Slice of Life Story Challenge

Day 6 of the March SOLSC! #sol14

Stacey Shubitz
WRITE. Every day in March write a slice of life story on your own blog. SHARE. Link your post in the comments on each daily call for slice of life stories here at TWT. GIVE. Comment on at least three other slice of life stories/blogs.
WRITE a slice of life story on your own blog.
SHARE a link to your post in the comments section.
GIVE comments to at least three other SOLSC bloggers.

Anyone who has read my personal blog since the SOLSC began last week knows something has been missing from my writing. Sure, I’ve shown up every day. Yes, I’ve offered up a slice of my life. However, I haven’t done my best writing. Why? I’m in pain when I sit down to type because I overdid it at the computer writing a speech and preparing for the Slice of Life Story Challenge. As a result, I have tingling in my arm and fingers. (Sometimes this happens when I spend too many hours in one day on the computer.) I’ve been in a wrist splint for the past week and a half. I was told to reduce my computer usage as much as possible. I almost laughed out loud when I heard that since March is one of my busiest computer months each year!

I’ve used some digital tools (e.g., Skitch, SoundCloud, ThingLink, Vine) to help me tell my stories so I wouldn’t have to do as much typing. However, each day I’ve hit publish feeling as though I haven’t stayed true to the core purpose of this challenge, which is to hone my narrative writing craft. As a way to reduce the amount of regret I’ve been feeling about my own writing, I looked back at the image we created about slice of life stories and asked myself some questions:

SOL graphic (1)
Click on the image to enlarge.

Q. Have most of my slices been about a small piece of my day?

A. Yes.

Q.  Have most of my slices offered insight into my everyday life/let readers get to know me better?

A. Yes.

Q. Have most of my slices included photos and other digital tools that recreated a scene and/or helped readers get to know me better?

A.  Yes.

Answering my own questions reduced some of my writer’s guilt.

Now if only I could get rid of this tingling so I could comment on more of YOUR slices because I have a bad case of commenter’s guilt!

ESSENTIAL INFORMATION:

  • ICYMI: Did you miss the first five days of the challenge? You may still join us this month and be eligible for special prizes! In fact, you can start slicing as late as Friday, March 7th and still be in the running for a prize. Click here for more information about starting the challenge a few days late. 
    • If you’re starting the Slice of Life Story Challenge today, please let us know when you share your link below.
  • Please use the SAME email/username information on all of your March comments.
  • In order to be in the running for a prize at the end of the month, you must leave the link to your slice of life story by 11:59 p.m. EST.
    • Reminder: Eastern Daylight Time begins on Sunday, March 9th. Posts will need to be linked by 11:59 p.m. EDT starting this Sunday.
    • Please play fair and leave only one link each day.
  • If you’ve never posted a comment on TWT before, or if your comment contains more than one hyperlink, then your comment will be held for moderation. I monitor blog comments a few times a day so there’s no need to re-post your comment if it doesn’t appear after you click “post comment.”
    • Tech-related questions? Contact our Tech Support Team.
      • Beth Scanlon: scanlon.fefee[at]gmail[dot]com
      • Donna Smith: djtsmith[at]gmail[dot]com
  • If you haven’t filled out the participant information form, please do it today.  
  • Please include the permalink (aka: unique URL) to your post when you leave a comment. Click here and scroll to the “New to Slicing” section of the blog post where you’ll find two visuals that illustrate an example and a non-example of a permalink.
  • Please use #sol14 on tweets about Slice of Life Story Challenge.
  • Questions? Please contact one of our incredible concierges.
    • If your last name begins with A – M, your concierge is LeAnn Carpenter (aka: Elsie) – leannecarpenter[at]sbcglobal[dot]net.
    • If your last name begins with N– Z, your concierge is Amanda Villagomez (aka: Mrs. V.) – amandavillagomez[at]gmail[dot]com.

BE INSPIRED:

Crystal Robertson of Write, Read, Learn composed a brilliant slice of life story last week. “The Woman with a Hat” is a series of images conveyed with precise words. Read it and I’m sure you’ll want to use Crystal’s zooming technique in your own writing. However, this piece isn’t just a slice of life story. It is contains three links to Crystal’s writing process. Be sure to click on the links, which come at the end of her post, too.

OTHER USEFUL INFORMATION:

Published by Stacey Shubitz

I am a literacy consultant who focuses on writing workshop. I've been working with K-6 teachers and students since 2009. Prior to that, I was a fourth and fifth-grade teacher in New York City and Rhode Island. I'm the author of Craft Moves (Stenhouse Publishers, 2016) and the co-author of Jump Into Writing (Zaner-Bloser, 2021), Welcome to Writing Workshop (Stenhouse Publishers, 2019), and Day By Day (Stenhouse, 2010). I live in Central Pennsylvania with my husband and children. In my free time, I enjoy swimming, doing Pilates, cooking, baking, making ice cream, and reading novels.

245 thoughts on “Day 6 of the March SOLSC! #sol14”

    1. I tried to leave this on your site but it wouldn’t let me…Thank you for sharing Gantos’ advice. I will be sharing it with my students as well. I really loved reading your students’ posts about meeting him and learning from him after reading yours. He obviously made quite an impression.

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