June 2011 Blog Chain

orion_mk3

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Starting Date: Monday June 6, 2011
Open to all forum members, even after it starts!

This month's prompt: Setting the Scene

Write a location description, and make us feel as if we are there. No dialogue, no introductory comments, just a location. We're the tourists, you're the guide.

Simply post in this thread to join. There's no word limit, but do try and keep it under 1k for your fellow chain members' sanity. Read and comment on other participants' posts if you possibly can--they'll be doing the same for you!

You have two days to complete your post. When you are finished, please post a link to your post on the thread so I can let the next person in line know that their turn is up. If you signed up but find yourself unable to participate or need to be moved around in the schedule, please PM me or post in the thread. If you fail to post on your blog and on the thread within two days, I'll bump you down to the end of the line on the third day; you'll get a second chance at the end of the month.

Please include a list of all participants' blogs in your blog post, and keep in mind we're not starting until the second Monday of the month to give people time to sign up.

The participants so far:

orion_mk3 - http://nonexistentbooks.wordpress.com (link to this month's post)
juniper - http://www.katjuniper.com/ (link to this month's post)
LadyMage - http://www.katherinegilraine.com/ (link to this month's post)
dolores haze - http://dianedooley.wordpress.com/ (link to this month's post)
jkellerford - http://jennykellerford.wordpress.com/ (link to this month's post)
Ralph Pines - http://ralfast.wordpress.com/ (link to this month's post)
AuburnAssassin - http://clairegillian.com/ (link to this month's post)
pezie - http://www.erinbrambilla.com/ (link to this month's post)
Inkstrokes - http://drlong67.wordpress.com/ (link to this month's post)
WildScribe - http://DionneObesoBlog.com/ (link to this month's post)
Guardian - http://daewrites.blogspot.com/ (link to this month's post)
Lyra Jean - http://lyratorres.wordpress.com/ (link to this month's post)
egoodlett - http://wordlarceny.blogspot.com/ (link to this month's post)
cwachob - http://www.corriewachob.blogspot.com/ (link to this month's post)
Aheïla - http://thewriteaholicblog.wordpress.com/ (link to this month's post)
faerydancer - http://digitalinkwell.wordpress.com (link to this month's post)
TheMindKiller - http://www.jabberwocky.ws/ (link to this month's post)
Irissel - http://irissel.blogspot.com/ (link to this month's post)
xcomplex - http://www.arielemerald.blogspot.com/ (link to this month's post)
Robbi Sommers Bryant - http://www.robbibryant.blogspot.com (link to this month's post)

Archive of Past Blog Chains
 
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Inkstrokes

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I'm fairly new to these boards so please excuse my ignorance in how things work.

I think these blog-chains are fantastic. It's a great way to build-up fans, it's a useful writers circle and the prompts are unique and engaging.

My one concern, and correct me if this is how it is suppose to work, is that there were 16 entries in the May Blog chain. Of the sites I visited there were some that had five or less comments. Now I know may be guilty of missing one here or there, but that seems a little low to me.

I was taught in the various writing circles that if you didn't particularly like a piece, sometimes it's better not to comment. The problem is, the blogs had great entries.

I know firsthand how life gets in the way, but if one has time to enter and post an entry then they also have time to read.

I commend the same five people that make an effort to comment on all entries.

Claire, Aimee, Erin and Diane are always gracious with thier time and comments.

I don't want to sound bitter, I'm just concerned.

Also I wanted to ask what depth of feedback are we to give?

Keep up the great work Orion!

P.S. If I missed commenting on anyone's blog, please let me know.
 

pezie

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I know I'm backed up on comments, I've got to catch up on the entries that came after me (I will get there, promise!).

I also wonder on the kind of feedback to give and so, to be honest, I've waited to observe what others said. Not that I don't have my own opinions, but just so I got the drift of how it worked. From what I observed, I would say, comment on the objective of the exercise. This last post was about relationships, so I tried to make my comment focus on that--guessing the nature of the relationship or comment on the state of the relationship.

