I first heard about the A to Z Challenge five years ago – soon after I started blogging on Blogger. I thought it was a fantastic idea and eagerly awaited the next April so I could join in with the challenge. The last four years I’ve taken part in the challenge, and have had fun doing so.
This year I wanted to give y’all a decision in what theme I choose – or even if I do the challenge at all. (For those of you who don’t know, thousands of bloggers sign up and post each day in April except for Sundays. Each blogger chooses a theme, then writes a post that goes with that theme and starts with a letter of the alphabet.)
Here are the ideas I had for this A to Z Challenge. I’d be very delighted if you would vote on the poll (below). Thanks!
- Writing tips – I don’t claim to be an accomplished author, but I have learned some helpful things about writing during the last decade, and it would be fun to compile some of that knowledge into a month-long series
- Behind the scenes, brainstorming goofs, and snippets, etc… from the Echoes series.
With this challenge I’d get to share some of the fun stories of how I’ve come up with characters, plots, etc…. for my current WIP. Plus maybe share some bloopers (such as ideas that were horrible), my Pinterest boards, character interviews, and the list goes on. - Highlighting my favorite books – Because really: Books are amazing. And there are thousands of them out there. And I like to talk about books a lot.
- Random challenges. Y’all would submit challenges and I’d add some of my own. I’d put all (or most) of the challenges into a container before the month starts, then randomly pull one out each day and complete it, then blog about it the next day. It would be a fun, plus I’d get to stay on my toes to make sure I accomplished the challenge each day. (Challenge examples: Give one of my books to a random person, Write a short story, Eat only green and red foods for a day, Vlog about when I found out my first book was going to be published, Find a random person to interview for my blog, Etc…)
- Spend the day with a character. What reader doesn’t dream of meeting some of the characters they’ve gotten to know? With this challenge I’d imagine an interview, luncheon, etc… with my favorite characters from different books, and then blog about it. I suppose that’s considered fanfic? (I really don’t know, cause I’ve never done anything like this before.)
- None – You should skip the challenge this year
Noveltea 
You’re getting a ‘2’ from me. I’m a sucker for all things behind the scenes, and nothing inspires me more than reading about someone else’s inspiration! Would love to hear how your ideas first appear, and what transformations they go through to get to an end result 🙂
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Oh yes! So far that one does have several votes. 🙂 That idea sounds like a lot of fun to me, too. I like hearing all sorts of behind the scenes stuff, too. (Which is why I have it as one of the choices.) And, I’m already focused on the story, so it kinda makes sense to blog about it. =)
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Looks like it’s all lining up in favour of option 2!
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Oh man, it’s so hard to pick, they all sound great! I went for number one, though I would’ve just as soon gone for #3… but whichever is the winner I shall enjoy, because they all sounded so fun (apart from #6 of course :D)
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Thank you for voting, Hannah! I look forward to seeing which one of the challenges I end up doing. It’s so much fun when I get to have the help of all y’all with the process. =)
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Hi Lydia, all of those ideas are great!
Since I am supposed to choose only one, I would say blogging about your favorite books and telling among other things, why we should read them, and the age appropriate group they would be best for if you’d like.
Thanks,
V
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Aww, thank you! I’m glad you like the ideas. 🙂
Oh yes! That’s a great idea! I don’t generally add the age appropriate group, but maybe I’ll begin doing that for my book reviews, even if the highlighting book challenge isn’t the one that is chosen from the poll. Thank you for the idea!
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I think either the writing tips or behind the scenes would be super fun to read! Your world building tips were really helpful a few posts ago, so I’d absolutely be interested in reading more – but I also love your WIP, Echoes, so I’d love to read snippets and such. 🙂 The A to Z Challenge sounds like a lot of fun, would you mind if I joined in? It sounds quite challenging (as the name implies), but a great way to channel creativity!
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YAY! I’m glad you found the world building tips to be helpful. I had fun writing them. It was actually during those posts that I got the idea to have that be one of the possible challenges. =)
It would be fantastic if you wanted to join in! Here’s the website link: http://www.a-to-zchallenge.com/p/what-is-blogging-from-to-z.html If you do join it, please let me know so I can follow your way through the challenge. 🙂
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RANDOM IS ALWAYS BEST!! 🙂
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Random IS so much fun! From the looks of the poll though, I think we’ll be going with the “Behind the Scenes” choice, although I’m going to give it another day or so before I start preparing. 🙂
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I have never heard of this challenge before! ‘feels out of the loop’
Phooey – if I wasn’t doing Camp Nano – I would do this!
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I didn’t do it the first year I was blogging either – it’s a lot of work if you’re not used to blogging every day! But! Now you know about it so maybe you can do it next year??? That would be a lot of fun!
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Ooh! Choosing between options 1& 2 was REALLY hard for me! I would really love to have you share your tips on writing because I always find suggestions and learning from others so awesome and helpful. BUT, I also REALLY enjoy behind the scenes stuff. So….out of the two….(this is SO hard, why did you make it so? 😀 :’D) I think I’ll pick behind the scenes. I love reading of where people get ideas and reading character interviews. It’s so awesome!
-Bekah
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Haha! I think the “Behind the Scenes” choice is going to end up having some writing tips mixed in, because I might run out of strictly behind the scenes information. 😉 But YAY! Thank you for choosing! (And, secret: That’s the most common choice so far.)
Looking forward to April!
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