Blogger Recognition Award

Today I’m doing something a bit different. Kellie Doherty nominated me for the Blogger Recognition Award. I’m glad you liked my blog enough to consider me. The Blogger Recognition Award is basically a way to let other bloggers know you appreciate their blog. I’ll admit that I am terrible at blog-tagging. However, I figured I’d go through at least part of the process. 🙂

Rules for The Blogger Recognition Award

1. Select fifteen other blogs you want to give the award to
2. You cannot nominate yourself or the person who has nominated you
3. Write a post to show your award
4. Give a brief story of how your blog started
5. Give a piece of advice or two to new bloggers
6. Thank whoever nominated you and provide a link to their blog
7. Attach the award to the post (right-click and save, then upload)
8. Comment on each blog and let them know you have nominated them
9. Provide a link to the award post you created

How My Blog Got Started

I started this blog in college as a requirement for a portrait photography class. We had to choose the best images from our class assignments and post them on the blog for our classmates to look at and critique. I still have those posts available, if you want to see my early attempts at portrait photography. Just go to the left column of my blog, look for the category bar, and select Portrait Photography ’09.

I later used this blog for subsequent photography classes. After college I began posting book covers I’d worked on, once a week, when available. Eventually I started putting a bit of behind-the-scenes information with each post as a way to pass along information to people who were interested in book cover design. Didn’t get much traffic, but every once in a while someone would comment or favorite a post.

Then, earlier this year, I went to ConQuest and they talked about blogging, and some of the authors suggested writing about things that already interest us. Me? I love studying the writing craft and publishing, and my husband encouraged me to try blogging about those things. So I gave it a try, and that’s how my blog got to where it is today. 🙂

Advice To New Bloggers

If you want to start a blog, write about things that interest you. Make long posts, short posts, whatever you want. Try to post consistently, whether once a week, once a day, or once a month. Don’t try to force yourself to post constantly if you don’t want to… you want your natural enthusiasm to show through. Find a blog system that works for you. I really like WordPress, but you might like Blogger, or your own self-hosted blog. Consider different methods of blogging. You can write your own posts or invite guest authors. Post pictures. Do a podcast.  If you want to attract new readers, be sure to include ‘tags’ in your post if the site you use allows for them. Blog about what you enjoy, and know that sometimes the posts you least expect to get attention will be the ones others notice.

My Nominations For Great Writerly Resources

I feel awkward actively tagging another blog (since I don’t want to make them feel obligated to do the same), so instead of tagging other blogs, I’m sharing some of my favorite resources.

Fiction University – This is Janice Hardy’s blog, and it is an incredible resource with some of the easiest to understand writing advice that I have found. I almost always recommend this site if someone is asking for writing advice. She also has a great book, Planning Your Novel: Ideas and Structures, which I have thus-far read three times already during the process of working on various stories. Highly recommended.

Absolute Write – This is a forum, not a blogging site. However, there is a plethora of information and resources to be found here, and a lot of great advice to be had if you ask the right questions. Just be sure to read and follow their forum rules.

Terrible Minds – This is Chuck Wendig’s blog. Be warned, cursing runs rampant. But past all that (and sometimes demonstrated through all that), you’ll find honest writing advice and opinions, and a lot of food for thought.

Miss Snark’s First Victim – This is a blog with a lot of critique opportunities that can help you get feedback. I figured out that I had a potential strength in scene description thanks to one of her Drop the Needle critiques.

Brenda Drake – I actually don’t read her blog as much as I follow her twitter account, however, she has a lot of information on #PitMad which is a great way to see if your logline is working to catch the attention of agents. A number of writers have found agents through #PitMad.

Dan Koboldt – I tend to read his blog posts after noticing his links on Twitter, rather than going directly to his site, but he has great insights into the various aspects of making fiction realistic, from scientific explanations and fighting techniques, to medical research.

Thrill Writing – Like the name suggests, this blog has a lot of insights into giving thrillers realistic action and detail. Again, I usually read these blog posts via links on Twitter.

There are many more sites and blogs that I visit (especially through links on Twitter), but these are some that I visit the most frequently. Maybe you’ll find them to be useful, too. And hopefully you’ll forgive me for not doing the actual tagging part (though if I mentioned you on this post and you want to continue the trend, go right ahead). 🙂

EDIT: After further consideration, I realized that part of the point of this award is to actively let other people know that their work is appreciated. With that in mind, I went ahead and privately emailed the people to thank them for their work, with an explanation of why I was contacting them. I also let them know that I didn’t expect them to continue the tagging trend unless they wanted to.