Manuscript in Motion Mondays: Round 2!

Welcome back to our second Manuscript in Motion Monday!

First, a big shout-out to Rebecca Carlson, our solo link-up from last week. She linked up to her fabulous post Pre-Flight Safety Checklist in which she reminded us of some important last-minute checks we need to do before submitting our manuscript. Definitely a must-read for any author- I know I learned a great deal. Thanks so much for sharing that, Rebecca!

Clearly, we had a pretty sparse turnout last week- this blog party thing I threw at you (along with a Rapunzel-hair-length post) might have been confusing, so this week I'd like to familiarize you with the world of blog parties to see if I can entice you to give it a try.

What is a blog party?

A blog party is an event usually held on a regular basis, like weekly, where many different bloggers link up their blog to a central location. In our case, Mormon Mommy Writers Manuscript in Motion Mondays.

Why participate in a blog party?

1. Exposure- When you link up with us, not only will your blog readers see your post, but all 361 of our followers will also have the chance to see your post. You will also have the opportunity to be featured on our blog (like Rebecca!) for your contribution.

2. Motivation- If you know that every Monday there will be a chance for the world to see what you’ve been working on during the week, you will be more motivated to produce something worth sharing. That not only makes you a better writer and blogger, it helps motivate the rest of us to up our games as well!

3. It’s FUN! It’s a party! It’s just plain fun to be a part of something bigger than yourself. The more participation we have, the bigger it will grow and the more fun it will be.

To give you an example of how blog parties can benefit you and your blog, check out this post on my other blog. You'll see at the bottom of this post that I put a link (I Have Paper Issues button) to the Paper Issues blog party. Well, the following month they picked their favorite post from their last blog party and featured me in this post on Paper Issues. I was awarded with a button (My Issue Was Featured at Paper Issues!) which I now proudly display on the left side of my blog. Because I participated in that party, I had not only my little following reading my post, but the nearly 1000 followers from Paper Issues checking me out.

As a blogger, I look forward to visiting blogs that host blog parties so that I can click through the links and get inspiration. I also appreciate the motivation it gives me to get my link up the following week.

So, to get everyone comfortable with this whole blog party thing this week, I'm not giving you a prompt or a challenge- just post a link to your blog and invite us over for a peek. If you can, copy and paste the code for our Manuscript in Motion Mondays button into your post (just enter it on the Edit Html tab) so your readers know you're participating with us.

<center><a href="http://www.mormonmommywriters.blogspot.com" target="_blank"><img alt="Mormon Mommy Writers" src="http://i1148.photobucket.com/albums/o565/KaseyQT/MIMMButtonsmall.jpg"/></a></center>

With that, I need your input! Leave a comment with your opinion on the following questions about Manuscript in Motion Mondays:

1. Would you prefer that I give you a challenge/prompt to help direct your post or should we leave it open-ended? My hope was that a challenge would help motivate you through writer's block, but since we're all in different places with our work, perhaps a free-write is the best option?

2. If I do issue a challenge, would you like to have it a week in advance to give you time to prepare a post? Some parties do that, and I wouldn't mind at all.

Thanks in advance for participating! Can't wait to stop by and visit this week!