My B A T experience

Here, I, welcome our new BAT Veteran, Thewhitescape to share her BAT experience. (Since Thewhitescape is facing problems in posting on Blog-a-Ton, I am posting on her behalf.)

I started blogging in July 2012. During very beginning of my blogging I didn’t have any idea of what I could post in my blog. It was one of my friends, who forced me into blogging.

Later, I visited some blogs and planned to shape my blog in similar way. I started to Google for blogging activities and this is how I came across Blog-a-ton in November 2012.

My first BAT participation was in December 2012 and the very first challenge bought 5 followers to my blog. This was amazing. This helped me to shape my blog. I have really benefitted a lot by participating in Blog-a-ton. I have made many followers through it, who now visit my blog regularly to be updated about my new posts and other content which I post in my blog almost daily. I hosted creative writing contest and many of them participated who say came to know about my blog after reading my monthly entry in Blog-a-ton.

Monthly BAT challenges encourages to me write with more interest. Ever since I started linking those posts with Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Google plus, it helped me to flow information to those friends who are regular visitor of these social sites. . A few of my other friends who were not aware of Blog-a-ton, said that they participated in some of the months after getting information from my blog via these above medium.

BAT challenge every month has improved my writing skill and creative ideas have become more.

I initiated blogging from zero i.e. without any idea about such writing platforms and etc, but now, blogging is being my passion and participating in such content based challenges has been the best thing happened to me after I started my blog and I can’t stop blogging for my whole life.

It’s truly wonderful to be now a part of BAT’s Veteran blogger category and I really wish to be part of 25 or more editions to be included in list of Super Veteran Blog-a-Tonics and next to be a part of 50 or more editions to be crowned as Queen of Blog-a-Tonics.

Wholehearted appreciation and thank you to Founder Marshal Vipul Grover, Leo and Sarav .

Thank you,
Thewhitescape

‘BAT’ing For …..

It was in September 2009, that I came across Blog a Ton (BAT). I am a member of IndiBlogger and I came across the information of BAT through IndiVine. The first BAT was conducted in August and the second one was announced. I decided to participate in BAT.

For me participating in BAT was indeed a challenge in many ways.

First, I was very new to blog-world. I was blogging about a year. None of my friends or people around me read any other blog; leave writing one. But my friends and colleagues at workplace read whatever I wrote and encouraged me to write more about my experiences. So, my blog was a sort of ‘family affair’.  I was not sure whether my blog would appeal to ‘outsiders’ – meaning those who do not know me personally.

Secondly, those of who read my blog beyond BAT entries (I hope some at least read it) know that my blog is mostly narrations of my experiences. I don’t write scholarly articles; neither do I write movie or book reviews; nor poetry. My writing range is indeed limited. So, whether I would be able to write on different topics and satisfy the unknown readers was a question to me.

Third, I have always believed in freedom of writers. My blog should be a place where I have complete freedom about what to write, when to write, how to write, and whether to write it or not. Accepting BAT terms was little contradictory to these values. I mean I was still free to ‘not to write’ and I could still choose the form of expression. But the topic of BAT though decided in democratic manner – was not always of my choice. It was like writing according to someone else’s command.

Fourth – my travel schedule did not allow me the luxury of 24X7 connectivity. It was not necessary that on every first Saturday (that was the initial regular schedule of BAT) I could post for BAT. But here the Marshal came with support. On many occasions I have scheduled my post and requested Vipul, the Marshal to publish the link on the BAT date – and he always did it.

Fifth:  I am actually not a competitive person. If you are reading my blog regularly, you know that I do not participate in any kind of competitions – that does not mean I doubt intention of those who participate in various blogging competitions. I am not cut for it – that is all.

In spite of all these obstacles, I have till date participated in as many as 18 BATs. My blog has ‘Blog a Ton’ as one of the labels and it shows 19 posts – but the post RETURN, though written for BAT, could not be published due to technical reasons.

Honestly speaking, I have never felt competition in BAT – though it has clear voting (now cheers) guidelines and deadlines and clear winners. I have almost always read all the BAT entries and I am sure most of the ‘BAT’ers do it. For me the most creative aspect of human thinking is brought to the forefront through BAT. It amazes me every time I BAT to see how a single word creates so many different ideas, so many different perspectives, so many different forms, so many different expressions, and so many different feelings. The whole canvas of writing opens to you, you get to know a range of experiences. That is the reason I love BAT.

BAT balances discipline and freedom – you need to post during a timeline on a particular topic but you are free to choose the form, the tone, the presentation etc. As my blog is mostly about sharing experiences, after couple of BATs I started to feel the bondage. Then I came up with an idea. I had always wanted to write short story but had never explored it. BAT gave me an opportunity to work in this direction. Though my short stories are always long enough, I have enjoyed writing those stories. The whole gamut of experiences could be woven together through story. And then for me BAT became a Story Writing Challenge. Except for four posts - Teachers Aaja Kal, The Indian Dream, If I were a Baby Again and Pencil Pull, - I have always written stories. It is because of BAT, that I started writing a story. Good or Bad – does not matter!

