My BlogHer NaBloPoMo Experience

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My BlogHer NaBloPoMo Experience

Participating in the BlogHer August NaBloPoMo has been an interesting experience. Participation required you to post Monday through Friday for the entire month of August. You might be asking why I would want to participate in this. One simple reason… I was searching for my writing voice.

Sure sign of Spring - Robin - Bird
blmiers2 / Foter / CC BY-NC-SA

When you are forced to write everyday one of the by-products can be finding your writing voice. What it did for me was to help me rediscover mine. It was so nice to find it again.

There is a commonly held view that authors should write what they like to read. I am a huge sci-fi and fantasy fan. Based on this fact I thought I should be writing in these genres. What I found is that while I love to read those genres there is no way I can write them with any sort of competency. Add to that the fact that I don’t enjoy trying to write in those genres… well, I will stick to what I do best.

My name is Cheryl Therrien, aka Geek Girl, and I am a non-fiction writer. Now we both know.

No one wanted to receive an email from me everyday in August so I paused the ‘subscribe by email’ campaign. 🙂 Now that NaBloPoMo is finished I will begin to send them out again each time I post.

Does anyone have a story to share about finding your writing voice?

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Comments (16 )

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  1. I have missed your emails. I thought maybe something happened when you switched everything to one site.

    Congratulations on finding your voice. Most people wouldn't take the time to figure that out.

    • Geek Girl says:

      Awe… nice to hear that you missed me. 🙂

  2. JeriWB says:

    Yay for nonfiction! Writing it is one of my passions, and I'm probably more at home there as well. When it comes to my fiction voice, that one is still in progress. Writing everyday really does so many good things!

    • Geek Girl says:

      Yay for non-fiction! 🙂

  3. Arleen says:

    Cheryl- Writing has never been my forte and I envy people who can write. With that said launching our improved blog site has forced to not only to write the blog but the comments. So I can understand why participated.

    • Geek Girl says:

      I must admit that it took me some time to sort out finding your blog on your site. Sorry for the delay in commenting…

  4. Jeannette Paladino says:

    Hi Cheryl — congratulations on completing your marathon. I don't that I have a story about finding my writing voice. My issue is that I sometimes get too stiff and begin to edit myself while writing. My style is more conversational — which is good, because that's the style of the web. So when I let the ideas just flow the writing follows.

    • Geek Girl says:

      Yeah, I try to edit while I am writing sometimes too. I am finding that if I write and then leave it, come back later, the editing goes much more smoothly. 🙂

  5. @patweber says:

    That is awesome Cheryl. Both the accomplishment of writing THAT much and how it was actually a discovery process for you. I appreciate you posting about this. And I'll be on the lookout for your emails again.

    Congratulations!

    • Geek Girl says:

      Thanks Patricia!

  6. Pat says:

    Good for you, Cheryl. Writing everyday does get the juices flowing and helps with discipline. I wrote a post everyday when I first started my old blogger site back in 2007 and it was challenging. But, I found once I had committed to it the topics popped in my head and the words were there to match.

    • Geek Girl says:

      2007… congrats for being a blogger for so long! I wish I had found it sooner as well. 🙂

  7. Susan Cooper says:

    I am awe of the fact that you were able to write a post everyday. I struggle with three times a week. I can definitely see how doing that would bring out your voice. I look forward (as always) to reading it.

    • Geek Girl says:

      I don't have the issues you do Susan. I think you do a fantastic job!

  8. Dan Meyers_BREAK FREE says:

    Uh ya, I'm with Susan on this one… posting every day is quite a feat! I have lots to catch up on now that I'm outta China 🙂

    • Geek Girl says:

      I love your posts on your travels. Glad you now have the freedom do it again!