One of my husband’s life philosophies is:

Go big or go home.

I suppose a bit of this mentality has rubbed off on me in the 13 years we’ve been together. So it should be no surprise that when it comes to embarrassing my children, I’m not going to be halfhearted about it.

Kissing a kid in public or calling him/her by the schmoopsie-poopsie name you gave them at infancy? That shizz  is for amateurs, okay?

Go big or go home.

A month into the current school year, I was harried and overworked and not paying a ton of attention to the details. Boy Wonder had picked out a messenger-style bag instead of a backpack, but he quickly found it to be awkward and unwieldy to carry around his 37-pound assignment binder, lunchbox and assorted other Boy Stuff that ends up making the trip back and forth school each day. With no time to take him to the mall to pick out a replacement, I offered up the use of our travel backpack.

The travel backpack is your typical backpack, purchased at Target with a front pocket for small items like pencils and keys, and the larger zippered main compartment for books. We use the backpack when we go on vacations or to amusement parks to hold the camera, tickets, sweatshirts, maps, etc.

Boy Wonder was happy to use the travel backpack. Each morning like always, I put a packaged snack in the front pocket for snacktime.

One day, he came home from school and he sat down to do his homework. I opened his backpack, pulled out his lunchbox so I could ready it for the next day, and then opened the small front pocket to see if he had eaten his snack.

I pushed my hand into the pocket and felt a  paper wrapper.

“Boy Wonder, why didn’t you eat your snack today?”

“I did.” He looked at me quizzically.

I narrowed my eyes, fist still in backpack pocket. Then what the hell is this in his backpack?

As I grabbed the item and began to pull it out of the backpack, I said,

“Come on, Boy Wonder. Your snack is right -”

I opened my hands to find a Tampax Super Plus tampon. And its matching wrapper, which had been torn off.

I stopped. And was seized up with panic.

Shit! What does he know?  OMG he’s in his first month at a new school and he’s carrying a freaking TAMPON around that I left in there from our last trip to Six Flags!

Boy Wonder said,

“What IS that thing? I pulled it out of my backpack and had no idea what it was. So I unwrapped it.”

SHIT! What should my answer be? I thought. A mommy rocket shooter? A makeup tool to apply undereye concealer? A giant Qtip with a string? I haven’t read ANY of the freaking books on how to explain menstruation to a boy yet. Do I need to have THAT conversation right now? On a Tuesday at 3? He is going to be grossed out beyond words. WHAT THE HELL AM I SUPPOSED TO SAY NOW?

“Did any of your friends see it?” OMGpleasesayyourfriendsdidntseeit.

“Yeah. I showed it to another kid. He didn’t know what it was either.”

Ok. Kid is not an official loser for a) carrying a tampon around, b) showing a tampon to friends and/or c) not knowing what the hell a tampon is.

Casually, I asked, “So….then what did you do with it?”

“Oh, I just put it back in my backpack.” He shrugged.

“Did your teacher see it?”

“No.”

Thank you, God, for not letting the teacher see it and think he has a moron for a mother. Or think that he is undergoing a transgender process.

Later, I inspected his backpack for any additional feminine hygiene products.  All clear.

The moral of the story: never let your kid use a bag that was once yours lest you want to have a premature discussion about Aunt Flo.

Go big or go home.

Have you had a near-miss with embarrassing your child yet?

I was sitting at a restaurant having dinner with my family on Valentine’s Day when I checked my email.

Susan Wilson has sent you a friend request, the subject line read.

I scanned down to the next email in my inbox.

Susan Wilson has commented on your photo.

I felt my entire body clench, like a lemon being squeezed for its last drop of juice.

Confusion and anger took turns jolting through me.

Why? Why is she reaching out to me?

This person was my best friend, long ago.

This person babysat my kids. Celebrated holidays with me. Knew me. Knew my family.

When our family fell on financial struggles, she, and the larger social circle of which I was a part, kept up a very active social life while we opted for complete frugality. Over a period of months, husband and I started to fade away from her, not able to hire babysitters, participate in the couples’ nights out at expensive restaurants, or weekend trips away.

During the time we began to drift, I discovered she had lied to me numerous times. She was not a person I should ever have trusted. My husband and I agreed that it was time for us to sever the wisps of thread that still tied us to her. I didn’t handle it maturely. Instead of confronting her, I simply accelerated the pace of separation.