Through BAT I came across many new blogs and of course good ones and many virtual friends. I follow some of these blogs regularly. I interact with some of the bloggers whom I have never met. It is another matter that the old batch of ‘BAT’ers is disappearing – they must have valid reasons to make such a conscious choice. But nevertheless, the whole new batch of fellow bloggers comes in. I enjoy the flow, I like the movement, I love reading new styles and new expressions. This flow of ‘BAT’ers does not allow me to take anyone for granted. That is great. It mirrors real life.

Like most of the writers I do enjoy appreciation and feel happy when readers take notice of my post. But somehow, I have never bothered about votes and cheers. Initially I thought of writing “Please do not vote” as a footnote to my BAT posts – but that would have sounded like a very egoist declaration.  And anyways, I realized that very few people were actually voting for my post- so dropped that ridiculous idea.

I do not bother about votes for three reasons. One: I am grown up enough to have crossed these boundaries of success and failure. Two: somewhere within I know that I am not a great writer as yet. I have a long way to go. Three: I trust ‘BAT’ers for their fairness. I am sure if they like my post the best, they will cheer for me, if they don’t they won’t. If I don’t get cheers means I still need to excel my performance. The credit goes to all ‘BAT’ers who have maintained this ‘fair play’ rule intact – voluntarily.

For me, BAT is more of ‘support group’ rather than a competition. We all strive together to excel. We all work hard to express. We all long to reach out, but more than that we all long to search within. The beauty of BAT is: it is more like a long distance running and not sprint. Here we run together, draw energy and inspiration from each other, encourage each other. In the end, only one or two are going to be winners, but there is always a joy that “I tried my best once again.”  

So, even after 18 innings, I am not tired. I would love to keep ‘BAT’ing – for the joy it gives, for the horizons it widens, for the challenge it brings, for the variety it presents and for the fun it assures. 

Aativas

Fooled by Randomness

Blog-a-ton has played a pivotal role in the chaotic evolution of my blog. I started my blog in 2008 as a social/political/philosophical blog.  But after a couple of posts, I got stuck and realized that was not the way to go. So moved on to humor and that was an instant hit with Desi Pundit showcasing my Bride Hunt series. But then there is a limit to the number of humorous incidents in one’s life. So slowly the number of posts started dwindling and posts totally stopped after I was kicked out of my job.  You can’t sit at home and write funny posts when you are unemployed, eh?  I returned to blogging a few months later but by then all my regular readers had left me. I found myself unable to recreate the magic of the Bride Hunt series. I then tried reviews of books and movies. But my reviews found hardly any takers and I was not motivated to write any more of them.  So my blog was suffering an existential crisis when I came across a post from our Marshal on Indiblogger about Blog-a-ton.

 In hope of reviving my Blogging fortunes, I threw my hat into the ring in Feb 2010.  The topic of my first Blog-a-Ton was ‘What-if’. I got so many ideas but I was tongue tied or should I say finger tied? I had never written for a prompt before. So I ended up not participating and decided that Blog-a-ton would not work for me. Then a month later, one Sunday I was feeling bored. Generally surfing randomly I meandered into the Blog-a-ton page. And it was the Blog-a-ton day. The topic was ‘Time Travel’. Somehow this topic lit some lamp inside my head. Within the next couple of hours; my first Blog-a-ton post was up.

That evening when I logged on to my computer, I was pleasantly surprised to see 6 comments on my Blog post. I was so excited I replied to the comments and then read their posts and then went on to read all the other posts. Overall the post got 38 comments, just 2 short of the Bride Hunt series and also 2 people – Mahesh Kallal and Vivek Nanda had voted mine as the best post. In those days participants were allowed only one vote per head. So getting 2 votes was a real big thing.

By reading the entries, I realized lot of Bloggers write short stories on their blog. I particularly liked 3 bloggers – Karthik, Vibuthi and Harsha. I started visiting their blogs regularly and came across an online story writing contest conducted by a website called IndiMag from their blogs. That’s when I wrote my first two proper stories – ‘The Lonely Bus Stand’ and ‘Mohiniattam’. My stories were well appreciated and I made lot of good friends on IndiMag. I had now entered the fascinating world of short stories.

Soon it was time for the next Blog-a-ton. I started thinking about my post even before the topic was announced going by the topic trends. And interestingly the topic turned out to be my own blog name ‘Fool’.  I came up with one of my best works, a poem called ‘The Fool’ written in Victorian style.  But to my disappointment there were very few comments. Those that were, were lackluster and I got 0 votes. So I decided to keep away from poems and this postponed my entry into the world of poetry by one year. I still wonder why it bombed so badly, though even now looking back I find it to be one of my best works.

 By the time of next Blog-a-Ton, things were going bad in my personal life and I wrote a dark story for the topic ’Escape’ keeping with my mood. This was one of the best Blog-a-tons with lot of participation. I was happy to get 3 votes but I was not sure if many understood my story. It was a bit complex and blog readers generally have too low attention span. During this period, a few of the participants in the Indi Mag story writing contest came up with the idea of jointly publishing a book of short stories and invited me to join. I was very excited by the prospect. But sadly after a few days, the idea died a natural death.

