In March 2022, we shared a tip each day with participants in our annual month-long writing challenge. There were requests to put the tips in one place. Here they are!
| Have a variety of ways for coming up with ideas. You could look at your life through a specific lens, use the BE INSPIRED posts on the daily calls for slice of life stories, and/or walk through life with a wide awakeness. |
| Challenge yourself to get to know lots of people by visiting a variety of blogs. Read the teasers closely and see what piques your curiosity. |
| Remember to type a single space after the end punctuation of your teaser and THEN include the link to your slice of life story. Please do NOT press enter in your comment or it will generate a large preview of your post, which takes up a lot of space in the comment section. |
| Make new(er) SOLSC participants feel comfortable by intentionally seeking out their blogs. |
| Build your community authentically. The best way to do this is by leaving thoughtful comments for other Slicers and by interacting with commenters on your own blog. Please refrain from embedding links to your blog in your comment on another Slicer’s blog post. |
| Do not take it personally if someone does not comment on your blog posts after you comment on their posts a few times. You never know what’s happening and someone else’s world that is causing them not to reach back out to you. |
| Try something different today. Put up to three hashtags between the teaser and hyperlink to your slice of life story. Here’s an example of how it could look: I try to capture the random/funny things my kids say. Yesterday morning brought a cute way of saying something that I knew I had to write down so I wouldn’t forget it. #kidssaythedarndestthings #siblingproblems #lookingforevidence https://raisealithuman.wordpress.com/2021/12/13/supporter/ |
| Keep your writing goals and audience top of mind throughout the challenge. |
| Log in anytime you’re leaving a comment on another Slicer’s blog post! Leave the link to your blog in the URL space rather than leaving a link to your blog in the comment space. |
| Respond to comments left on your blog. This will help you create authentic conversations with other Slicers about the stories you share. |
| Visit the blogs of commenters who left a comment on your blog within a couple of days of them visiting your blog. |
| Connect people who have commonalities amongst their blog posts. (Ex: Oh, you wrote about x today. ___ also wrote about x. You should check out their post at URL.) |
| Be honest, be funny, be genuine. However, try to avoid TMI situations. |
| Participate fully in order to get the most out of the challenge. Don’t lurk! Comment on other Slicers’ blog posts a lot! |
| Be inspired by another Slicer (and link back to them). An example of this can be found at https://bit.ly/3shnDc2. |
| Think about the sweet spot for the length of your slice of life stories. |
TWO WRITING TEACHERS 