I know that she felt a sting in my having locked a door that she had already started to close shut. But my faith in people had been completely shattered. I cried daily over the losses I felt – financially and emotionally. Unmoored and lonely, I would turn to Facebook, only to find that she was leaving hurtful status updates about me and my children. The hurt I felt was a constant, jabbing pain in my heart that wouldn’t stop no matter how I tried.

The hurt pushed me closer to my husband, and together we began to rebuild our life, our finances, our marriage, our social circle – with a new normal. I finally heeded my husband’s pleas to defriend her on Facebook, despite my fears that I would become the neighborhood outcast if I did.

It was the right thing to do. The less I saw, the less I read, the less I hurt. And over time, that jabbing pain became more sporadic, ambushing me only when I had to see her at the elementary school or at a neighborhood family event. When we moved six months ago, I thought it might never happen again.

Until Valentine’s Day. The irony of it all.

I am still sorting through my feelings; still trying to quell the rising tide of hurt that seeps into me each time I check my email and see the unanswered friend request looming there.

Do I ignore it? Accept it? Respond politely, thanks but no thanks?

What does she want from me? Why does she care?

Maybe I should thank her.

You see, when that jabbing pain became almost too much to withstand, I rediscovered my marriage and family. And I found blogging.

From blogging, I found a new community. A new career. A new outlook.

Every success I have from blogging, large or small, is a victory over my hurt.

I should thank her for putting me on the path to a life full of blessings.

I should thank her for ambushing me on Valentine’s Day. It was my sign that it is finally time to share this story – a story that I have struggled to share for over three years.  It is the story that forms the roots of this blog.  I’ve written and rewritten the story more times than I can count. Some versions are bitter and acrid; others, pathetic and self-pitying. The time was not right; the hurt, too raw.

I look at this experience through a much different lens than I did before. It is only today that I can finally see the perfection in God’s plan.

After I wrote this post, I came across an article in the New York Times about how to end a friendship. It’s a great read, and I wonder if you’ve had to end a friendship, how did you handle it?

Anyone who has read my blog for more than a minute knows that I have always considered California my true home. I fell in love when I moved here in 1997 and my infatuation has never ended.

Since we seized the opportunity to move back here to California in August of last year, we count our blessings every day. Some days, in fact, it doesn’t even seem real that I am back here after ten years of being away.

It feels good to be home.

We prepped Little CEO and Boy Wonder for our move by extolling all the virtues of California living: Disneyland! Beaches! Zoos! Road trips! Sightseeing! Great Mexican food {Rubio’s, oh how I have missed you}!

The little hiccup that we didn’t anticipate is that they don’t have the same undying love for California yet that we do.

They still miss Texas terribly.

We believe that it will come in time. We really do. But in the meantime, anything we can do to help show them how truly lucky we are to live here, we do it.

That’s why I am entering to win a session of summer camp for a child at Catalina Island Camps from The SITS Girls!. I’m convinced that sending them to this camp for a week will help us seal the deal on helping them love California as much as we do.

6 Reasons Catalina Island Camp Will Help My Kids Love California

They’ve Never Been On An Island.

Catalina Island summer camp is – duh- on an island, and my kids have not ever been on an island. Why? Well, there aren’t a lot of islands in central Texas. Or Phoenix. And the chance to spend a week on an island? Oh my gosh, they would be stoked!

Boy Wonder Is Part Dolphin

Boy Wonder has been swimming since he was 18 months old. You will not find a more relaxed being floating around in the water than my son. He is amazing and inspiring to watch. He loves the water, and the chance for him to get to do an activity like skindiving or power boat activities will just feed his love of the water…and all the beautiful ocean life that California offers.

Little CEO Has A Green Thumb

Little CEO is my little nature girl. She loves flowers, trees, birds, and gardens. The poor thing frequently tried to plant sunflower and pumpkin seeds in our Texas backyard. It’s hard to explain to a 6 year-old that seeds can’t sprout well in dirt that’s actually mostly limestone boulders. Catalina Island’s gardening and composting program will let Little CEO plant and harvest to her heart’s content, while learning about how to be kinder to our planet. And we can show her that what she plants? Will actually grow here. Yay, California!

