Yeah, I know, it’s nowhere even close to April yet, but here is your early reminder!
Peeps and Meeps, this is like one of my favourite things every year! I love the A to Z Challenge. And I love telling people about it and getting new people to sign up. I think last year I convinced three bloggers to participate who had never participated before.
Now, if you’ve never heard of it, it’s really simple (in concept).
Starting on April 1st, you post every day (except Sunday’s) and your post needs to correspond to a letter of the alphabet.
For example April 1st (A), 2nd (B), 3rd (C).
Now you get Sunday’s off and that means that by the end of the month there will be 26 days and you will have done the whole alphabet!
This year is the 10th Anniversary so I’m sure there has to be something special added to it. And I like to prepare early.
The schedule that has been posted so far:
Sign up opens March 1st (closes April 6th) you need to sign up to participate
Theme Reveal March 18th (closes March 28th) you don’t need to have a theme but you can if you want to.
I’ve done this three years in a row now, and I’m going for a 4th!
My first year, I signed up like two days before the challenge started so I didn’t have time to prepare. You don’t have to do a theme, but my brain likes themes so I’ve always had a theme. If you want to check out my past posts, there is an A to Z Challenge category which has all my posts.
2016: Capital Cities I’d like to visit
For this theme, I spent about an hour in prep. I googled capital cities around the world, and just picked one for each day. Then on the day I needed to post, I went to google, picked 5 pictures I really liked and linked in the tourism website for that city. It was the least amount of effort possible.
2017: Harry Potter
Oh man, the effort I put into this! I started prep in January. I made a list of the characters/ideas I wanted to write about. I did research, I had pages of notes! I pre-wrote some of the posts. April is a busy month for me. It’s my birthday and my dad’s and usually Easter and it’s my birthday! I still didn’t have everything done by the time the challenge started and I struggled to keep up.
2018: Kitchener Rangers who I went to high school with
This theme fell in the middle of no-prep and over-prep. I start in March and made a list of all of the Kitchener Rangers I went to high school with. That’s an OHL hockey team for anyone who doesn’t know. And then I casually did some research on all the players I had selected but I wanted to use a lot of my own stories from high school. One thing I did, that I don’t think I’ll do again, was that I pre-wrote and pre-scheduled all my posts. You’re totally allowed to do that, and I was in a blogging rut so I was glad to have it done and out of the way before the challenge started, but that break made me even lazier in my blogging and it took a long time to get over that. Although, having my posts pre-scheduled did take a lot of the stress off my shoulders of getting it done and gave me more time to interact with other participants.
The one thing that I love about this challenge is that you get the chance to interact with other bloggers. I have quite a few bloggers that I follow just because I came across them in the A to Z challenge. It’s a great way to meet new people and follow new blogs. Even if you only follow them for the challenge and then after you don’t. It happens!
So there we have it! A to Z is on my mind! It actually is almost all year long. I have a few ideas for my theme this year, but I am always open to suggestions. I’m kind of getting hit with the writing bug lately so I might do something a little more on the formal writing side. Maybe short stories or something? I’m not sure.
Have you ever done this challenge? Are you as excited for it as I am? Will you participate? Have you thought about a theme?
I’ve never heard of this but it sounds really good and I’m intrigued! I might read through some of your posts for it from last year (or Harry Potter because who doesn’t love HP) and see if I’d be able for it! 🙂
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If you wait like 30 minutes or so, I’m just in the middle of organizing them haha! I’m putting them into categories based on the year they were written so it will be easier for you to search 🙂
but it’s a lot of fun and can be super stressful too, but totally satisfying to make it to the end!
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okies, so that took much less time than I was expecting! It’s all sorted out now 🙂
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I’ll check it out! Thanks
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That means my brain will have to work really hard. Not sure I need such punishment.
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LOL you can pick a really easy theme, or post a picture every day, or like one word corresponding to the letter for the day. There are lots of different types of ways to participate! 😉 I highly suggest it!
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This sounds like a neat idea.
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It’s lots of fun!! I highly recommend checking it out and participating!
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Oooh you could do favourite food from a country starting with each letter!? 😀
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Ohs! The only country I could do is Canada though 😐 but that is a good theme!
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No way! There is so much interesting food here. You can try food from all over the world without leaving Canada!
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That is so very true! But I’d have to try it all before the start of April lol
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Lol, I guess that would be a lot of new dishes to explore!! 😀
Maybe you could do alphabet of sweet treats!?
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Hehe all good ideas! I’ve added both to my list of possibilities! Are you going to participate?
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Not officially. I could maybe have a go for fun. 🙂
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This sounds like an awesome challenge. And I love a good challenge where writing is concerned. Usually I limit myself to random prompts from people, but this is intriguing. Count me in.
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PS – I now have to go back to 2017 and read all your Harry Potter posts since I wasn’t following you back then. Harry Potter is amazing and I can’t wait to see how you wrote posts within the context of the A to Z Challenge.
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Good thing I organized all my posts with extra categories! Haha you can now find them all lumped together. I’d love to get your thoughts on some of the more in-depth articles (like J for example)
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Awesome… you may suddenly begin getting likes and comments from me two years later 😁
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Haha that’s totally fine!
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YES! A new participant!! Will you do random posts or stick to a theme? I didn’t a guest post last year for a friend. His theme was just dark fiction stories and he needed an entry for C so I wrote up a quick post on coffee being a gateway drug lol it was so much fun! I need a solid theme or I feel lost
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I’m not sure what I’ll do. I feel like a theme would be good to tie everything together. Though I have no idea where to go with it. Glad I’ve got some time to give it some thought.
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Definitely! My first year I did capital cities because it was easy. This year I want to challenge myself though so that’s why I’m thinking of a fiction theme. I don’t get to do much fiction writing and hardly ever on my blog so it will be a nice change
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I’ve been thinking about doing this!!! And I’m sort of getting prepared now! 😁 xxx
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YAY!! I have a list of about 20 topics and now I need to narrow it down lol
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😁 I’m getting pretty excited about it!!! Woo!!! Xx
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YAY!
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Whoa, this sounds super cool. Hmm sounds challenging too! I’ll have to think if i can do it, i’m just not sure if I’ll be able to do a post a day or even be able to come up with a theme….
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You can post in advance too if you want! Like schedule posts. That’s what I did all last year. If you miss 3 or 5 days in a row I think you’re taken off the list though lol but you can always post like 2/3 on a day if you’ve missed some
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Hey T, I’m tossing up whether I’ll have time, but in doing so have decided a theme and started to collate the alphabet topics – so chances are I’ll be doing it again (this will also be my 4th time, although not in consecutive years).
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This is my fourth time too! Although it is consecutive for me. You are on a roll with already having a theme and prepping for it! I know it’s not even February yet but I feel behind haha
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I’ve done it once. It is so hard but good. Trying to find things to talk about for 30 days straight. Ugh!
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That’s why I need a theme lol if I didn’t have a theme, I wouldn’t be able to do it. And a little pre-planning. That’s a must too
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I came across your blog while googling for how bloggers are preparing for the upcoming A to Z challenge in April 🙂 I’ve been doing the challenge on and off for a few years, I’ve completed most years but last year I didn’t 😦 Anyway, I’m determined to be more prepared this year but I’m still thinking of a theme 😀 Good luck in the upcoming April A to Z Challenge!
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Hey! Thanks for stopping by! I still haven’t picked a theme yet, thankfully I still have lots of time haha. Being prepared is the key to completing the challenge. Or having a schedule so you don’t fall behind. Best of luck to you in April! I’ll keep an eye out for your posts!
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