Slice of Life 2018- 31 of 31

For the month of March, I am participating in the Eleventh Annual Slice of Life Story Challenge. That means that I am writing every day for the month of March in the good company of the Two Writing Teachers community. 

“You will have a story in there. . . or a character, a place, a poem, a moment in time. When you find it, you will write it. Word after word after word after word.” 
― Patricia MacLachlan, Word After Word After Word

How amazing is this line? More than anything else, more than any of the other writing I do-- and I do a lot-- the March SOLSC gets me to live these words from Patricia MacLachlan.

At the beginning of the month, I wrote about the slicing community feeling like coffee shop customers in that we all develop our posting habits in the same way people show up for coffee on their way to their daily life. I stayed consistent with my morning posts for just about the entire month, and every morning I commented on the three to five bloggers who posted before me. There were other people I commented on as well throughout the day, but it was fun to have my virtual coffee shop of bloggers to get there morning greeting. I'll miss them. I'll look forward to next year.

Last year, I wrote my top ten reasons for taking this challenge. This year, I am going to try to write my top ten take-aways:

1. The law of magnetism works even in communities like this. I relate and react to people with similar posting habits and writing styles. I need to do a better job fighting this law of magnetism. 
2. Less is frequently more. Kevin's six word stories were super powerful, and I can't say I read every word of some of the longer posts. (I apologize for the length of this one, and if you skipped the top to get to the list, I completely understand.)
3. Everyone loves a list. They're easier to read, and they provide information to brains in more consumable chunks. Note to self. 
4. The third quarter is tough for me in all I do. My attention wanes midway through, and I need the end to be in sight to regain my energy. School years, games, projects, SOLSC's...
5. I love watching people experience this for the first time, which is something that's also true in other arenas. (Peg and Georgia, that one's especially for you.)
6. When we write about positive experiences or we share with humor and insight, we get positive responses and usually feel positive energy. 
7. People read fast and frequently miss key details, and this shows up within the content of a comment. I have to think about this. We live in a fast-paced world. Do we as writers work to make our writing less subtle, less clever? I think not. I think we smile to ourselves and think, yep, they missed that one. 
8. I don't need structures or sentence stems in order to come up with slices (funny that I'm writing this within the structure of a top ten list) but I do need the element of time. Time to pause, to reflect, to decide, to write. And sometimes it's the first three that take more time than the writing itself. An important takeaway for teaching...
9. It's really, really hard for me to write multiple projects. My work on my novel suffered this month, and my professional writing went down. However, I know when I return to them, I will be better at them because of this, as long as I keep my writing pattern. I will keep my writing pattern. (You read it here, and you are invited to ask me about it in a couple weeks/months...)
10. See #2--here's a 6-worder: That's all for now. Write on.

I'm a better person because of this community and the writing I do within it. Thank you to all who are a part of it.