But it was again Blog-a-ton time soon. This time the topic was ‘Hidden’. I managed a para normal thriller that was well appreciated. I wanted to build up the story into a novella. So I followed up with sequels the next two Blog-a-ton for topics ‘Wish’ and 'Return’. During this time I also came across another Forum called Ginger Café. Here I got to participate in an innovative team blogging contest called BPL (‘Bloggers premier league’). Though my team stood first in the first round, we got eliminated in the second round.

At this time I had to change jobs and my mother’s health began to deteriorate seriously. So my blogging began to dwindle again. I just participated in one more Blog-a-ton, where a picture was a prompt instead of a word for the first time. I wrote my first 55 Fiction. Around November 2010, my blogging came to a grinding halt. IndiMag had shut shop. Nothing much was going on in Ginger Café. And that was when Marshal announced that Blog-a-ton was also shutting down. I was so disappointed. I had missed my chance to become a veteran and to win Blog-a-ton. That was it. I decided to throw down the towel and wind up my blog.

By March 2011, the itch to write was catching up with me again. I had been through tumultuous times in personal life and was looking for some means to de-stress. Something told me that Blog-a-ton maybe up again and I decided to check it out. And guess what! Season 2 of Blog-a-ton was indeed starting. I was back to Blog-a-ton and blogging with ‘Change’.  Seeing the quality of other posts that Blog-a-ton, I felt I might win at least a bronze that time. But instead I landed up with 0 votes again. But this time I started writing for other prompts as well and one of my stories ‘Space in her heart’ was selected as a Tangy Tuesday pick by Blog Adda. From there, there was no looking back.

I continued my Blog-a-ton participation as well. Soon I was on the way to become a veteran. Only regret was I was becoming a veteran   without getting even a bronze. But somehow my mail to Vipul mentioning I had finished 10 posts got missed out and I was not declared as a veteran on my 10^th post, where yet again I got 0 votes. But now seems like it happened for good. Now in my 12^th attempt, I have at last conquered the Blog-a-ton Gold. So I become a veteran with a BATON gold in my kitty.  Thanks to all those who voted for me to make this possible. I also thank aativas and SIS who served as an inspiration to me by winning their gold in their 18^th and 11^th posts respectively, showing that it is possible to go 10 posts without a win and still come back and win. And of course a big thanks to Vipul for creating this wonderful platform and Sid, Leo and SIS for reviving it. Thanks also to all those who have voted for my past posts and commented on my posts for helping keep my passion for writing alive. Last but not the least; I would like to thank all those people who have posted wonderful posts that have inspired my writing.

I wonder if anyone has got till here. If you have, thanks to you as well for reading patiently. My journey as a Blogger has been so intertwined with Blog-a-ton that I could not resist putting up a lengthy Oliver Twist kind of post, starting with how my blog was born and all that.  

!~ Here is a Veteran Blog-a-Tonic ~!

"Am I a Veteran now?", I can't believe it.. but I am... “How good is this Blogger Label feature?” I am sure it is more than 100% because it always reminds me of my Blog-a-Ton counts and it all started when I met this girl in my office, ‘Nethra’, of Otiose Opinions and I landed on Blog-a-Ton after reading her post, ‘Call it luck’.

I felt the platform was unique, and a place where talent would be highlighted, so I decide to pen down from the next edition. My first take for Blog-a-Ton was a story on “What if I was provided with a topic – What If?”, and Debosmita suggested the theme and I penned the same. The journey then experienced a mission on “Is there an End to the World?” By ‘Time Travelling’, and found a friend ‘Vinay a.ka Leo of I Rhyme Without Reason’.

I didn’t stop instead went in search of a ‘Hidden’ word for ‘FRIENDSHIP + LOVE + CARE’, though I couldn’t find the word I found two more wonderful friends, ‘Scribbling Girl of My Personal Journal’ and ‘adreamygal of Prompted to write’, I should say two gems.

After trying to find the ‘Hidden’ word, I wished to fulfil the wish of a girl and as well as wished to find new friends. In wishing so I found my first critic, 'Vibhuthi of Klishmaklaver', ‘bloggerdost' and my blogging Mom, 'Amity of Dreams Are My Reality', a wonderful wish I should say.

Wishes are sweet when they come true but 'Goodbye' was horrible as I dedicated this post to Neha (my friend Ajay’s Lover), though she is not alive today but she still lives in our heart. Not everyone can be Neha and Ajay, “True Love Never Dies” and Goodbye were never a full stop in case of Ajay and Neha. Also, found a gem, 'Rachana of Humming Today'.

When Goodbye was horrible, she awaited for his ‘Return’ in her womb because her love died in an accident. The return was just a hope but I am sure he did return. My garden of friendship was populated with many new friends with this ‘Return’.

When everything went like ‘sad, sad’, I wished to express my love for Country happily and kept my promise with my love as ‘My Country - My Love - My Promise’. Many reciprocated the Love as friendship and resulted in pearls adding to my treasure.

‘It’s time to celebrate the victory of love as ‘Celebrations’ as the couple celebrated their first diwali in a unique and special way, say a wonderful way as it was appreciated by my readers and I am sure I will do the same in my real life too.

Sweet celebrations mixed with 'mysteries', the coupled experienced a mystery as they met a mystery writer, and it remained as a mystery as none of my readers found it but I unleashed the mysteries of my readers as I got close to them and looked for a 'change', ‘how the world was twenty years before’.

