#BlogBattle 20: May 23rd “Restraint” Entries & a Farewell

/ Rachael Ritchey

Hey Friends! Participation has dwindled down to almost nil, so I’m considering shutting Blog Battle down entirely. I’ll take a week or two to decide, since I don’t like to rush into anything until I’ve thought about it a minute.

I just want to say how much I have loved writing with you all. I’m thinking I’ll eventually start a different prompt, but it will be focused on other aspects of writing and not necessarily about sharing or competitions.

My goal is always to encourage and inspire my fellow writers, so that’s what I’ll monkey around with, I think.

But like I said, I am still in the process of making the decision to let it go (I bet you’re singing the song in your head now too…). Haha Actually, this is me admitting to myself that I’m going to have to let Blog Battle go to make room for other great things.

So yeah, let’s consider this the LAST BATTLE. 

THIS WEEK, if you’ve ever participated in a battle or wanted to, post your Blog Battle story as a final farewell by Sunday, May 28th.

I promise to read them all. 

THANKS FOR BEING AWESOME!

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Winning story for the week earn this badge!

This Week’s Story WORD theme: Restraint

This week’s Suggested Story genre style: Historical Fiction

*VISIT THE GENRE PAGE OF BLOG BATTLE TO SEE IF THE GENRE HAS ANY SUBCATEGORIES TO GIVE YOU AN EXTRA CHALLENGE

STORIES:

A Kinder Choice by David Williamson

PS If I’m missing your story, just leave me a comment to let me know!

PARTICIPANTS: REBLOG and SOCIAL MEDIA SHARE this post to let your readers know about the stories and how they can read and vote.

35 thoughts on “#BlogBattle 20: May 23rd “Restraint” Entries & a Farewell”

  1. Oh. I missed all this. 😦 I loved doing blogbattle. I still remember how much courage it took me to post in that first contest when i didn’t know anyone. Thanks for doing all this Rachael, and I’m sorry I went missing for so long. I’ll keep using the prompts though. Sigh. I think the idea of a collaborative effort is a good one. Maybe if the stories were posted straight into a site, like those blogs with lots of different people contributing articles? One thought anyway.

    Gonna miss the old blogbattle. 😭

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  2. Oh, Rachael. Late to the party. Thank you so much for hosting this. 🙂 ❤ I have some fab pieces that came from these prompts or pieces that started out as responses to these. This got me writing, kept me writing, inspired me. You were an awesome hostess for the Blog Battles and I'll miss them. Look forward to what's coming next. Thank you!

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  3. I am sad to see Blog Battles come to an end. Even though I haven’t been able to do much these past months, the battles were a huge help to me over the years. I remember when it was still brand new and just us, Lucy and Phoenixgrey. 🙂 I miss that.
    I’m curious where you’ll take this from here, what new kinds of prompts or challenges you’ll come up with for writers in the future!

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  4. Aww, so sad to see you go! 😦 I’ve only been blogbattling for a short time, but it’s been super fun and I’ve read some awesome stories by some truly great writers.

    A thought: if it’s difficult/time consuming for you to keep up the battles (plus participation being what it is…) why not see if we can organise something a little more collaborative? I.e., anybody who’s game goes into a pool of writers who set a weekly challenge/prompt for others to tackle and share? Removing the contest aspect might also make it more attractive for other writers (writing what you consider a winning story, only to lose out, can be disheartening—I know).

    I, for one, would be happy to be a ‘guest’ prompter or whatnot. Plus, the way WordPress allows site admins to set up contributors would make it fairly easy for you to add folks to produce posts/content.

    Either way, I’ll try to get something out for this last blogbattle before the weekend. A final hurrah.

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    • You’re so great, Spaceman. I feel bad cutting it off. It’s been such a fun project. I’ve reached out for collaborators for it in the past but most people are just too busy with their own projects. I agree about the competitive nature of it. The whole battle thing started with a dare between friends and morphed from that. I want to continue hosting a prompt, and if you’re willing I’d love to have you be on the team. As a writer, what sorts of writing aspects do you want to focus on challenging in yourself? Maybe things like character development, or conceptual design, or writing a story w/o any adverbs or something crazy….I love the idea of getting a core group together to do something truly big and truly helpful to writers. 🙂

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      • Me as a writer likes to challenge myself with brevity. How much can I fit into a micro-fiction? A drabble? A flash-fic? Can I tell a good story without writing a novel, and how does the way I do it differ from the way other authors do it?

        Hope this message comes through. I tried 3 times last week and it just wouldn’t appear. Sigh. 😐

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        • Oh! That’s strange. Sorry it gave you so much trouble! I have received your message, Spaceman! 🙂 Brevity is definitely a challenge worth pursuing. I don’t want to do what everyone else is already doing. I want to make a different challenge, so that’s something to consider. Thanks for the ideas! How is your week going?

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          • So-so, thanks. Trying to get as much done in the next 7 days of work in preparation for my 3 weeks off with my “new arrival”—pictures to follow! 😉

            Hope your week’s going a little more stress-free now that you’ve got a more casual prompting system! I’m looking forward to tackling this week’s suggestion.

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          • New arrival? My first thought is baby?! 😀

            Week’s going okay! We’re finishing up the last few weeks of school, so there’s a strange feeling of rushing to get it all done, but now I’m getting prepped to jump back into my fantasy series to work on the next book. I am also developing a superhero screenplay. Gotta get that done pretty quick, though, if it’s going to make an impact. 🙂

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          • I know all about superhero stuff: you need to include words like POW! and KABLAM! 😉 End of term is always a frantic time. But fun, because then there’s the whole summer to look forward to! Sometimes I really miss not being ten years old 😦

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  5. Aw shucks and I only just found you!! Hey hey, it’s been a blast and fun. I get how tough it is to keep it up. Not sure what the secret is but I for one am grateful for anyone who sets these sorts of things. Hope it goes well whatever direction you take it in and I’ll watch for it…

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  7. Rachael, thank you for being so dedicated to the cause for so long. I have several characters and “worlds” (or at least slightly altered versions of specific time periods) bouncing around in my head that wouldn’t exist without this contest sparking the creativity.
    For that I will always be grateful.

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  9. This Blog Battle series really helped me as a writer last year. There were times when it kept me sane too. I will always be grateful to it because it started some great stories for me. Thx Rachael for organising all these x

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