blogging – Pangaea Papers

31-Day Blogging Challenge Wrap-Up

April 30, 2014

I’m not sure what happened to April (or the second half of March for that matter).

With the 31-Day Blogging Challenge (#31dbc), I started out strong, with posts every day. Then, life happened, work got insanely busy, and it’s been a month since I last posted. I was a bit discouraged by this failure at first, but I learned a few things along the way.

For veteran bloggers, this information might be something you already do, but for us newbies, it was helpful advice:

Block out time in your schedule every week to blog. For me, just putting it on my to-do list isn’t enough. I need to plan time in my schedule where I don’t answer the phone or schedule meetings during that time.
On days that you have time, write multiple posts so that you have filler material when you are slammed with work. I was too literal about the directions in the challenge. I only wrote one post a day, even on the days when I was on a roll and could’ve written more. It took me awhile to realize that I could set the publishing date in WordPress.
Jot down your ideas when they occur to you. I carry around a small notebook where I can jot down ideas when they occur to me, even if I’m not near my computer. The trick is remembering to look at it later when I’m staring at a blank screen.
Set a publishing schedule. Publishing content on a regular schedule helps your readers know what to expect.
Publish a few posts before publicizing the blog. Several people recommended this to me when I started. They suggested getting some blog posts up and getting into the habit of posting regularly before you start marketing the blog. It’s good advice because it allows you to decide if you are serious about the blog or not. I will start publicizing the blog more widely once I have some more of my website pages filled in. I hope to launch both by the STC conference in Phoenix.

What recommendations do you have for maintaining your blog? Post your comments here.

creativity, Uncategorized

Zentangle: Getting the Creative Juices Flowing

March 18, 2014

Day 17 of the 31-Day Blogging Challenge (#31dbc)

jpg of a zentangle tree; pen and ink drawing

Zentangle Tree by Kit Brown-Hoekstra

At an STC conference a couple of years ago, Andrea Ames, Brenda Huettner, a few others, and I were sitting in the bar. Andrea told us about this cool meditation technique that involved drawing. She then introduced us to Zentangle. For the next hour, we drew shapes on pieces of heavy paper that looked like bar coasters. Andrea instructed us in the most basic shapes and we all drew the same thing. Yet, everyone’s drawing came out differently.

I was hooked! I don’t do it as often as I would like, but when I do, it always amazes me how different my drawings look, even if I use the same shapes and patterns in the drawing.

Andrea uses it to play with patterns that she often then incorporates into her incredible quilts. Brenda has done some really cool stuff using the outline of an animal, plant, or object. My niece drew a face and used the zentangle technique to draw her hair and clothing. Mine are still pretty rudimentary, but the point is to play and have fun, not to be perfectionistic.

As technical communicators, we spend so much time using the analytical side of our brain that we often don’t nurture the creative, non-verbal side enough.

I did the Zentangle Tree yesterday. It’s the first time I’ve tried to draw and actual object rather than abstract patterns. It took me about an hour. When I started, I was feeling a bit stressed about work, but by the time I finished, I felt calm but energized. And, the solution to a thorny problem popped into my head as I was working on this.

I find myself needing to be reminded to step back and play a little. Try this out if you need a mental break! The Zentangle website has insteructional videos and an online store where you can order supplies.

I also found a book, The Art of Zentangle by Walter Foster, at the library. It contains even more patterns and ideas. Have fun playing!

Starting My Blog with a 31-day Challenge

March 1, 2014

I’ve been meaning to start a blog for years, ever since Brenda Huettner, Char James-Tanny, and I coauthored a book called Managing Virtual Teams: Getting the Most out of Wikis, Blogs, and Other Collaborative Tools (still available on amazon.com). But well, life intervened, and I couldn’t think of a cool name for the blog, and yada, yada, yada, 7 years went by.

I’ve been working on the setup for this blog off and on for awhile, though I haven’t been particularly diligent about it. But then, I saw the 31-Day Blogging Challenge that Lesa Townsend is running, and decided that I didn’t really have any more good excuses for not doing a blog, and that I should give this a try.

After all, I have a cool name–Pangaea Papers, a cool banner thanks to Shanna Chuma, and a bunch of stuff that I want to write about, mostly regarding topics in global communication, such as technical communication, internationalization, and localization. And, I might stray into science, philosophy, and other things that I’m curious about.

As you will see if you are looking at this site in early March of 2014, I still have some holes to fill, and am also working on my corporate site, comgenesis.com…but as a famous philosopher once said, “Perfection is the enemy of good…” (variously attributed to Voltaire, Aristotle, Confucius, among others), so here we go.

Stay tuned…1 post down, 30 to go in March.