More than the posts I wrote, I found many gems in this 'journey' and it has seen tears after the results of Celebrations, Mystery and Journey, after those moments, the journey of Blog-a-Ton now comes to an end with the journey of Sachin. Happy to be a Veteran...Love you guys a lot, thanks for the support you blessed me these days. Happy Man... Signing off from here...

I – A Veteran Blog-a-tonic!

“Dude, you gotta let me know that you have participated in 10 blog-a-tons! How am I supposed to know!” was the ever so busy Marshal’s reply when I pointed out to him, that my entry for BAT 17 would be my 11^th BAT entry. So here I am, officially inducted into the elite group of bloggers known as veteran blog-a-tonics. By the way, I must confess, the term ‘veteran’ makes me feel kinda old hehe. I entered the blog world in January 2008 with my first post. But it wasn’t until November 2009, that I became serious about blogging. Till then, my blog was just another blog existing on the web with stuff just a few friends knew about. A month later on December 5^th 2009, my journey with this awesome event started, with my first entry All in a Day’s work.

This was the first time I actually saw people commenting on my blog and for the first time, I didn’t have to go pester someone to come and do so hehe. With the appreciations and the constructive criticism, my ambitions had grown. I now wanted to win the contest and be called a blog-a-tonic of the month and three months later, I was there. My entry for Time Travel won by a whisker and made me the blog-a-tonic of the month for March. With a win now in my kitty, the next month I was only looking to participate but as luck would have it, my entry for Fool won again. I was on a high, in fact I was ecstatic.  Two in a row now, the expectations of a hat-trick had grown. Sadly though, I was unable to participate in the next one.

After that there have been six more blog-a-tons I have participated in. Some of the entries were appreciated while some were not. Today as look back and read through my entries over the past 1 year, I know how I have grown as a writer and this wouldn’t have happened without blog-a-ton and the amazing writers that have participated in it with me. Coming to my fellow participants – through Blog-a-ton, I have made some amazing friends, some of whom I have even met in the real world. The meeting I had with the Marshal –Vipul Grover, will always remain a memorable one. This one was followed by my meeting with other blog-a-tonics – Rachana, Leo (Vinay), Nethra, Harsha Cittar and Avada (Ashwini) in Bangalore. I would love to meet the rest of you guys in person too one day.  Thanks for making this such an enriching experience guys.

It’s ironic and heart breaking though, that blog-a-ton would now be taking a break, but I hope it’s back again soon.

Signing off Marshal style,

Blog-a-tonically yours,

Tavish

The Amateur Veteran

Have you come to vote for the BATOM 17? Click HERE to go to the Voting post, else continue on to read the Blog-A-Ton Xperience of a soon-to-be-inducted Blog-a-Tonic veteran.

Yikes. I’m a veteran Blog-a-Tonic now? :-o

Good heavens!! Now that makes me seem like an experienced blogger. I’m in the wrong class. Who made me graduate before I joined the college? No no. I’m still the amateur poet, maybe just an old hand in Blog-a-Ton.

Why am I here again? Oh yeah… yeah… I’m supposed to be writing on my Blog-a-Ton experience. Well, I started ten months back. Missed the first seven editions, frankly I had no idea what it was even though I’d read about it on a few blogs. It took Rashi’s winning entry for me to realize the platform of Blog-A-Ton was one through which I can get new friends and readers. My journey started there, with the topic suggestion post, where I commented supporting Time Travel.

One of my best friends says I’m a stats guru, because I keep track of some stats of my blog. So like that, the first friend I got from BAT was Vibhuti. I think she was the first to follow my blog, coming from BAT too. She’s a very close friend now, having got to know her after that through BAT, FB, and BPL etc etc. First cheer from Debosmita… we ended up getting just the one cheer each, coz I had cheered for her post on Time Travel too. First approved topic suggestion was Escape. It got majority backing on the second try, and I got a hat-trick of suggestions approved by the BAT crowd after that, Hidden and Wish following that. Two more of my suggested topics have got a majority backing after that, so 5/10 is a decent strike rate I guess.

With every BAT post, I’ve got better I think, and it has been delightful to write too. It is an inspiring place that can give an escape even when the mind seems captured by a writer’s block. It has got me friends like Vibhuti, Rumya, Tikuli, Pawan, Nethra, Avada, Debosmita, Vipul and many more. A lot of readers I’ve got too, and in the journey, I’ve got 2 BATOM badges so far as well. Twice I’ve ended runner-up as well. To see so many bloggers writing variety of posts on a similar topic is a nice thing to see. I hope it gets to its initial goal of 100 writers for an edition soon. A suggestion for Marshal and Blog-a-Tons for the future: the similar theme blog-a-ton is good, but let us be creative on the titles as well… like we did for that image based BAT. It’d be nice.

I think I’m dragging on, so this is Leo signing off. It’s been a pleasure to be part of BAT till now, and looking forward to further BATS as well.

The Amateur Poet, over and out.

I blog at: I Rhyme Without Reason

My 2 Pennies - For Whatever It is worth

Are you here to Vote for BATOM??

