This is a great opportunity for new bloggers looking to increase their views, but you don’t have to be new to participate!

Until now, almost all the posts on Lucky Otter’s Haven have been written solely by me (I’m not counting reblogged articles by others, who wrote them for their own sites). But I feel like this blog is in need of some fresh material. I know there are lots of mental illness bloggers on WordPress sharing their own personal stories and struggles, and so many of you are such great writers too, with your own unique style and voice. So I want to extend an invitation to anyone interested in writing for this blog about their own personal experiences in living with a mental illness. I’m especially interested in people suffering from disorders caused by abuse and trauma: Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD), covert narcissism (C-NPD), narcissistic abuse syndrome (NAS), complex PTSD (C-PTSD), Avoidant Personality Disorder (AvPD), Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID), and other dissociative disorders like Psychogenic Fugue syndrome. I’m also interested in mental illness stigma and how that might have affected you, or how you cope with that, if it applies.

What I’m looking for:

Well written, informative, personal posts describing what it’s like to live with your mental illness, what you do to cope, whether or not you are in treatment or therapy, what works for you, how others react to your disorder, and anything else you think is important about your disorder.

I’m flexible. Your post can be prose, poetry, in essay form, or in list form.  No matter what style you submit your post in, however, it must be your own original work!  If you talk about new research or quote others in your post, make sure they are credited!

What I expect:

When your post is featured on this site, you may not post the same article you write for this blog on your own blog. However, I do HIGHLY encourage you to reblog it to your own blog, and also share it to your social media if applicable.

To show my appreciation for your hard work, I will also share your guest post to all my social media as well (I have accounts on Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook, LinkedIn, Bloglovin’, Reddit, and Google Plus.) Since your post will include a link to your own blog and your Gravatar bio, a lot of people who never heard of your blog before may decide to follow your blog. So if you’re looking for more traffic, more hits, or more followers, this is a good opportunity!

If I get enough interested people, what I will do is feature a new guest blogger every week, that way everyone has a chance to be featured on this blog. You might have to wait, but eventually you’ll have your post featured. I’ll probably be featuring one guest blogger once a week, probably over the weekend, because that’s when I have the most time.

I do reserve the right to edit your submitted post, but only for grammar, spelling and general readability. I won’t be doing much more than proofreading and very light editing, if any at all. If I have to edit for length, I will discuss with you first what can be taken out to make it shorter. If it needs beefing up, I’ll let you know that too.

If you change your mind later and decide you don’t want to guest-blog, no problem!  I understand life sometimes just happens.  All I ask is that you let me know, so I’m not waiting on a post that isn’t coming.

Before I get busy reading your posts, first I need to get a list of the bloggers who are interested. If this sounds like something you want to do, please post a link to your blog in the comments, along with a short description of what you will be writing about when you do your guest post. Then I’ll look at each one of your blogs, and then write up a new post featuring all interested bloggers in a list, announcing you as my guest bloggers (similar to Dream Big’s Featured Bloggers Lists). This post will include each blog’s name (with a link to it),  and a short description of what your blog is about.

After the list is posted, I’ll be contacting each of you one at a time to write up your guest post. I’ll probably have you email those to me, but that’s a bit later on.

After all the participating blogs are posted, I’ll share your blog to all my social media. So you get to be shared twice–first your blog, then your guest post! 

For now, if you think you’d like to write a post for this blog, please link your blog in the comments along with a short description and what you want to write about. In return, all I ask is that you reblog this post and share it to your social media (if applicable)!  Spread the word!  I’d like to get as many interested people as possible to participate!

I’ll probably design some kind of badge or logo you can post on your site to show my appreciation.

UPDATE:  The turnout was better than I expected. Comments have been disabled.  Thanks everyone!