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31 March 2011

A-Z Blogging Challenge Starts Tomorrow!



You all know about this, right? A blogfest that invites you to compose 26 posts in April - one for every day except Sundays - based on each letter of the alphabet? The fest is absolutely massive, with 860 people participating so far. Yikes! That is a lot of blogs to visit! But you should totally join. Click on the badge and go check it out and sign your blogging life away!

I am really looking forward to this, and have been doing a bit of tentative planning around it. I've had a piece of paper with the letters of the alphabet posted above my desk for the last month or so, and I've been writing in juicy words whenever I get inspired. I'm pretty much covered for the first few days. In case you aren't, here are some suggestions:

Anger! Aggravation! Agape! Argyle! Albatross! Attitude! Ape! Application! Advertising! Amble! Ambulance! Arbitrary! Achtung! Achoo! Acute! Acquire! And! Agile! Alcohol! Abuse! Ark!

There's got to be something in that list you can work with. These are all yours: my A-word is not on this list, nor is it on any of the lists I've posted on any of your blogs lately.

For those of you who are looking for another challenge, I thought I would mention my diabolical idea. For some insane, possibly death-wishy reason, I decided to do Story a Day in May. I know, terrifying, right? I expect to fail miserably, as I write with the speed of a snail (right there with you, Deborah!), but I will nevertheless give it the old college try. And focus on microfiction. Anyway, my idea is that I'm going to use my A-Z entries as prompts for my Story a Day stories. I'll be five short: there are 31 days in May, and only 26 letters in the alphabet. Five days for spontaneous bursts of creativity! To allow a little more free play, I'm planning to keep my A-Z posts a little open, a little loosey-goosey, nice and juicy. (I'm a poet, didn't know it, my feet show it - they're Longfellows!)

So, for those of you who have taken on A-Z...care to up the ante a little? (Join me...it will be funnnnn.)

17 comments:

Bluestocking said...

Wow. You are fair braver than me! The time commitment for both is a bit too intense for me. But wishing you lots of luck. I'll be curious to see how your plan works out for your Story a Day prompts. Happy writing!

Anonymous said...

Good luck, and thanks for the A words, but I'm not sure if any of them quite fit for me. I think I want to try to make each letter something that's particularly meaningful to me, and thus stand out from the over 800 other people in the challenge! (Wowza!!)

Unknown said...

I'm game to do both challenges!

Even went and made little ABC graphics for the April challenge.

Elizabeth Twist said...

@Bluestocking: thank goodness the two challenges aren't simultaneous, or I would be totally sunk. I'm planning to keep my A-Z posts short and sweet.

@Chris: It's going to be a challenge to stand out from this crowd, right? Looking forward to your entries.

@Eileen: awesome. Didn't know you were thinking about Story a Day. I'm super freaked out for that one, trying to get my energy up for it. ABC graphics? Can't wait for tomorrow's big reveal.

Deborah Walker said...

You are all bonkers, but in a totally awesome way. I love it. I look forward to all the pot. Using them as prompts is a clever idea, (make sure you don't post too much and loose first publication rights).

Elizabeth Twist said...

Hey, Deborah: "I look forward to all the pot." Getting high is extra, okay? (JK...maybe.)

I feel bonkers! No worries about posting too much, though. A-Z going to be thematic for me. I'm not posting any fiction for it.

Summer Ross said...

I'm thinking about joining a story a day as well.

Elizabeth Twist said...

@Summer: You should! We can all help each other through it!

@Monica: Hooray! Consider yourself followed. I've sent a follow request to your twitter account too.

Unknown said...

So excited that I found you on twitter and now that we've become besties (yes it happens that fast) I can stalk you here as well!

Let the funness begin!

Elizabeth Twist said...

@Jen: Yay! Consider yourself stalked (restalked? stalkbacked?)!

Ann said...

Oh wow! I am still hypherventilating over the A-Z Challenge and asking myself what did I sign myself up for.

Laura Josephsen said...

I'm excited about the A-Z challenge, and to see what everyone else is doing for it!

You are brave to take on a story a day in May. Closest thing I've ever done to that is NaNoWriMo. Makes me tired just thinking about it--good luck! :D

Deborah Walker said...

"looking forward to all the pot"

did I really post that? *laughs* Man, oh, man.

Elizabeth Twist said...

@Ann and Laura: I am scared, but I will try.

@Deborah: I loved it. And I wondered if your "s" key might be sticky.

JL Dodge said...

wow a story a day in may???
Let me tell you what we have going on... we are doing the A-z in april and napowrimo-30 NEW Writing Prompts for National Poetry Month 2011
And we do at least a prompt a day on our poetry blog, which includes several prompts from other blogs...

But you know ... we are always up for a challenge, so count us in !!!
LOL
SOUNDS LIKE A BLAST !!!
signed up to stalk you !!
JL&B

Claire Goverts said...

Good luck with both the blog challenge and the story a day. I've tried the story a day a few Mays ago and didn't make it. Though the writer's forum that hosted that challenge had a 10 stories for the month level which I managed.

Elizabeth Twist said...

@JL&B: Yesss....your April will only warm you up for Story a Day in May.

@Claire: 10 stories in one month is amazing. I aspire to achieve that level of failure.

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