Boy Wonder is Part Monkey

Boy Wonder loves, loves, loves climbing. When he attended day camp at the YMCA last summer, his absolute favorite thing was the giant rock climbing wall. Catalina Island Camp’s got one, too. It’ll show him that he can get his adrenalin junkie on right here in California.

Little CEO Is A Mini Martha Stewart

If you say the word craft, Little CEO is there faster than you can say “it’s a good thing.” She loves doing anything craftsy. She’ll be jewelry-making and tie-dying and crafting to her heart’s content at Catalina Island camp. Yes, Little CEO, they have crafts in California too!

They Need A Little Confidence

My kids have had a hard time making close friends since moving to California, Boy Wonder in particular. It’s knocked his confidence a bit. I think a week of fun camp with engaged camp counselors and friends their age from all around California will help ease this transition time for them.

So that’s it! You can enter the giveaway at SITS Girls, too. All the details are right here. Good luck and hope to see you at camp!

Bloggers and money.

It’s a topic that persists in the blogosphere, like an annoying gnat that just won’t go away.

Part of the reason it’s such a persistent topic is because a) many people want to make a living off of blogging and b) it’s really difficult to get good, solid information about what, when, where and how people are being compensated. You never really know if you’re shortchanging yourself or have the world’s biggest ego in asking for X dollars. There is a veil that is not easy to pierce.

My friend Natalie and her readers felt this dichotomy, and Natalie decided to do something about it. In the spirit of helping other bloggers, she and several other bloggers, including me, are having a round table discussion today called Lifting the Veil on Making Money In Blogging. This discussion is designed to look at monetization (and the choice to not monetize) from different perspectives and angles.

My topic is freelance work: how to get it and what to charge. Let’s dive right in and talk about some ideas on how to get freelance work.

What You Need To Know to Get Freelance Work

I’d like to say “just work your ass off, the end.” And that’s partly true. But there’s more to it than just that. Here are a few things to consider.

It’s a Grind

The idea of freelancing sounds pretty cushy. Working from home, staying in your jammies with Oprah on in the background. But it is a grind. It is very hard work, particularly when you are managing multiple assignments. Finding freelance work is a grind too. You’ll likely knock on a lot of doors to start out with and it takes a while for one to open.

It’s Competitive

I get at least 2-3 emails every week from bloggers asking me how I’ve gotten my freelance jobs and do I know of any open opportunities. It seems that everybody is vying for the same jobs or wanting to do the same things. Know the landscape. Know that it will not be easy. Know that you will have to differentiate yourself. To that point…

Your Blog Says Something About You

If you are considering pursuing freelancing, whether it’s in social media or writing, take a long, hard look at your blog. Because your potential client or employer most certainly will. They will look at the quality of your writing. They’ll check out your vibe, voice or tone. They are searching for professionalism. Make sure your blog conveys this.

Connections Matter

I’ve worked on about eleven major freelance assignments in the last 18 months. I secured 8 of those 11 gigs through connections. Whether it was a former colleague recommending me, or networking at a blog conference, relationships, combined with a really professional looking blog, made the difference between me getting the gig and it going to someone else.

Where To Find Work

I found my very first writing assignment through ProBlogger’s job boards. About.com’s list of where to get freelance jobsis pretty comprehensive as well. Let everyone around you know that you are looking for work. 5 bloggers I know well currently have jobs that I used to hold. People pass work on and refer their friends.

How To Get Paid Fairly for Freelancing?

Part of the reason there’s so much mystery around making money blogging is because hard and fast rules don’t exist regarding what to charge. Here are a few of the things I have learned thus far.

Pay Varies Widely

I’ve been paid $10 to write a 250 word post. I’ve been paid $150 to write a slightly longer post. I’ve been paid anywhere from $20 to $70 an hour for consulting work. A big blogger I know doesn’t write for less than $250/post. It is all over the map, truly.

Know The Expectations of Every Assignment and Determine Your Hourly Rate

The per-post or flat monthly rate methods of pay don’t take into account the level of work involved. That’s why I always try to determine what the hourly rate is for any potential assignment. For example, my very first writing gig paid $10/post. When I told my friends about it, they were outraged that I’d work for such low pay.

