it’s a done deal! this chick is one blogging machine! when i press publish on this post i will have successfully completed the 2012 blogathon. owned! cha cha cha.

this is a reflective post on the experience. warning: it’s going to be long. longer than my normal blog posts, and i will more than likely digress here and there and wander in the wilderness.

i have blogged 31 days straight!

at the beginning i didn’t know if i had it in me to do the blogathon this year since i feel like i am in a creative drought. i am glad i forced myself to do it beyond how i was feeling. my blog has grown as well as myself as a blogger. i’ve been blogging for years and this is my second year doing the blogathon but the blogathon this year has reinforced what it is that i want to write about here at gloriamarie.com.

so what is it like to blog 31 days straight?

challenging but doable. the biggest challenge for me was making sure the blog for the day was posted in time to go out to my email subscribers. my blog email updates goes out in the morning and if i posted later in the day it wouldn’t go out until the following morning appearing as if i missed a day. normally the email update is scheduled to go out around 9am but i had to push it back to 11am towards the end of the blogathon, gave myself more time to get my act together!

consistency and output is good, but also quality. blogging everyday makes you deal with the issue of quantity vs. quality. during the blogathon my friend accused me of phoning it in on a post called a look back found here. i didn’t have much shame in my game on that post, i pretty much mention how the post will do and count for day 19. i gave him a hard time for being critical but my friend’s criticism actually made me try harder.

some days i would sit. sit and stare. and be completely clueless on what to write. thankfully inspiration would hit, except for day 19! :) but knowing you have to write something everyday forces you to be a more active writer. active writers are always on the lookout for something to write about.

3 blog posts that didn’t make it

sometimes i have intentions to write about things but never develop the ideas. sometimes i don’t know what i want to say about a subject, how i want to say it, or simply lack the time to develop the ideas into something worth reading. here are 3 that didn’t make it into a post this blogathon.

1. i wanted to do a confessional post on how i love drake. there, i said it! i heart drake. for those who have no idea who drake is…it’s probably best that you keep it that way. drake is a singer/rapper, and most of his music is best heard “clean”.

this is a picture i took for a tweet earlier this year. but of course i was like, “omg, drake!” i had the magazine sitting on my desk and somehow i was careless and sat a glass on it and condensation ruined the cover! it was probably all for the best, the magazine could had led to a drake shrine.

2. the second post that didn’t make it was a post about psalm 23. it is the famous psalm that we learn in sunday school about the lord being our shepherd. a couple weeks ago i woke up and “psalm 23″ was first thought, i could hear psalm 23 in my mind. the intensity of it that morning freaked me out. i immediately picked up my bible and read the psalm, and of course thought how i should blog about it. my problem was that i didn’t quite know what i should blog about psalm 23. a week later i run into the niv version of psalm 23 and it starts off with “The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing.” and i think that maybe that is what i needed to know, that i lack nothing because of the providence of God.

3. the 3rd post that didn’t make it was the cute kitten post! so here is a picture of a cute kitten for those who were really looking forward to me resorting to cute kittens in this blogathon! but umm, maybe on day 19 i should had resorted to cute kittens?

3 blog posts that did make it, but did you read them?

1. the 7 kinds of people who will make you lose your religion

i actually wrote this one just yesterday. this post is about loving your enemies and trusting God to fight your battles and deliver you from your enemies.

2. feed the hungry. educate the foolish.

a play on the famous steve jobs quote and a call to creatives to supply the need of hungry and foolish people.

3. stay focused and keep shipping

i explain the concept of shipping, a term that is familiar in the computer software world. at some point you must ship! get whatever it is that you do in the hands of the public.

4. be willing to spend time to accomplish great things in your life

yeah, i know i said 3 but i really meant 4 but i didn’t want to mess up the “3 blog posts…” pattern. this post is all about being great, and investing in your gift/talent/calling. you become great by doing.

thank you

thanks to my regular and new readers for sticking it out with me! if you can get pass day 19, my love for the rapper drake, the occasional digression, my lack of capitalization, and me going on and on about jeremiah 29:11 then i believe we have a bright future together. subscribe via email and i will continue to “try harder” at helping you live and create your life.

congrats to all the other bloggers who successfully completed the blogathon! including my dear friend alice.

THANK YOU for reading gloriamarie.com. HAVE CRAZY FAITH and live your purpose!™ subscribe via email to receive a guide to doing incredible things with your life for free. follow me on twitter + like my new fb page.