The #blogmonth Challenge
Plus, a look at historic community newspaper and we highlight our home county.
Many years ago, during the old Blog Oklahoma Webring days and inspired by National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), I started a little community writing challenge called #blogmonth. The challenge was simple, to write and post something in your blog everyday for an entire month. It was an opportunity or an excuse to improve your writing skills, expand your creativity, and in a small way something the Oklahoma blogging community could do together. Still the overall goal was just to write something for your blog.
It's been many years since there was a community based #blogmonth challenge. A lot of people no longer have a dedicated blog, instead they just moved over to social media. In fact, the last version of #blogmonth we did was on Instagram. Where we would take a daily picture and write a few paragraphs about it in the caption.
The other day, the thought of #blogmonth returned to me when someone mentioned NaNoWriMo in passing on Mastodon. Funny how memory works. Hey, I still have a blog. I think it might be time to revive the challenge.
I went into the old Blog Oklahoma archives and found the original post about the #blogmonth challenge.
The #blogmonth challenge is simple. Post something to your blog every day for an entire month. The overall goal is to write something. The #blogmonth challenge gives you an opportunity to improve your writing skills and expand your creativity.
It doesn’t matter what you post. It could be a one paragraph family update; a dissertation on the environmental effects of blue cheese; a chapter from a short story about your big toe; a review of that movie you saw with that guy in it, you know that one guy from that thing; a top 10 list of your favorite ice cream toppings, or even the ever-popular random cat picture with a clever caption of course. It just doesn’t matter. What matters is you have fun and write something.
Here are a few guidelines and suggestions.
Write and publish something every day for the entire month. I suggest you write the article on the day you post. You can work on other articles or ideas ahead of time, but please don’t post-date publish them. The spirit of this challenge is daily creativity and posting.
Feel free to plan ahead. Take the first day (or the day before) of the challenge to map out what you’re going to write about for the month. Create a simple list of topics. You can even go as far as scheduling what you’re going to write about and when. Or don’t plan at all. Take it as a real challenge and come up with something to write about right then and there.
I don’t suggest you do your creative writing directly into your blogging platform’s editor. You can, but don't you remember the last time you accidentally closed that tab and lost everything. I suggest doing your writing in a word processor then copy and paste your work into your blogging platform’s editor. I’ll do most of my writing in Microsoft Word but will sometimes work with Google Docs or LibreOffice Writer. Use what you’re comfortable with. In fact, you can use this challenge as an opportunity to learn how to better use your word processor.
Remember to tag your posts with #blogmonth and let everyone know you've taken the challenge.
Do you think you're up for the #blogmoth challenge? Let us know if you take it on. I'm in for October.
More later. Time to rethink poor decisions. Ha!
In The News
A look at some of the latest headlines from around our Oklahoma and beyond.
Oklahoma AG may target ‘forever chemicals’ in legal action | The Journal Record
Civics test mandates like Oklahoma's haven't improved young voter turnout, study finds | KOSU
Democratic lawmaker seeks to reform Oklahoma’s initiative petition process | Oklahoma Voice
Osage Nation back in court in latest bid to rid mineral estate of wind farm | KOSU
Oklahoma Historical Society secures CNHI approval for online archive of The Edmond Sun | Nondoc
In Oklahoma History
The Cherokee Advocate was a newspaper for the Cherokee Nation at Tahlequah, Indian Territory, from 1844 to 1906. First printed on September 26, 1844, it was the first newspaper published in Indian Territory and, at the time, the only tribal paper in the country. It was printed in both English and Cherokee to provide tribal members with local news and information on tribal affairs.
The Advocate was published weekly until September 28, 1853, when it was suspended due to lack of funds. The Advocate was revived and returned to weekly publication on April 26, 1870. Unfortunately, a fire in February 1875 destroyed their printing office and equipment, and they wouldn’t return until March 1, 1876. From then on, the Cherokee Advocate continued publication until it ceased operations on March 4, 1906, when the U.S. government dissolved Indian Territory tribal governments as a prerequisite to forming the State of Oklahoma in 1907.
The Cherokee Advocate would be resurrected yet again by a newly reconstituted Cherokee government in 1975. In October 2000, the newspaper was renamed the Cherokee Phoenix and Indian Advocate in honor of the Cherokee Nation’s original newspaper, the Cherokee Phoenix, first published on February 21, 1828, in New Echota, Cherokee Nation (now the State of Georgia). The Cherokee Phoenix still serves tribal citizens today as a modern multimedia publication.
More Information:
About Oklahoma: Beckham County
Beckham County is in western Oklahoma along the Texas border. It was formed at statehood in 1907 from parts of Roger Mills County and Greer County, Oklahoma Territory. It was named in honor of Kentucky Governor John C. W. Beckham. Sayre, Oklahoma is the county seat and is located in the center of the county at the intersection of Interstate 40, U.S. Highway 283, State Highway 152, and Historic Route 66. Elk City is the county's largest city and located in the northeastern part of the county. Other notable towns include Carter in the southeastern, Erick and Texola in the western, and Sweetwater1 in the northwestern parts of the county. The county is also home to Historic Route 66, the National Route 66 and Old Town Museum in Elk City, and home to Blog Oklahoma.
Established: 1907
County Seat: Sayre, Oklahoma 73662
Nation: Cheyenne and Arapaho
Map: Google Maps
Area: 902 mi2 (2,336 km2)
Population: 22,410 (2020 Census)
Time Zone: UTC−6 (Central), DST observed
Area Code: 580
Congressional District: 3
State House District: 57, 55
State Senate District: 38
Weather: NWS Norman
Tourism Region: Great Plains Country
History: Oklahoma Historical Society
Historic Places: Exploring Oklahoma History
More Information: Wikipedia
1. Sweetwater, Oklahoma sits on the Beckham and Roger Mills county line.
Extras
Here are some more things I hope you'll find interesting.
MURDER DRONES - Episode 1: PILOT | GLITCH (Playlist)
YouTube: Before you believe a headline, hit pause | Hit Pause
Meat and Rice Casserole From 1932 - Old Cookbook Show | Glen And Friends Cooking
Fudge Pie | MeMe's Recipes - Diane Leary
Right Through You by Drain | Spotify
Feedback Welcome
If you have any comments or questions, please feel free to leave a comment on Substrack, email me at blogoklahoma@blogoklahoma.net, or connect with me at Mastodon at @blogoklahoma@social.tulsa.ok.us or Threads at @blogoklahoma@threads.net.
Have a great week.
– K.
The story of the Advocate is fascinating. I wonder where they got their fonts? Casting type wasn't something a small paper could do. Sequoyah developed the syllabary in 1821, so the paper was an "early adopter" even by modern standards.
Looking it up in the Ayer newspaper list of 1886, the Advocate had a circulation of 1800, and accepted advertising. The Creek, Choctaw and Cheyenne tribes each had their own weekly paper, and Vinita had another Cherokee paper.