Top Ten Thursday - Blogging Challenges

Welcome to Top Ten Thursday!

Today we're talking about the top ten things we love or hate about blogging challenges.

Liz aka an American in Basel inspired this theme because she didn't commit to join right away. "I have a love / hate relationship with blogging challenges" she explained. 

So I dedicated this week's prompt to her and everybody else who has something to say!


All in all I consider myself being a person who likes her safety and her comfort zone. No bungee jumping, no camping, no quitting a job before I have a new one, 

It looks as though my imagination is a whole other story. I like to be out there, telling stories. Sometimes, as I experience something, I am drafting it in my head.

Pretty much everything on my blog is true, and when it's fiction, it's obvious. Like the time I embezzled money and ran off.

So I like to write, and I like writing challenges. Let's find out what I (mostly) like about them:

1. The surprise of getting a prompt - t's kind of like opening a gift: what will l be writing about this time?
2. Sometimes I'm super excited and have an idea right away and can't wait to have some quiet time (I know! It's called challenge for a reason!) to sit and type.
3. Sometimes I have no clue, and I wait, and I let it sit for a while, hoping for inspiration. Sometimes inspiration takes its sweet time, let me tell you! It happened that I literally carried around the words I had to use during my entire day - eventually made for a pretty nice post.
4. Prompts that I have to deal with once I signed up (and I'm not one to back out) take you places you otherwise wouldn't go. They require creativity, and sometimes desperate measures. Like the time I was supposed to come up with baseball pictures when baseball in Switzerland is about as rare as palm trees in Alaska.
5. Publish day! Can't wait to read my friend's posts! Connecting with other bloggers is probably what I like best about blogging in general and the recurring writing challenges. I've been doing Secret Subject Swap and Use Your Words for 2.5 years now, and while some people joined and left, some are still here, visiting, commenting, supporting, laughing and crying with each other
6. Not everybody is as enthusiastic about that part. Some don't take the time which I think is sad.
7. In April I participated in blogging from A-Z for the second time. Posting every day is a huge challenge for anybody who is juggling a bunch of other responsibilities, but it is doable! When I found out that I was going to be traveling for the first part of the month, I had to make a plan and write ahead which actually proved to be a great thing. It helped me to structure my individual posts and gave me a bit of freedom to visit my fellow A-Z bloggers!
8. I have a tendency of taking on one too many projects which bites me in the butt every now and then. Life happens, and you have to take your kid to the dental clinic instead of sitting at the coffee store, enyjoing some ultimate writer's freedom.
9. The deadlines that come with a writing challenge help me keep focussing. Apart from Top Ten Thursday that I just started, and the monthly challenges, I don't have much of a schedule. I write when inspiration hits. So one month I post only a handful of times, other months two handfuls. I never post for a post's sake, though - just have patience and come back often, I do want to blog, and I will when I can!
10. Hitting the publish button (or schedule, for that matter) is a pretty great feeling of having achieved something! 

How about you? Why do you (dis)like to participate in blogging challenges?

Would you consider doing this one?

Next week's theme is "My Top Ten Happy Places", and it posts July 21st. 

Please sign up here or send me a message.

But wait! Don't leave just yet - visit my fellow Top Ten Bloggers and see what they came up with:

The Last Rain Girl
An American in Basel
Measurements of Merriment
Dino Hero Mommy
The Bergham Chronicles