But after discussing with the client, I discovered that my responsibility was to write a simple 250 word post. No real research was required. I was not expected to do any SEO activities or to even promote the post. I was able to write 4 of those posts in an hour. $40/hour was something I was comfortable with.

Monthly rates can seem attractive because they’re a lump sum, but they often result in a very low hourly rate because you’ve not accurately estimated the work involved. Ask the hard questions. It will save you feeling underpaid down the road.

Decide If You’re Willing To Smart Small

I chose to work at some lower-paying jobs when I started to just get my feet wet, build my portfolio and learn. I have been offered more lucrative opportunities at every turn since then and have been able to grow what was once “mad money” to a full-time career that supports my family. But this approach will not work for everybody. Decide for yourself what you’re willing to be paid and be okay with your choices. Don’t apologize for them. Always try to earn more with each new gig, though.

Ask Your Friends

It is super helpful to have friends you can bounce things off of when it comes to earning money. I have several friends I can consult with and ask them whether an opportunity sounds like BS, if they think the pay is fair, and so on. Having a sanity check is so valuable! If you don’t know anyone who freelances, feel free to email me with questions. I am happy to help.

I hope this overview is helpful to some of you as you’re branching out into freelancing. I could write for a whole week on this topic!

Be sure to check out the other discussions happening on the topic of making money, most of which are going live at 6 a.m. PST today:

Katie (Sluiter Nation): Not My Business, Baby

At the start of the year, I shared with you all thatmy word for 2012 was fearlessness. I’ve determined to go boldly into 2012 with a renewed sense of purpose and balance.

One of the things that went off-kilter in 2011 was my health. I didn’t get sick or have any major medical issues, thank God. But by overcommitting myself and trying to do too many things every day, there was little time left to focus on doing right by my body – physically, mentally and spiritually. I ate poorly, I didn’t spend time reflecting on my well-being, and I didn’t exercise.

I’m back on track with healthy eating so far. I’m cooking from scratch a lot more; my house usually bursting at the seams with the smell of freshly baked bread or roasting vegetables. I’m doing guided meditation several nights a week before bed.

But that whole exercise thing? Yeah, I’m still coming up a little short in that department. There truly is no time to get to a gym, so I have to get creative with how to sneak in fitness where I can.

That’s why joining up with the MapMyFitness Quaker Challenge appealing for me. It’s a fantastic initiative that drives home the importance of a healthy heart to inspire women to make exercise a part of their heart healthy lifestyle. Women who participate in the MapMyFitness Challenge must commit to trying 15 fitness activities over the course of 30 days – a great kick in the pants for me. I work best under pressure!

I’m committing to doing a handful of short activities for the next 30 days:

1. Walk my kids to and from school every day.

2. Walk the dog 3 times per week.

3. Do 25 squats while I wait for my tea to brew.

4. Do 25 situps when I get out of bed, and 25 more before I get back in at night.

5. Engage my kids in a fun family fitness activity every Saturday, such as tennis or bike riding.

My hope is that these simple changes, done regularly, will yield big results.

Anyone can join the MapMyFitness Quaker Challenge. Want to join me? I’ll be back in two weeks to give you an update on my progress!

Joining the MapMyFitness Quaker Challenge is my first step towards becoming a healthier me. Now I’m curious to know, what motivates you to stay healthy?

For your chance to win $750 complete these two steps:

This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Quaker Oats Company. The opinions and text are all mine. Official Sweepstakes Rules.

No matter what your ultimate blogging goals are, one of the most important things to being a successful blogger is having an audience. That means you have to promote yourself and your writing. This can be counter-intuitive for lots of writers, who may feel uncomfortable pimping their stuff out. But it’s a necessary evil.

Many blogging advice posts will tell you:

Get on Twitter! Set up a Facebook page! Join a StumbleUpon group! Create a Pinterest board! Find a tribe! Get social sharing buttons on your site! and on and on and on.

It can truly be overwhelming to look at all of the possible options. Sometimes, it feels easier to do nothing at all.

My advice?

Don’t stress. Focus on promoting your work in a few select outlets.

