.
Thanks for dropping by.
I’ve enjoyed getting everyone’s different takes on a single topic this year, and I absolutely agree about the visuals. I often spend longer picking out images that appeal to me and seem to fit the topic than I do wriitig the post 🙂
I spend way too much times selecting photos too, but it also feels like another area of creativity I’m just learning to exercise. For that, I enjoy it. Even if I don’t really have the time.
I have to agree with the above ladies – I love reading other authors perspectives on this. Great post! I admit though to feeling a little sad – this will be over soon. I can fall into the rabbit hole of searching for images, even the ones in my own external drive.
I totally agree. This has been one of the few things that’s kept my blogging regular, and I fell off for a coupled of months when work got crazy. I don’t know what I’ll do next year either.
Watch out for those water-filled potholes.
Lol, I live in metro-Atlanta and the first thing I thought about your image was how we always seem to be swimming upstream in traffic here! Images are great for posts, but be careful of the free sites. I ghostwrite blog articles for a social media marketing company and we got dinged a few months ago for using a free image that actually belonged to Getty Images and we had to pay a fine due to the licensing violation.