June's exercise is about setting, so I suppose the comments will be directed toward that. I think just be honest. If the writer made you feel like you were sitting in the tropics, but they meant it to be winter in the Midwest...they might have a problem :).

I don't know how much critique should go on though. Maybe the others could answer? I was nervous about May's entry, since I basically wrote it on the fly and put it up in its rough draft glory (as are most of my blog entries, honestly, I may not be the best example of a blogger, LOL). If there were major issues, I wouldn't mind hearing them, it's the only way to get better. But I'm not sure the purpose of the chain is for critique?
 

orion_mk3

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My one concern, and correct me if this is how it is suppose to work, is that there were 16 entries in the May Blog chain. Of the sites I visited there were some that had five or less comments. Now I know may be guilty of missing one here or there, but that seems a little low to me.
I know that I personally am quite backed-up on commenting, and May has been a busy month for many of us. If you compare months past using the archive, I think you'll see that people tend to be more generous with comments outside of very busy months like December. I also know that many people (like me) schedule the posts in advance so they go up automatically.
Also I wanted to ask what depth of feedback are we to give?
It is completely up to you. I prefer to pick out a portion of the work for comment, and will sometimes offer constructive criticism or ask for clarification. I'd suggest giving the kind of feedback you would hope to receive.
 

AuburnAssassin

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I write comments on all the blogs like I do for the all the participants in the Sunday night AW flash fiction challenge--I always look for (and find) something I have in common with the poster, some element that struck a chord with me or just overall impressions, always something, but never a critique. I see these types of things as exercises for fun not for critique. We have SYW for that.

I do believe though, that one of the requirements of participating in the blog chain is to comment on each and every participant's post. It's like leaving a calling card. Even if the overall post wasn't your cup of tea or you're in a hurry and don't have time to do much more than read, there's always something that can be said just to leave your "card" behind even if it's as mundane and impersonal as "Thanks for the read." There's no rule you have to like everyone's posts nor should you say something you don't mean. But we can all appreciate the time and effort our colleagues have expended in their interpretation of the theme, no matter what, unless is something egregious (like a plagiarized post -- never seen one and highly unlikely).

Just my 2 cents.
 

WildScribe

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I'm in please. DionneObesoBlog.com
 

LadyMage

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Thanks, Ralph.

I get caught up by life all too often, and this is why I have had more than one instance where my comments were sparse. Starting a business while keeping the day job usually leaves me unable to catch up the way I'd like to. I make every effort to read all the participants' entries and blogs, but often, I get swamped to next month and back.
 

Ralph Pines

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Thanks, Ralph.

I get caught up by life all too often, and this is why I have had more than one instance where my comments were sparse. Starting a business while keeping the day job usually leaves me unable to catch up the way I'd like to. I make every effort to read all the participants' entries and blogs, but often, I get swamped to next month and back.

No worries LadyMage. Happens to the best of us (or in my case, the worst). I just hope I don't screw it up to badly, since I'm a minimalist when it comes to descriptions. I leave the lyrical string of precise letters to others.
 

juniper

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I confess, I am guilty of not commenting on all the other blogs :e2smack:

There, I've smacked myself for it and promise to do better. I'm trying to get caught up ... May was brutal for me and June is starting out the same. Sorry.
 
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juniper

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Ok, my post is up too. I'll be busy for a few days so wanted to get it posted early.

I welcome suggestions on how to improve the scene. I'm trying to convey an atmosphere but think I got bogged down in details. Dunno. It's part of my WIP so plenty of time to delete/add later.

http://www.katjuniper.com/2011/06/june-blog-chain-setting-scene.html
 

TheMindKiller

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Hey Juniper, I tried to comment with a couple of different logins cause I got no confirmation whether they were going through or not. So If you have a couple of comments waiting for you probably both from me. The logins available in your comments form aren't logins I regularly use so not sure if it happened. So sorry if it spammed you a bit :) If they didn't go through, because they don't look like they did from my end, I'll try and recomment from a different platform later :D