30 Days Wild is more difficult than the AtoZ Challenge. That’s my first thought, and it’s because I need to do many of the actions only a day or two before I post about them. My second thought occurred halfway through the month: how do my writing and scifi fans respond to my writing about wildness in my life?
30 Days Wild in numbers
- 30 posts (only 26 in the A to Z)
- 7 posts specifically about birds: within those, specific posts about barn owls, swifts, cuckoo, nightjar and swans
- 5 posts related to earth science (meteorology, the solar system, climate change and their effects)
- 5 book posts (Galileo’s Theme Park, Dreamwood, Old Baggage, The Saffron Trail, and the recommended ‘Wild’ books)
- 4 posts about wild spaces (including NWT and RSPB reserves)
- 4 about other animals (slowworms, bees, dragonflies and butterflies)
- 3 posts about wildlife surveys (breeding bird survey, bats, and my tree)
- 2 posts about mammals (fox and bats)
- 2 posts about wildflowers (specifically my wildflower patch)
- 1 post about a tree (my tree survey)
- 1 post about fungi
Some of these were more work than others. Some gave me a chance to exercise my writing skills in writing about wild spaces. Some gave me the chance to be somewhat truer to the #30DaysWild ethos: I did something wild that I wouldn’t have done without the spur of the Challenge. It also spurred me on to do things that once upon a time I would have done more readily, but over time I have shifted into the ‘nice to do’, rather than the ‘must do’. It encouraged me to get out more.
So from that point of view 30 Days Wild was a huge win for me!
What about the blog?
Was it fair to inflict my 30 Days Wild upon my blogging community? How did it affect your expectations of my blog? I’d love to know what you thought, so please leave a comment.
My own view is that it is more fundamental to my personality than many of the things I write about. Wildness is not something I do to order, as all those birds I saw when doing other things suggests. Maybe I should allow that to creep into my blogging, and my writing, more often.
Yet I feel my blog should focus on my writing adventures. Maybe you enjoy the occasional deviation, but not all the time. Someone arriving for the first time, such as an Insecure Writer, would have been mystified. I didn’t even have an #IWSG post in June (it’ll be back this coming Wednesday). What I found interesting was the level of hits the blog was getting – much the same order as A to Z Challenge – and hopefully some of these people may come back for more. I think the daily post may have been too much for my regulars, although it is getting into vacation time for some of you.
Conclusions
I enjoyed 30 Days Wild, but I don’t see myself doing it again in such an intense way.
As I said in my review of Old Baggage, it’s reminded me of what is important to me, and I need to get closer to that. It makes me happy to be true to my ideals. I enjoyed this immersion in wildness. One of the benefits of being close to our environment is said to be its effect on our mental health, and I certainly feel more able to cope with the other things going on my life as a result. I must do it more.
So I’m going to introduce a monthly #WildWednesday feature, probably the second Wednesday of the month. It should help me get out more! I hope other bloggers might like to join in, but given our success with #Fi50 and #FlashbackFriday, maybe I’m just doing it on my own!
And then I’m going to get back to work, write more, but try to do more wild writing, whatever that might mean!
Sweetie your blog is always entertaining. Your writing is a treat when shared but the blog itself is always good. This little break has been fantastic and showed another side of you and also of your writing skills, something you’re not used to and stretches you a bit. Don’t worry, we loved it.
xxx Massive Hugs xxx
Thank you David, supportive as always 🙂
xxx sunny hugs xxx
I enjoyed your #30DaysWild posts and looked forward to them each day. Great idea to incorporate a #WildWednesday series into your regular blog posts. I may be an insecure writer but I ‘m also insatiablely curious.(#BeCurious 😄)
Mmm good thought – be curious. Must improve on that!
Hi Jemima – it looked to be a really interesting series … and perhaps one I’d be interested in doing, when I’m more settled: so only noted your posts and unfortunately unable to do much more. I like the idea of the once a week … and as you say that sort of challenge does make you get out more … cheers and enjoy July – Hilary
Thanks Hilary. My problem at present is that I’m out a LOT, but mostly on golf courses! But having ‘me’ time out of doors would be good for me. I was thinking of only one #wildwednesday a month, though. We’ll see!
I enjoyed the posts, in part as anything about nature/wilderness/environment has interested me for decades. I may have followed more actively during A to Z but 30days Wild has kept me tuned almost every day. Anyway, writing about writing can get boring – variety is a valuable spice.
I didn’t read all your posts on them, but the ones I did, I enjoyed. Congrats on doing this challenge. It does sound like it’d be tougher than the A to Z.
That’s awesome that you got out there. And I think it’s brilliant to share it with your blog readers.
I enjoyed your posts and a once a month #WildWednesday sounds a good idea. I find daily challenges tough as both reader and writer of posts – I gave up after two years of A to Z and subverted the roof challenge from daily to weekly. Lots of blogs I follow were doing A to Z so I couldn’t keep up with all the posts, at least with the wild challenge it was only you!
I didn’t read all the posts–a daily post challenge is a challenge to the readers, as well! You know why I’m struggling to keep up :). But I loved what I read, and it made sense to me–much like my posts on hiking and backpacking and biking–those are important things to me, and part of what keeps me going as a writer, even if the connection isn’t always obvious. I like your Wild Wednesday idea, and maybe I’ll join in 🙂 (oops–forgot; I’ll be having wildness for days on end for the next year!).