The Blogger Recognition Award

If this was Facebook, I’ll probably post a status as this: That beautiful moment when a wonderful blogging friend nominates you for an award. But this is not Facebook, but it is still as good a starting line, don’t you think?

Annie, of What the woman wrote, nominated me for The Blogger Recognition Award. I recently met Annie through Writing 101 of Blogging University and have enjoyed reading her posts very much. Her blog is clean and beautifully decorated. I find her blog title very witty and she inspired the present theme (Lovecraft) that I’m using on my blog. Do head onto her blog and check out her posts. I’m sure they’ll catch your fancy.

Here’s the beautiful award that Annie nominated me for:

My! Isn’t it beautiful?

The Rules

• Select 15 other blogs you want to give the award to.
• Write a post to show off your award!
• Give a brief story of how your blog got started, and give a piece or two of advice to new bloggers.
• Thank whoever nominated you, and provide a link to their blog.
• List who you’ve nominated in the post. Make sure to also attach the award itself!
• Comment on each blog and let them know you’ve nominated them. Provide a link to the award post you created.
• Provide a link to the original post on Edge of Night.

How Scribbles@Arpita was born

I have always wanted to be a writer. In March 2015, I came to know about Joanna Barnard (of Precocious) through the Bath Novel Award website. She had won the Award in 2014. I headed onto her blog from there and fell in love with it. I knew instantly that if I were to be an author, I had to have a blog like her. And so, Scribbles@Arpita was born! Since, I have had the chance to interview Joanna on Scribbles@Arpita and let her know how she inspired the origins of this blog. Imagine my delight!

Eight tips for the newbie blogger

⇒ Take a Blogging University course (Blogging 101/201 and/or Writing 101) at least once. These courses are free and provide a wealth of knowledge, enough to equip you with the nuances of WordPress blogging.

⇒ Choose a nice title that reflects either its creator (you) or the theme of the blog. Remember,the title need not be the same as the URL of your blog. (e.g. my URL is https://arpitaapramanick.wordpress.com, but my site-title is Scribbles@Arpita). The basic Blogging 101 course will teach you to do this, so Point 1, again.

⇒ Blogging is about the community. If you want to generate feedback for your own site, be sure to head on to others’ blogs and say hello. Be back to the same blogs whenever you enjoy reading something there and drop a comment.

⇒ Follow blogs that you love to read, not those that follow your blog. I say this because if you don’t care enough for the blogs you’ll follow, you’ll end up having too many feeds on your Reader that you’ll never get around to reading and it’s no use either to you or the blogs that you follow.

⇒ Most often than not, personal anecdotes do well on blogs. We all love to read about personal struggles, be it in the office or the kitchen. So yes, I am interested in your personal musings, even though you think it’s not worth anyone’s attention, so don’t be shy. Bring it on!

⇒ Humour me. My world is pretty bleak most days of the year and I’d love to have a laugh over something you wrote.

⇒ “The Internet does not forget”. Be careful about the things you spill out here. Niceties is as much needed in the virtual world as in the real world, so spread a smile, spread a cheer, not the boo or the jeer. (Wow, that rhymes!)

⇒ Have a schedule for the blog-posts. Even though writing two-posts everyday may sound enticing at first, trust me when I say, it is quite difficult to keep it up for long. More often than not, you’ll be falling behind and will end up feeling stressed out. Instead, write three posts a week and continue it. Remember, this is not a 100 metres race – you have a long way to go, so take it slow.

My Nominees

I am going to cheat a little bit here, because with so many awards doing the rounds, most of those who I follow are already nominated for the same or different Awards. So, instead of 15, I will nominate 8 bloggers, in tow with my eight tips above.

Trudy at Rendezvous en New York

Anand at Blabberwockying

Vishvas at Jaztrazb

Beatriz at GardeningB

Leanne at Elle’s Adventure in China

Lauren at girlfindsnewplacesandfaces

Jellyfish Mama at Never Trust a Jellyfish

Leanne at NIHONGOJAPANGO

Congratulations, nominees! I’d love if you accept the nominations. If you don’t, I understand.