Writing Prompt: Write a Profile About Blogger Muddy Kinzer

Cool Mud Folks, Week #2

This week, we have talked about people whose names have some variations of “mud” in them. We started off with singer Muddy Waters, moved on to the band Puddle of Mudd, and today, we finish with blogger Muddy Kinzer. Your job is to find out who Muddy is and write a profile of her.

Creative Idea Gal’s Thoughts

I virtually met Muddy Kinzer last year when we both participated in Robert Lee Brewer’s April platform challenge for writers. I enjoyed my online friendship with Muddy and often stopped by her blog. I started gaining an appreciation for her soft, whimsical style of writing and subject matter choices and still enjoy her lighthearted moments to this day.

Why is Muddy Kinzer important as a blogger and why would I highlight her over other bloggers? For starters, her name is a big draw. I knew I wanted to incorporate her in this month’s mud theme in some way. Secondly, it’s always a good idea to shine the light on lesser-known bloggers to give them a chance to gain a broader audience for their blog. Third, Muddy is a great example of someone to profile. Remember what you have to do to profile a person? Research, research, research and read. Lots of interesting stuff on Muddy’s blog.

Creative Brainstorming Tips

Coming up with names of people who had mud in their name was difficult. Besides Muddy Waters, I had no idea who I would write about. I already had Muddy Kinzer in mind and knew I only had to find one more person to write about.

So often, interesting things come across our desks and we don’t know what to do with them. Do we bookmark the site? Clip pictures? Save things in a folder in our e-mail? So many options, so little time. I never really knew what I would do with the information I knew about Muddy Kinzer, but I knew that her name was interesting enough to prompt me to remember it.

Because Muddy’s name was distinctive, it was easy for me to remember it. Try to think of things as interesting, unusual, or different, and it will help you remember them.

Helpful Resources

“One of the things that is known to help memory is distinctiveness. We tend to remember oddballs pretty well.” – Art Markman, Ph.D., for Psychology Today

“You risk sounding ignorant, xenophobic, and bigoted if you make dismissive or insensitive remarks about people’s names that happen to be unconventional by your local definition.” – Phillip Guo, for LifeHacker

Writing Prompt 054

Prompt: Write a profile about blogger Muddy Kinzer.

• Step 1: Find out who Muddy is by visiting her blog. Read about her and read her blog posts.
• Step 2: Review the information that is needed to write a profile on a person – – the basic stuff we learned in grade school: who, what, when, where, and why. Your profile should be factual.
• Step 3: Incorporate elements of Muddy’s blog post topics and writing style in your profile. Look at the categories she writes about. Notice a pattern? (Hint: you may find that some of Muddy’s categories are very similar to things we’ve done here at Write Nonfiction in November!)

Please be sure to leave comments about this writing prompt. We want to hear from you!

About the Author

Amanda M. Socci, J.D., is a freelance writer with 14 years of experience writing professionally. Socci currently cuts her blogging chops on her personal portfolio blog, the Creative Idea Gal blog, and on an online news site, Mount Vernon Patch. Inspired by Nina Amir’s Write Nonfiction in November writing challenge, she created a unique 10-month training program for Writenonfictionnow.com and Writenonfictioninnovember.com blog visitors.

Grab the badge of honor and upload it to your blog. Follow the prompts three times a week (M-W-F) right here.