Kindly visit this link to do so - http://blog-a-ton.blogspot.com/2010/08/vote-for-batoms-before-saying-goodbye.html

Or just continue reading this beautiful Blog-a-Ton Experience of Tuppence.

What an honor and the first of its kind in my blogging experience. From an unnoticed blog read by just select few friends , if I can call myself “Tuppence” in this blog world, have about 20 odd followers, know some people whose writing style I admire ,  I owe it all to blog-a-ton.

“Tuppence” is almost as old as Blog-A-Ton and I realized I never gave it a birthday hug or a birthday gift, neither did I celebrate its 100th post. So here is the story of the birth of Tuppence and Tuppence’s journey with Blog-A-Ton hand in hand.

Just like most people in blogosphere, I started off with a MyName.wordpress.com and ranted about my likes , dislikes and the mad things I was upto, the mood swings I was going through. Needless to say MyName.wordpress.com was an utter failure, not just because I wrote about those stuff but may be because it just did not click.
 
I thought about it and came up with the reasoning that

“Who wants to read about what I eat/do/like/dislike?”,
“Do my friends want to read about the same thing which I have cribbed to them about over the phone just an hour ago”?,
“If I have had a fight with a boss or am traveling places or experimented a new dish as a first cook, does the rest of the world care”?
“Why don’t I have anything to chit-chat /gossip about room-mate over phone when friends call, just because I had just blogged about it?”.
“Why am I obsessed every single moment , and always hunting for a blog opportunity., for that blog-able moment?"
“Don’t I just suck at humor to make it even readable?”
“Well, hell, nobody is reading and those who are, need not necessarily only read, I can talk to them.
..But if I quit, what happens to the writer in me, the dreamer in me, to my opinions on the things around me?”

Yes, The writer in me, the dreamer in me gave birth to Tuppence and the shy-person in me made me remain anonymous. Tuppence was thus born to put in writing my opinions about the things that I hold dear, the dreams I have nurtured, realized and lost – In all, my two pennies on anything I stumble upon starting from things as trivial as a movie that touches me, to a book that influences me to even as serious as a Dream Come True. “For Whatever it is Worth” , I was going to place my two Pence ( Tuppence) for the rest of the world to read.

I started with reviews of a few books, blogs, movies and soon, the same writer’s block upset me, got demotivated at not having a Mutual Admiration Club, not getting enough comments. Then came Blog-A-Ton. DaisyBlue deserves a mention and a big thank-you note through this post, for I have always been amazed at how regular she had been blogging and the virtual blog friends she had made. She was one of the blog-a-tonics who participated in BAT-1.
 

Here goes my Blog-A-Ton Journey so far:

After analyzing the cream and scum of blogging, I took a dig at the Lessons learnt from life, from the Teachers (people) in every walk of my life from whom I learnt and gave font to my opinions on life. I dreamt of having good readership, knowing people, getting tagged, writing guest posts, giving interviews and so much more on this blog. I nurtured my blog, by coming to it everyday, with motivation taken from other blog-sites like Nablopomo and blogged for all days of 2 full months. I felt as "If I were a baby again", longing for attention, gleaming with pride at comments.

After a few months of Blog-A-Ton, I was not getting encouraging readership, votes or even comments. I let it go as a passing cloud thinking it is "All in a day's work" for a blogger, one has to go through some downs to get up, so I kept the Connection with my blog alive, kept hanging to the thread of being regular to my blog, though I was brimming with negative thoughts.
My genuine reader community kept saying "What if" you don't, I was deeply upset. I used to think "Am I a fool?" to continue to write? I fought a struggle to Escape from these negative thoughts and to keep them Hidden and buried and to not let it affect my writing.

One fine day, I thought this was going to come to an end, I made a secret Wish to feature as guest blogger / Veteran blog-a-tonic when Vipul announced this. Nurturing this wish for days together, I was not getting a email from him for a long time, while I was on the verge of doing away with that wish and losing sight of it, the wish came true, and here is me living the dream I dreamt of writing a Guest Post, that too in Blog-a-Ton!
My two pennies are always here to place and a Good-Bye is not-near.

Here are my 2 pennies on Blogging

Blogging is a whole lot of fun. Being read, appreciated is a lot more fun. I see it as an opportunity to take a peek into people’s personality, get inspired by it and give vent to the myriad things that the human mind thinks up! Tell me your blog, I will find out for myself who I think you are.

A Thank-you note to Blog-A-Ton for being motivation for me to at least come to my blog once a month. ( I have realized in the last 6 months, I have written just one post a month, my BAT post). Thanks to all the people behind the blogs I follow, love and get inspired by.
 

Happy birthday to Blog-A-Ton and thanks Marshal for having me here.

Lots of love,
Tuppence.

My BAT XP and VETERAN BATonics!!!

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To some it reminds the Dark Knight , to some it reminds Sachin

Tendulkar ; but when you ask the bloggers, BAT reminds them 

the red and blue, three haired winking Marshal   .

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Are you are here to decide the topic for BAT 13???

Click here to do so.

Or simply continue reading My Blog-a-Ton Experience and Meet the Veteran Blog-a-Tonics.

