'Honeymoon' Wrap Up...and...That's All, Folks!

Hi, all ye who come by!

Firstly, a brief wrap up of the July Honeymoon Challenge. Let me just simply say, all your stories were unique, all entertaining, all relished.

It was wonderful to welcome Nancy Williams back after a long hiatus from RFW, along with Madeleine who has not posted for what seems absolute ages. Linda, Nilanjana and Sally have been regulars for sometime, along with Yolanda and Charmaine who were both absent this month. I thank you for your loyalty to RFW. Donna and Anna nearly didn't post, but both slipped in under the wire.

So, from the above, you'll notice a problem...not many posted and this was Donna's and my last chance for RFW -- both agreed if we had low figures again, we were not going to put ourselves through the stress any longer -- and it is stressful waiting for entries each month, hoping for a good turnout, looking forward to many good reads, but, alas...

This has been brewing for some time. For several reasons, foremost being the lack of participation, RFW is closing down..

Donna and I have tossed up this possibility for some time, especially when our challenges have reached all-time lows. We always said: 'Let's give it till next month,' then one of us would be feeling upbeat, and convince the other to keep going, month after month. Since January, we have averaged sign-ups of 11. The last 2 challenges didn't even make double figures, even for June Wedding, which was a prize post. We know the web is wickedly busy, there are so many blogfests/memes/challenges out there demanding attention.

We spent lots of time jazzing up the blog recently, spent lots of time discussing forward plans, but all to no avail. Few were impressed...or visiting our Friday posts. (A warm thanks for those who did comment!)

So, reluctantly, after quite a long run, we are closing our doors, through which many authors, writers, poets, non-fiction writers have passed. We know at times we were used to publicise books, publicise blogs, publicise individuals...but we were also used for one of our main aims - to help writers improve their writing. Those loyal to RFW often said they believed their writing had improved and it does when you push yourself to write to a prompt, then edit to a word count and take on board feedback.

So, thank you to all those who've made RFW what it was -- a quite unique little online writing community that, except occasionally, never met the potential its hosts imagined for it.

(It is crazy to see up to 2324 people viewing each challenge sign up, but for some reason, never participating!)

We especially warmly thank those who have been loyal these last few months  - Nilanjana's latest post was sent in from the Himalayas. Now if only everyone was so keen! We appreciate Nila prioritising RFW! Such a small group needed everyone to post each month to keep it operational.

RFW started with weekly posts of 400 words, then to fortnightly posts, then to monthly posts of 1,000 words which was a less onerous commitment, but, alas, that didn't work either! Without a goodly number of writers prioritising one Friday per month to post for us, RFW cannot continue to operate -Donna and I can no longer justify the huge time drain of maintaining the blog and the challenges.

We wish you all well. I'm sure we'll both support your blogs as we have done in the past, (not just at RFW times). We will watch your progress with interest and will clap along in the wings as you reach your writing goals. We hope you will visit our blogs from time to time and say hello.

I thank Francine Howarth for helping me set up RFW (she did all the techno stuff at the start up) and Donna Hole for her valued input for the past year (she's not into techno stuff, but she was great in forward planning and critiquing). My job would have been impossible without both of these wonderful authors.

I will leave the site open for the time being, so you can have your say. I'm not ready to let go just yet...maybe you have some positive ideas which would allow RFW to continue... But meanwhile,  I will continue to use the left side bar to see what RFWers are posting and the right hand side bar to see where to send my stories. I urge you to use these too and please visit each other often.

For me, I will miss RFW deeply...heck, I've already got a Vacation story zooming around in my head...now what will I do with it? That's the most treasured thing I'll take away from RFW -- I wrote genres I'd never have attempted otherwise. I believe my writing has improved and that is invaluable. How about you?

Thank you one and all!

R.I.P. RomanticFridayWriters -- May 2011 - July 2013.