Day 1 of the March SOLSC! #SOL15

Sunday March 1, 2015Monday March 2, 2015 Stacey Shubitz

Welcome to the 8^th Annual Slice of Life Story Challenge! Whether you write every day or haven’t written in a long time, I am glad you are here!

If you’re participating in the individual Slice of Life Story Challenge, this is where you share your writing. If you’re sharing your students’ slice of life stories, then head over to the Classroom Challenge, which Anna, Beth, and Tara are hosting this month. (Please see the previous post.)

A special welcome to the first-time Slicers who are joining us this year. As of 9:30 p.m. last night, we had 95 new Slicers who filled out the participant information form!

Each day you’ll find a section called “BE INSPIRED,” which will follow each day’s essential information. That section will include something like a link to someone’s slice of life story, a quote about writing, etc. Even if you’re back for your eighth challenge, please read through the essential information before checking out today’s writing inspiration.

ESSENTIAL INFORMATION

Username:

Please use the SAME email/username information on all of your March comments.

Commenting:

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. Once you arrive, you’ll find two visuals that illustrate an example and a non-example of a permalink.
- If you link your slice of life story incorrectly today, you’ll receive a reply to your comment from Julieanne Harmatz, who is helping us with tech support, or from one of the TWT co-authors.
The six of us worked together to create some comment guidelines. We may, at any time, remove a comment from our blog if it is inappropriate. Please refer to these guidelines when commenting this month:

Self-Promotion: Please don’t use your comment or link to your blog for self-promotion. The links in the comment section of our Slice of Life Story Challenge are meant to lead our readers to stories from people’s lives–not just whatever was on your blog that day.
Linking and Running: Please do not just drop off the link to your Slice without commenting on at least three other Slice of Life Stories. Comments are the foundation of this community. If you choose to link early in the morning, please return later that day to leave at least three comments.
Spam: It’s not just big advertisers who spam. Spam can include: Copying and pasting a comment from one post to another, or leaving a message such as, “Nice post. Visit my blog at…” This kind of comment is a form of spam. We reserve the right to delete comments that fall into this category.

Thank you for appreciating and standing by our guidelines.

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 will monitor blog comments a few times today so I can approve comments that don’t post automatically. Therefore, there is no need to re-post your comment if it doesn’t appear after you click “post comment.”
- If you use the same username/email to log in when you leave your comment, your comments should appear instantly in the future.
- Tech-related questions? Contact Julieanne Harmatz at mjharmatz1{at}cox.net.
If this is the first time you’re participating in the Slice of Life Story Challenge, please let us know that when you share your link as a comment.

If you have a Blogger blog, please make sure you’re using the “No CAPTCHA reCAPTCHA” option or removing the security layers to make it easier for people to leave comments on your blog posts. Click here for more information about “No CAPTCHA reCAPTCHA.”

Prizes:

Prizes will be given away at the conclusion of the month-long Slice of Life Story Challenge. You’ll be eligible for a prize if:

1. You fill out the participant data form, which went live on February 22^nd.

2. You comment ONLY ONCE on the daily call for Slice of Life stories (3/1 – 3/31/15).

3. You sign a Slice of Life Story Challenge Participation Pledge on April 1st. (We’ll post the pledge and will ask you to “sign.” You’ll sign by leaving a comment certifying you wrote and linked daily, as well as commented on at least three other Slicers’ writing daily.)

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 to be eligible for prizes.

Only links left before 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time will count when you’re signing-off on the participation pledge on April 1st.

The call for slices goes up at midnight EST. Everyone has the same 24-hour window to post, regardless of the time zone in which they live.

Please play fair and leave only one link each day.

If you haven’t filled out the participant information form please do so today. Filling out this form allows us to keep a list of challenge participants and helps us expedite prizes in April. Only the TWT co-authors and Robin Sheldon (the head of the Welcome Wagon) have access to this information.

Social Media:

We are using #sol15 on tweets about Slice of Life Story Challenge.
- NOTE: You must leave a link to your slice of life post on the daily calls for slice of life stories here at Two Writing Teachers to be eligible for a prize.

Questions:

Should you have questions about getting started with this Challenge, please contact:

If your last name begins with the letters A – I, please e-mail questions to Betsy, betsymhubbard{at}gmail.com.
If your last name begins with the letters J – R, please e-mail questions to Dana, dmurph08{at}sbcglobal.net.
If your last name begins with the letters S – Z, please e-mail questions to Stacey, stacey{at}staceyshubitz.com.

BE INSPIRED

Michelle Nero has been sharing slices of her life over at the Literacy Learning Zone for five years. Readers can get a sense of Michelle’s voice when they read “The Next Adventure.” Michelle used a variety of techniques, like playing with font treatment, to make this piece of writing come alive so we can identify with her topic.
I have a Pinterest Board dedicated to images from the Slice of Life Story Challenge. Here’s a link to my Pinterest board so you can peruse it. Click on images that entice you. Perhaps something will help you find what it is you are to write about today.

Click here if you need topic ideas.
Finally, here’s a visual definition of a slice of life story:

Are you wondering what a slice of life story is? Click on this image to enlarge & to learn more.

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“My ideas usually come not at my desk writing but in the midst of living.” -Anais Nin

OTHER USEFUL INFORMATION

2015 Support Team
1st Time Participant FAQ’s
Getting Started (INFOGRAPHIC)
Prize Information (Click here to check out the literary-related prizes!)
Slice of Life Information Page
Last night I checked the Slicer database (i.e., people who’ve filled out the participant information form). As of 10:00 p.m. last night, here’s where participants are from:

As of last night, we had the greatest concentration of participants from Illinois. The smaller the name of your state/province/country, the less Slicers there are from your part of the world. (Created with Wordle. Click on the image to enlarge.)

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. View all posts by Stacey Shubitz