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It’s been one whole year, a wonderful one year in this journey of Blog-a-Ton. As a blogger, I have created my own niche in this period while as the Marshal, I have enjoyed the whole process and the appreciation I have received for my initiative.

Did I ever expect BAT to rise to such an extent?

Yes, I always hoped so. That’s why the mission from DAY 1 was to have an edition with 100 participants. It was frustrating when after rising initially, for next six editions the number of participations kept swinging around 40-45 and came crashing down to 35 during BAT 9. It was surprising when in the very next edition, the number touched 60 and within two more editions, it has reached 70. The ultimate mission now seems within reach, thanks to all the bloggers who keep participating month after month, also attracting other fellow bloggers in this process.

Did I ever expect to win BAT?

Yes, I always hoped so. It was very frustrating when despite writing some good posts in the initial editions, I failed to garner desired votes. Competition was always stiff. The quality of entries was always great. It took 10 BATs to win the BATOM badge award and within two more editions, I have two BATOMs under my belt.

However, this has also got me thinking if it is fair for other participants. Should I, being the Marshal, be competing with them for BATOM? With due respect to all those who have voted for me in previous two BATs I participated in, and made me win both of them, I do wonder if  there is any kind of favoritism taking place! It is a tough call for me as BAT has become a way of life for me, not just as a Marshal but also as a Blog-a-Tonic. So, do give your feedback about it!

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FELLOW TRAVELERS
THE VETERAN BLOG-A-TONICS

In the last three weeks, four wonderful bloggers have shared their BAT XP with you. These are the four who started this journey with me on August 1, 2010 participating in Blog-a-Ton 1. There were 7 other bloggers too, but only these 4 have stayed and enriched BAT with their wonderful posts month after month.

Click on their respective names to read all their BAT entries

	Shilpa Garg 12/12 BATs BATOM 1
Pawan Maruvada 11/12 BATs BATOM 5 SILVER BATOM 12
	Siddhesh 'Ravan' Kabe 10/12 BATs Designer of BATOM and Veteran BATonic badges Meet Marshal of BAT Pune Meet
Vipul Grover 10/12 BATs BATOM 10 GOLD BATOM 12 Founder Marshal of BAT
	Dhiman Manji 9/12 BATs Future BATOM *fingers crossed*

I’ll like to share my gratitude by inducting them in BATs Hall of Fame, which has been named as  'The List of Veteran Blog-a-Tonics'!!!

So the first five inductees to the List of Veteran Blog-a-Tonics are

• Shilpa Garg
• Pawan Maruvada
• Siddhesh Kabe
• Vipul Grover
• Dhiman Manji

Click on their names to read their Blog-a-Ton Experience (BAT XP)!!!

Here is the list of all the 13 entries for Blog-a-Ton 1. The topic was "The Cream and Scum of Blogging".
Arjuna, Saimanohar, Dhiman, Vipul Grover, Avdi, Daisy Blue, Sid 'Ravan' Kabe, Shankar, Shilpa Garg, Bharathi, Ranee[1], Ranee[2] and Pawan.
Shilpa Garg was voted as the First Blog-a-Tonic of the Month.

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There are many others who joined in the following editions and have been with BAT ever since. You all will be inducted in the following months after scrutinizing your posts and your performance in BAT.

To be eligible, you must have participated in atleast 10 BAT's.

Once your number of participation reaches 10, just drop me a mail with the links to all your posts (or simply label all your BAT entries and send me that single link).

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Hoping to see many more inductees in future

Blog-a-Tonically Yours

Vipul Grover

All in a year's work.

Blog a ton. A year ago when all the hype about it started I had no expectations on it. I didn’t quite like the idea in the first place. Who’ll write? I thought. And time knocked me out my senses. Blog a ton. Now it’s a phenomenon on the Indian blogging platform. When Vipul asked me to participate in the first edition in those seedy gtalk pop up boxes I had no option. Now it’s the largest generator of traffic on my blog. Come blog a ton my page stats zoom up into the sky. The first Saturday of everything is a treat to my hit counter and Google analytics. Blog a ton. The example of great marketing. Vipul has built a global brand locally. As we talk, a blogger from the remote Guinea islands hits the ‘follow’ button. The first two months, blog a ton was just a group of twenty members writing together. Later, the scale got larger and the topics more intense.

In the initial days there used to be simple topic suggestion threads with the topic almost being decided in a matter of a few comments later on the selection process started becoming more vivid with weird ideas pouring in. Time travel, all in a day’s work, what if, topics like this fuel the spark in a writer. Given that there are no restrictions, each post has a different dimension. The more abstract the topic, the more vivid is the thinking. This has given me a rare opportunity to hone my skills in different genres. Sci fi, romance, tragedy, drama, murder, crime, horror, I’ve done them all. The main beauty of Blog a ton lies in the format itself. Indeed blog a ton is a life changing venture for me and I think it’s the same for many other bloggers. If not for BAT, I’ve wouldn’t have met wonderful people like Shilpa Garg (consider her my mentor/editor, a special thanks to her for making my journey in the blogosphere smooth so far!), Neha, Guria, Karthik, Rumya, Tikuli, Vinay, The Fool (an meticulous reader and a better reviewer).