I don’t stick to a niche, so I’ve written a LOT of different types of posts. That experience combined with my freelance editorial and social media work has helped me get some insight into what social media vehicles seem to work best for certain types of posts. That’s what I’m sharing with you today. These general guidelines might help you as you try to navigate the sea of options available to you.

If you write blog tips..

Consider promoting these posts primarily through Twitter and StumbleUpon. Remember that Facebook has a very mainstream audience. Most of the people who read me on Facebook are not bloggers, and they don’t care about blog tips. Twitter has a greater concentration of bloggers, so you’re likely to get more sharing there.

StumbleUpon is a tricky bird. I never quite know what is going to do well but some of my blog tip posts have really taken off. I often submit my blog tip posts to my weekly StumbleUpon group to give them a little extra boost.

If you write craft/DIY posts…

You are a very lucky person, because DIY and craft posts seem to do well in all social media outlets. Consider submitting your craft posts to StumbleUpon, Twitter, and Facebook. If you have really amazing visual images with your craft posts, by all means, add those posts to your Pinterest board as well. If you don’t have amazing images, think about being more judicious with Pinterest or creating a Pinterest-friendly graphical image in its place.

If you’re a smaller craft blogger just starting out, there are lots of other outlets for you to promote your writing, like submitting tips to Tip Junkie or writing guest posts for places like The SITS Girls.

If you write food posts…

You too are lucky! Everybody’s gotta eat, and everybody loves a good recipe post. Pinterest, StumbleUpon, Twitter, and Facebook are all great outlets for you. As with craft posts, make sure you’ve got visuals that pop if you’re submitting to Pinterest, and if you’re tweeting a food post on Twitter, don’t try to use a catchy or obscure phrase for your tweet. Use the recipe name; it’s much more effective.

If you write parenting posts…

Your best bets are to promote on Facebook and Twitter. Facebook allows you to reach the mainstream mom, and the #parenting hashtag on Twitter will enable you to scoop up some social sharing as well. I typically don’t waste my time promoting parenting posts on other outlets. People tend to not go to StumbleUpon or Pinterest for parenting advice!

Do check out sites like Mamapedia Voices, BlogHer’s submission process and Daily Buzz Moms as other ways to get wider exposure for parenting content.

If you write humor posts…

Twitter and Facebook are the way to go, with StumbleUpon being a close third. My best-trafficked StumbleUpon post was a humor post I did about picking wine by its label. People on Twitter and Facebook are always up for a laugh to get through the day, and if a post is truly well done, people will not only read it, but share it.

If you write personal reflection posts…

Again, Twitter and Facebook are your best bets. Also consider submitting to BlogHer syndication, or my friend Shell’s Pour Your Heart Out weekly linkup.

If you write style, fashion or beauty posts…

Pinterest, but you probably know that. Again, make sure your images are fantastic. Another resource to consider is Daily Buzz Style.

If you write posts about living frugally, couponing or deals…

Facebook seems to be the way to go with frugal living posts. When I worked at Juice in the City, I partnered with many fantastic deal and frugal bloggers. All of them had massive Facebook followings and seemed to get their best response from Facebook over any other outlet.

If you write fitness, wellness, or posts on green living…

I’d suggest going heavy on Twitter and Facebook. This type of content has appeal to a very wide audience. Keep your post titles relevant to the topic so people are enticed to read. Daily Buzz Healthy Living is a great way to expose your content to a wider audience.

I’m interested in hearing whether your experience has been with the posts you write. Is it the same as what I’ve observed?

While I’m an editor for several Daily Buzz sites, I was not obligated to mention them here – I just think it’s a great resource for bloggers!

Yesterday, I concluded a short 2-part series on how to ignite your writing – taking a boring post topic and making it awesome. You can read Part 1 of Ignite Your Writing and Part 2 of Ignite Your Writing if you missed it.

But what if you’ve gone through the entire day and you’ve still got NOTHIN’?

What’s a blogger to do with major writer’s block?

Use these 6 handy and unusual ways to come up with some ideas.

Search Your House for Oddities.

We all have our quirks, so this shouldn’t be a hard exercise. Look in your pantry – any bizarre or weird food? How about the kids’ rooms? They always hide bizarre stuff in odd places. Check your makeup drawer – what cosmetics have you been holding onto for 6 years? Now you can’t just write, “Guess what? I found an old lipstick from my college years!” and have that be your post.

