March Slice of Life Challenge Day 1: Eleven Things About Me As a Blogger

For the month of March, each day I am writing and posting a slice of my life, hosted by Two Writing Teachers. 

March Slice of Life Challenge Day 1: 
Eleven Things About Me As a Blogger

In celebration of the first day of the 2019 Slice of Life Challenge, I decided to write eleven things about me as a blogger: 

1. My husband helped me come up with the name Trinarrative for my blog. This is a mash-up of my first name (Trina) and the word narrative. I wanted a name that had to do with writing with a bit of pizzazz. 
2. I began blogging in the summer of 2017; I am still learning what it means to be a good blogger. Click this link to read my first post. 
3. It is only my second year participating in the Slice of Life Challenge. After I heard Ralph Fletcher promote the Slice of Life Challenge at the Annual Wisconsin Reading Association Convention and read about it in his professional book Joy Write, I knew that I wanted to try it. 
4. My big brother, Brian, helped me set up this blog. My friend and colleague, Jeremy, has also helped me figure out blogging. 
5. I nearly always write my posts out by hand first in my writer's notebook before I type the post in Blogger. 
6. Last December I challenged myself to write a Haiku-A-Day and publish it on my blog. Among many other bloggers (including my friend Elisabeth), I accomplished this.  
7. Initially, I began this blog to reflect mainly about teaching and how I was learning as a teacher. To my surprise, I ended up writing a lot about myself as a writer, about my children, and even posting my own poetry.
8. I am often long-winded as a writer/blogger. I know that most people do not take the time to read anything long (like this post), especially in a digital platform. It is challenging for me to be a concise writer.
9. Blogging has helped me to be a more reflective person. It has made me notice more and when I look back on my published blog posts, I am almost always grateful that I took the time to write. 
10. I used to be incredibly self-conscious of every slice I posted on Blogger. I worried that someone would read my writing. I worried that no one would read my writing. Confession: I am still often uncomfortable with this. However, receiving and rereading comments has helped me keep going when I feel self-conscious about my writing (check out the gems writing pals left me in this post).  
11. Blogging has helped me have an authentic purpose and audience as a writer. I never knew how much I needed this.

I used Amy Krouse Rosenthal's brilliant The Book of Eleven: An Itemized Collection of Brain Lint as my mentor text.

Open this link to read my post from last year about my list of eleven things about me as a reader.