Once the topic is finalized, it’s the time for the mind to set out on a creative rampage. I generally think till the last Friday before the competition and then start writing, a process that every time consumes the deadline to every last minute. I’ve the recognition of being the last submitter of the post for Blog a ton all the time. Well, it’s something I hope to continue too :D Those warm comments, intense criticism, moments of pride, and similar moments of defeat are something that’ll go down the memory lane. My blog got popular, it is only due to Blog a ton. Winning the title once and coming second 6 months later, I something I’m really proud of. My entry for “All in a Day’s work” topic took my blog’s status to higher levels, giving me more freedom to write on bolder topics. Ironically, I’ve won the top slot for an emotional drama and the same genre brought me the second title too. Those who follow my blog closely will know the irony. I’ve noticed the pattern of the winning posts in BAT; they are always emotional posts, written on a deep seated problem or conflict. Well, this is not revealed until the results night, usually the Friday after the D- day. In between there’ll be random suggestions inside the blogger community and some reviews on who is good and who is bad. Good posts are appreciated and are spread like wildfire and the bad ones criticized (not on the blog though, where one can still find comments like cool, good etc)

Once the winner is declared, there’ll be massive traffic bound towards the winner’s blog and therein emerges another super blog. I’ve been seeing this for over a year now, except for one edition I’ve taken part in all the others. It has been a wonderful journey for me, and I guess it has been for the others too. I can’t think of a world without blog a ton, without which our blogs would be the correct examples for draught in the sub Saharan region. I think we all owe one for Vipul, founder in chief, CEO and Marshall of this wonderful concept which is constantly encouraging new talent and has been grooming the old. This idea has endured a year’s journey and no doubt, it’ll survive an eternity. Hail Blog a ton.

Amen.
Pawan Maruvada

A to Z of My BAT Experience

Blog-a-Ton turns ONE, this month! And I turn ONE on Blog-a-Ton too!! Yeah, I have had the pleasure of participating in all the 12 Blog-a-Tons!!
When, Vipul asked me to share my BAT experience here, was I thrilled?? Well, that’s putting it mildly.
So, here’s my BAT experience from A to Z…

An ‘Aha’ Experience…	Awesome!! Amazing!! has been my BAT experience. No, I am not saying this coz, I am doing the guest post here. And believe me, neither did Vipul ask me to say so!!
Blogging Marathon…	BAT is a blogging marathon par excellence. All the activities, announcements are on time, as per the schedule. That’s something commendable!
Cool Comments	Needless, to say that BAT posts always receive the maximum comments, which is like elixir for any blogger!
Diverse Diversity	It’s always awe-inspiring to see such diverse thoughts and expressions on a topic.
Excellent Exposure	Looking for that perfect exposure in the blogosphere?? BAT is the platform!!
Friends Forever	Have found some wonderful people here. Thank you BAT!!
Great Experience	The whole process of deliberating, expressing, sharing, understanding, learning at BAT is a great experience.
Hats Off	Hats off to Vipul for hosting such a wonderful contest.
Ideas Galore	A BAT post which was on a format of a research paper, simply floored me. There have been pretty innovative and imaginative ways of presentation of BAT posts…Lists, A to Z, Puzzles, Picture Posts…
Journey Joyous	12 months and 12 BAT posts with a winner post too is a joyous journey, truly!
Knowledge Everywhere	Knowledge is the food of the soul… and I got it in abundance at BAT.
Learning Experience	BAT has opened my world to newer forms of expressions viz Drabble, Minisaga, Cinquain, Haiku, 77 Fiction, Mirror poetry…
Midnight Oil It Is…	Somehow, I have always written for BAT on a late Friday night. May be subconsciously the idea is, “Early bird…” :D
New Networks	BAT has been a wonderful platform for networking too.
OMG!!	There have been many ‘OMG moments’ with BAT. An amazing write-up, an unexpected twist, a beautiful and poignant tale, an appreciative feedback… all left that lingering wonderful feeling.
Plus Plus Plus…	Being a part of BAT has been ALL PLUS + PLUS… and not a single Minus!!
Quite a Lot Coming Together	With each BAT, more of our brethren are coming together and blogging together. That’s something cool!
Reading Galore	With each new edition of BAT, the number of posts to read is on the rise. So the more you read, the more you learn…
Some Serious Fun	Yeah, BAT is some serious fun!! I had loads of it!!
Topics	The topics have been great for almost all the BATs. Though, there were a couple of them, which I didn’t fancy much.
United We Stand	BAT is unity in action! Truly!
Vote for…	Ah! This has been the toughest part.
Winner is…	Refreshing the BAT page every other second after the deadline (10 or 11 pm), to know the winner would surely cause Carpal Tunnel Syndrome, some day!
Xtra Xtra For…	You get extra marks, extra love, extra fun for good writing at BAT!
Your Post on Your Blog!	Nothing could be better than this and I’m lovin’ it!!
Zeal and Zest Continues…	A year with BAT but my zeal and zest to participate in BAT continues. How about you??

Here’s wishing a very Happy 1st Birthday to all Blog-a-Tonics!! And a great fun time too, at BAT!!
Cheers :)
Shilpa Garg

The Dent in the Blogverse!!!