Maybe the makeup inspires a post about your addiction to chapstick. Maybe you realize that you’ve been buying the same box of cereal every week for the last two years and you can talk about why you’re stuck in a routine. You get the idea. Let the object inspire you, not limit you.

Stop Before You Tweet

Some of my very best blog posts have started out as tweets. Do you ever just have that moment of Twitter brilliance, where a really witty or profound 140 characters just comes trippingly off of your fingers? Before you waste that brilliant idea by puking it up into the Twitter abyss for its 3 seconds of fame, STOP. Think: Can this tweet form the basis of a blog post? How can I expand on this and make it come to life? Don’t be afraid to let that idea simmer for a few days until you’ve fleshed it out.

Stop Before You Comment

We’ve all been reading a great blog post by another blogger and found ourselves writing a 6 paragraph comment back.

Like with Twitter, STOP. If you’ve got that much to say about the topic, write your own post about it! Whether it’s a funny twist on the original author’s idea, an opposing stance, or just a different angle on the same discussion, you can utilize that blogger’s words for inspiration (I always like to credit them in my original post, even if my post barely relates).

Check Out My Idea Bank

Some of my newer readers may not realize that I have a GIANT repository of writing topics that are free for you to use. It’s called The Idea Bank, and it was a collaborative project between me and dozens of other bloggers about 18 months ago. There are more than 500 ideas in the bank, so whenever you’re feeling a little uninspired, check out the bank. You’re sure to come up with a bit of motivation.

Use Social Networks To Your Advantage.

It’s so easy to find cool stuff on Facebook or Pinterest. Let’s say somebody shares a hilarious video clip on your Facebook feed. Don’t just hit “like” and move on. Think about whether you can use the video in a blog post and add a funny story to it. Maybe you find a bunch of style images on Pinterest and can’t figure out why people love pajama jeans? Write about it. And if you want to find really weird stuff, visit StumbleUpon and do some random stumbling. You will get to explore material that you wouldn’t otherwise find in your blog reading and commenting.

Curate, curate, curate.

If you are simply devoid of any creative juices whatsoever, curate. Pick a topic, any topic, and put together a handful of other blog posts, images or stuff that you love. Valentine’s Day recipes? Collect a bunch of chocolaty yumminess and share your findings with the world. Find the best kiddie crafts you pinned to your Pinterest boards in the last week and package them up into a post. When done well, curation can be a really great service you provide to your readers. Aim to be as visual as possible and be selective!

That’s it! I hope these ideas help get your creative juices flowing when you’re in a draught! Do you have any other ways you use to stay inspired?

Welcome back to part 2 of Ignite Your Writing – a mini class on taking your writing to the next level! Yesterday, I shared Part 1 of Ignite Your Writing, in which I made-up a sample story and 5 ways to take the story from boring to entertaining. Today, I’m going to show you 5 more!

Let me quickly share the sample story again in case you missed yesterday’s post.

The Story:

I stayed up too late last night watching Toddlers and Tiaras. When I woke up this morning, I decided to make a green smoothie before getting my kids ready for the day. It was delicious! Little Kate woke up first. I put her in front of Dora the Explorer while I finished my breakfast, then I went upstairs to go get Baby Johnny. My 7 year-old, Noah, was on his way downstairs. Little Kate started yelling because Dora was over. I quickly got baby Johnny and went to the kitchen to find – yup, you guessed it. Noah had spilled the orange juice I had left for him – all over the floor! Sigh.

After getting everybody cleaned up and dressed, we all piled in the minivan to take Noah to his Saturday morning soccer game. Gee, I wish I didn’t have to drive a minivan anymore! Anyway, Noah scored a goal at the soccer game and we were so excited that he got the game ball. I missed the goal because I was on snack duty, darn it! Unfortunately, he cried the whole way home because they lost the game 4-3. His dad and I explained that he would lose games sometimes, and encouraged Noah to be happy that he scored a goal! To celebrate, we took the kids to Chuck E. Cheese for lunch. They earned so many tickets playing video games, but had a hard time choosing from all the prizes at the prize booth.

It was a fun time. We got back into the car and headed home. Halfway home, little Kate said her tummy hurt and before I could turn around to ask her what was wrong, she had puked all over the minivan. What a day!!!

