Buccaneer Blogfest: Week Four, Day Ten

I'm back again with day nine of the month long Buccaneer Blogfest hosted by Sharon Bayliss and Courtney Young.

Final Countdown (July 30 – August 3) 

This week is the Final Countdown (is anyone else now humming the Europe song?). The end of the blogfest, where we talk about our experiences, host a give away and share our thoughts on Social Media.

July 30 - Social Media: Share your feelings and opinions about social media and it's relation to writing and reading.

  

I love social media, I think it's an excellent way for people of similar interests to connect. For a writer, it's an excellent way of building a support network, exchanging experiences and sharing advice.

I've made so many friends through blogging, and then connected with them on Facebook, Twitter and other sites like Goodreads. These platforms help you get a better understanding of what your online friends are like as people, while also informing you about their work and what they're currently up to.

Social media is also a great marketing tool, and I've seen so many authors doing blog tours, or hosting giveaway for when they get X amount of followers/ likes.

There's also the fun aspect of social media, with sites like Pinterest and Polyvore. I've seen so many inspiration things on both those sites. It's a great way to get motivated by looking at your friends pins and seeing what inspires them.

If you're interested, I can be found at these social media platforms: Facebook | Facebook Page | Twitter | Good Reads | Pinterest | Polyvore

Buccaneer Blogfest and Short Story Advice

Are you all going to shake your heads and think I'm setting myself up for another headache if I say I've signed up for another blogfest. (especially after I failed with the writing contest). I can't help it, I'm addicted to fests!

This one sounds excellent, actually, and a great way to meet new people.

Sharon Bayliss and Courtney Young are hosting the Buccaneer Blogfest.

The blogfest will run from July 9th to August 3rd, with three prompts per week. If you have to miss posts, don't make that a reason not to sign up, a few missed posts are fine. If you're not a writer or don't have a current novel or WIP, alternate prompts will be available for week #2. This is an outline, more detailed instructions for the prompts for each day will be made available the weekend before each week.

Also, you are welcome to adjust the dates +/- a day or so if you have other commitments.

How do I participate?
1)Add your blog link to the linky below
2) Throughout the fest, visit the other blogs as much as you can and comment.
3) Post on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday with the prompt of the day
4) Re-post the Linky & Buccaneer banner on your own blog to show your pirate pride and promote the blog fest
5) Finally…Have Fun!  

1. Intro Week (July 9 – 13)
a.(July 9) Introduction: Tell us a little bit about you and your blog. Post the sign up linky for this blogfest in your post. Include your other social media links so we can follow.
b. (July 11) Why you did you start blogging? What are your goals for your blog?
c. (July 13) Interview the person signed up below you on the linky and post that interview. *During this first week, you are strongly encouraged to go around and follow the other participants in the blogfest - both their blogs and other social media.  

2. Work in Progress (July 16 – 20)
a. (July 16) First paragraph of novel or WIP
b. (July 18) Character interview
c. (July 20) Share your light bulb moment with us. How did you come up with the idea for your WIP?  
 3. Reading (July 23 – 27)
a. (July 23) What are you reading? What books are on your shelf?
b. (July 25) Favorite authors and why?
c. (July 27) Recommend or review a book of choice. Tell the interwebz why you love it!

4. Final Countdown (July 30 – August 3)
a. (July 30) Social Media: Share your feelings and opinions about social media and it's relation to writing and reading.
b. (Aug 1) Host a giveaway using Rafflecopter or a similar tool. If you don't have anything you'd like to giveaway, we'd be happy to let you post the Rafflecopter form for a CQ sponsored giveaway.
c. (Aug 3) Reflection post: Share your experience from this blogfest. What are the next steps you want to take with your blog?

Sounds like a lot of fun, doesn't it? I've just signed up and think it will be an excellent way to meet new people and share a bit more about my writing. Wanna sign up too? Here's the linky: http://www.linkytools.com/basic_link_entry_form.aspx?id=151369

Short Story Writing Advice Wanted 

After my failure to writing an entry for the short story contest, I've been thinking a lot about short stories.  Writing short stories for contests and anthologies is something I really want to do, the problem is, I am rubbish at telling a short story. Any "one-shots" or smaller pieces I've written have all been about 10,000 words. I just can't help myself.

 I know how to structure a novel, and make sure I'm including enough plot development, character development, and world building. I don't know how to do that when I'm limited to a certain amount of words that are usually less than 10k.

So, those who you who regularly write short stories for contests and anthologies, do you have any tips for me? Do you know some good websites when I can research the semantics of writing a short story.

Any help, advice and comments would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

 New Facebook Account 

On a final note before I head off, in addition to my Facebook Page, over the weekend I created a 'writing' Facebook account. Feel free to "friend" me over there on my new account.

Okay, I've probably taken up enough of your time now, so I will leave things here, and get started on some writing. I have characters in my head begging for attention! ^_^

Happy Camping and Facebook Update

I want to wish everyone who is doing Camp NaNoWriMo in June the best of luck. My advice JUST WRITE. Have a plot in your head, or on paper, but don't over think it. Don't go back to fix things, don't spend hours researching something, just write. Everything else can be fixed after June.

I really wish I could join all you happy campers, but my head is not in a good writing place, and I still have Sibylline Nights to edit. I don't wanna take part in NaNoWriMo and fail. I play to win! Hopefully I can join in on the fun come August.

I also wanted to quickly update on the Facebook status. It seems, after everyone effected complained yesterday, FB have unblocked blogspot.co.uk and all previously removed posts have been restored. That's excellent news. People Power FTW!

Facebook Problems

Are other writers experiencing problems posting Blogger/ Blogspot links to their Facebook timeline/ profile/ page?

This morning, I became aware that my links and a number of other writers' links were producing the following error message when you try to post the links to Facebook:

Upon further inspection, I've found it's only blogspot.co.uk links Facebook is blocking, and Blogger.com links seem unaffected.

The work around I've found to enable you to share blogspot.co.uk links on your Facebook timeline is to do so via share button, like the one I have on the top of my posts.

Is anyone else experiencing similar problems?

I've contacted Facebook support and let them know blogspot.co.uk shouldn't be blocked, and isn't spam. Hopefully, if enough people complain, they'll sort it out.