What is intellectual, bald, little kid in half pant and tongue out?

Of course no points for guessing, Marshal.

Which is the ossum idea that caused the dent in the Universe, atleast Blogverse? Blog-A-Ton!!!

Now looking at the title of post, you may think I am writing a intelligent article which will be praising marshal, Blog-A-Ton and all that, but no, you see, I am going to share you the secret of Blog-A-Ton. Now as this post was supposed to be about my experience with Blog-A-Ton, I am going to share the timeline of Blog-A-Ton with me in it, and you will be surprised to know, I was there in all of them. Sacchi.

The first and foremost formula used by Blog-A-Ton, was identifying the Cream and Scum of Blogging, the purpose was to clear the scum in the beginning of the event. You see, once that was settled all we were left was enjoying the cream.

For me, Blog-a-ton was glory, I started blogging in 2006 and no one, not even the monkey who was randomly typing on computer reached my blog. I did force my friends to read it, threatening to spam their email inbox if they don't comment (hmmm... should do that now no?) but only few visited, because others didn't mind, they already had Microsoft-yahoo lotteries and special sex capsules in their inbox.

So I was looking for different options to show the world that I am still there, when I accidentally reached Indiblogger and 3 followers. So profound was I about this discovery, if I had a jacuzzi in my house, I would run around naked shouting 'Eureka,' anyways, just after a week of discovering the indiblogger, I reached the ultimate site, Blog-a-ton. I am not sure from where I landed, because I was exploring many blogs and their widgets and stuff.

Those who do not know, I joined Blog-a-Ton in first 12 people the glory event, the small step for our marshal, but a giant leap for bloggers and then like a big wall of dominoes it all came crashing down. Whatever Marshal may say, I am sure he did not envision blog-a-ton to grow this way. This is the only event which has an ordered chaos, yet it succeeds.

Blog-a-Ton will be a blogging event that I always hold close to my heart. The 'Blog-a-Tonic of the month' golden widget was a small contribution from me to the great plan of Blog-a-Ton and I am sure we have a lot more words to run.

Heres wishing all the Blog-a-tonics, all the best for Blog-a-Ton #12 and a big cheers to many more Blog-A-Tons to come along the way with more interesting post and stuff. :D

The cake we ate for the 1 year celebration in Pune.

P.s. I will win Blogaton one day. Hu hu ha ha ha.

P.p.s. Those who do not know me (seriously, I would like to meet you o_O) I blog at Sidoscope, Ravan's guide to Life, Relationships and Career, Because Life is seriously funny.

P.p.s. The badge on top is just a concept, not an official badge of Blogaton.

P.p.p.s. Is P.p.p.s even a thing? o_O

Cheerio,

My journey with BAT so far…

It feels very nice to be given the opportunity to write about my experiences with Blog-a-ton or BAT as it’s called lovingly. I still remember the beginning of this event. Vipul(the Marshal bhai)was my blog friend and also a fellow Indiblogger. It is from his blog and Indiblogger forum that I got to know about the concept and eventually about Blog-a-ton itself.

So here was an event where one had to write and post on a single topic(suggested by members, then s-elected by members) on a designated day. I didn’t know what to expect of such an event. After passing out of school I was not used to write on a pre-determined topic or subject, so was quite apprehensive naturally. But the first BAT topic “Cream and Scum of Blogging” seemed pretty easy, so without thinking much  jumped in with my post. After posting, I rushed to reading other posts and was amazed by the quality and variety; I mean all the posts were so different and intriguing (I had never imagined one could be so creative with that topic). Well, that’s what set the tone of future BATs and I felt that participating in BAT will be great fun.

The most surprising aspect for me was every time I would see the topic and panic. I would think my god , what am I supposed to write but before the BAT day something decent would be ready with me for posting . The more interesting part was people would read it and post very encouraging comments. In-fact the BAT posts were the ones that would get most attention (read traffic and comments). Moreover I was enjoying this whole thing of writing, reading and interacting. So it became a compulsory event in my blog till December 2009 (in that month I had only 2 posts and one was BAT post!). In the New Year, January 2010 for the first time I missed BAT, it was unavoidable but had decided that I’ll not miss the next editions. So in February 2010 I was back but then again missed in March. Yes in 2010 I have been missing a few editions but if you see I have missed only 3 editions thus far I think and every time came back without fail.

So, what BAT has done for me? It has helped me improve my writing (Koi Shaque!Ok! Now don’t judge by this post, I felt that after going through my BAT posts!). Then in my first and only Indiblogger meet Harsha Chittar(another Blog-a-tonic) recognized me as a fellow Blog-a-tonic. So you see participating in BAT made me World famous (OK! OK! I am exaggerating!) . But the truth is BAT has helped me in getting some very good friends.

As BAT completes 1 year I wish BAT a Very Happy First Birthday. Also congratulate Vipul(the Marshall bhai) and fellow Blog-a-tonics for keeping it up and running, actually making it better. BAT’s still a baby and it would be great pleasure to see it grow up into a youngster. It would be an ultimate dream come true to see it reach the goal of 100 bloggers writing at a time (It will happen I am sure). Then I’ll write another post here commemorating the occasion :P .

Dhiman Manji