Now let’s get to ripping that snoozer of a story apart and create better posts out of it.

Write A Letter Post

One of the best ways to change up a blah story is to write a letter! Remember, the letter doesn’t HAVE to be from your perspective. Our sample story could be changed up by having the oldest child write a letter to his mom about how the day went. For a humorous twist, maybe the author’s mother in law could write a letter back to her on all of her parenting fails that day.

Examples of Letter Posts

A Letter To Kyle Richards
Are Momy Is Not Momy of the Yeer

Write A Minute By Minute Account

This sounds like I’m telling you to write a story exactly like the sample above. Not exactly, though. A minute by minute post details the funny or sad events of a day in a bulleted format, each beginning with the exact time it took place. This has to be edited carefully, because if it’s not well, it can come off long and boring. Keep the entries short and sweet and try to only include items that are truly necessary.

Example of A Minute by Minute Post

Waiting is the Hardest Part

Write A Post That Incorporates Celebrities

Everybody loves to dish about celebs. These posts can also get you great SEO traffic because celebrities are frequently searched in Google. More often than not, the most successful of these posts poke fun at the celebrity or compare the celebrity to a person in the author’s real life.

Examples of Celebrity Posts

She’s Not In His League (Why I Hate Entourage)
Why Gwyneth Paltrow and Pinterest Make Me Feel Like An Ass

Write About A Timely Topic or Current Events

Keeping abreast of what people are talking about today can make for a great post tomorrow. Whether it’s a political issue, a Twitter trending topic or who got booted off of American Idol, these posts usually tend to garner a lot of comments and sharing.

Examples of Current Events Posts

Wikipedia Down.

Do A Sendup or Parody Post

It’s super fun to take the format of your blog post and turn it into a parody a famous song, poem, children’s book or movie plot. They are lively and really entertaining to read. I’ve seen parodies of Dr. Seuss books, television shows, and more used very effectively. If you find yourself repeating a phrase from a song or movie over and over throughout a particular day, use that as inspiration.

Example of A Parody Post

Ode to Dora the Explorer (the end of an era)

That’s it – my ten ways to ignite your writing. Which have you not tried yet in your own writing? Do you have others that are effective? Come back tomorrow. I’ll be talking about ways to come up with ideas for blog post topics when your tank seems empty!

It’s time to start my writing mini-master class – Ignite Your Writing.

Let’s take your writing from boring to amazing with some writing tips and ideas!

If you get stuck in blogging ruts or feel like your writing is a little snoozefest right now, this post is for you.

We’re going to start with a plain old story – a made-up version of what happened in Betty Blogger’s day. Then we’re going to ignite that story into 10 great post ideas.

The Story:

I stayed up too late last night watching Toddlers and Tiaras. When I woke up this morning, I decided to make a green smoothie before getting my kids ready for the day. It was delicious! Little Kate woke up first. I put her in front of Dora the Explorer while I finished my breakfast, then I went upstairs to go get Baby Johnny. My 7 year-old, Noah, was on his way downstairs. Little Kate started yelling because Dora was over. I quickly got baby Johnny and went to the kitchen to find – yup, you guessed it. Noah had spilled the orange juice I had left for him – all over the floor! Sigh.

After getting everybody cleaned up and dressed, we all piled in the minivan to take Noah to his Saturday morning soccer game. Gee, I wish I didn’t have to drive a minivan anymore! Anyway, Noah scored a goal at the soccer game and we were so excited that he got the game ball. I missed the goal because I was on snack duty, darn it! Unfortunately, he cried the whole way home because they lost the game 4-3. His dad and I explained that he would lose games sometimes, and encouraged Noah to be happy that he scored a goal! To celebrate, we took the kids to Chuck E. Cheese for lunch. They earned so many tickets playing video games, but had a hard time choosing from all the prizes at the prize booth.

It was a fun time. We got back into the car and headed home. Halfway home, little Kate said her tummy hurt and before I could turn around to ask her what was wrong, she had puked all over the minivan. What a day!!!

ZZZZ. That post is a real snoozer. About all you’re going to get in the way of commentary from readers is, “Oh, I hate when my kid pukes in the car.”

Why write a post like that when it is CHOCK FULL of exciting, informative and entertaining material that can form the basis for a MUCH better read?

Here are my 10 ways to take that story, break it apart, and write it differently. I’m going to share 5 of these ways today, and 5 more tomorrow. I’m also going to include links to posts I’ve written in each of these formats, just so you can have something as an example.

1. Write A List Post.

People love lists. They are short and easy to read. Our sample story could be transformed into “10 Things I Learned About My Kids On Soccer Saturday” or “5 Reasons Why No One Will Ever Buy My  Minivan” or “7 Ways My Day Was Over Before It Ever Really Started.” Weave elements of what happened that day into the list. Look for connections and common threads and tie them together in the list.

Examples of My List Posts

Instead of writing an account of a frustrating day playing games with my kids, I wrote Top 5 Reasons I Hate Chutes and Ladders

5 Marital Conversations You Should Avoid Having On Facebook was inspired by an annoying Facebook status update I read on my wall.

I elected to not write a play by play of the day one of my kids got sick and opted to develop The 10 Rules For When Kids Get Sick

2. Write a Recipe Post.

Maybe the best thing about the day was that killer green smoothie for breakfast. Don’t lose that! That’s a post! Take a photo of the smoothie and post a recipe. DON’T just stick the recipe in at the end of a long narrative story. It won’t get tweeted or pinned or shared if you do. Dedicate a post to it. You can still weave in personal elements, but make the recipe the main point of the post.

Example of My Recipe Posts

Warm Cherry-Almond Cake

3. Exaggerate and Write a Humor Post

With a little bit of writer’s embellishment, you can make a ho-hum story something that a fellow mom can relate to and laugh at. Instead of just relating the events of the day, exaggerate! Maybe Noah spilled the OJ on the floor. Write that Noah and Kate then pretended that the OJ was ice and they began “pretend skating” all over the kitchen. Describe the crazy ass soccer moms that you saw screaming at their kids on the field. Make the post larger than life. Comedy is all about universal truths told in an exaggerated way.

Examples of Exaggerated Humor Posts

The Room That Smelled Like Butt
My First Fan Letter

How To Make The School Carnival Profitable

4. Write A Lesson Learned Post

In our sample story, the blogger could identify moments where she learned a bigger life lesson and share it. She could write about how she discovered that her son was more competitive than she had realized, or share that maybe she needs to give up her Toddlers and Tiaras time to get more sleep.

Examples of Lesson Learned Posts

Resilience

The Water and I

5. Write a Reflection or Opinion Post

Our sample story has lots of nuggets for a reflection or opinion post: why Chuck E Cheese should stop giving out prizes, how she doesn’t understand her daughter’s fascination with Dora, or how she dealt with the frustration of a day that didn’t go according to plan. Find the larger dilemmas or issues that bubbled up in the day and address one at a higher level.

Examples of Opinion or Reflection Posts

The Signal

Is It Okay To Quit?

Does Motherhood = Martyrdom?

Every little thing in your day can be the inspiration for an amazing post, if you’re able to take a moment and look at the story from a different perspective. Come back tomorrow when I share 5 more ways to take that same story and ignite it into more great blog post ideas. I’d love to hear your feedback in the comments!

The theme of #SITS31DBBB this coming week is Hone Your Writing. As I mentioned in my post, Your Blog Is Like An Ice Cream Sundae,your writing can make or break your blog.

I have never professed to be the most talented writer. I recommend Write on Edge as a superfabulous writers’ community that is focused on writing as a craft. What I do think I’m pretty good at, though, is taking an average event that happens in my day and coming up with several different ways to write about it that are compelling or entertaining. This gives me power: power to change it up, make things interesting, and make it more fun for me to write.

One of the things that I hear alot from newer bloggers is: “I couldn’t think of anything to write about, so I wrote about my day and it was so boring.”

Believe me, it is as boring to read as it probably was to write.

So this week, I am going to do a little mini class called Ignite Your Writing. I will walk you through:

1. How to take a boring topic and turn it on its head into something amazing

2. Creative ways to come up with new blog post ideas.

And of course, the coursework over at The SITS Girls this week will give you scads of other ideas as well!

I’m really excited about this week and hope you’ll come by and share your insights as well!