There is a great blogging challenge that can kick-start your daily writing practice. The April Blogging from A-to-Z Challenge. It started by Arlee Bird posted a blog in 2010 where he set forth a challenge to all bloggers for April. Can you post every day except Sundays during this month? And to up the bard, can you log thematically from A to Z? Using the premise, you would start on April 1 with a topic themed on something with the letter A, then on April 2 another topic with the letter B as the theme, and so on until you finish on April thirtieth with the theme-based ending with the letter Z.
Sounds easy enough, I said to myself in 2106, my first year as I sat in a hotel room in Seattle during a road trip with my hubby. My theme? Based on Julia Cameron’s, The Right to Write. At the time, I was all about sharing my gratitude for creativity and choosing me to work through, and I am still grateful for creativity whispering sweet themes of stories in my ears. I then started to plan my A-to-Z blogs months in advance as the years passed. I worked through my first debut memoir, Behind The Kitchen Doors ~ The Summers, and used this month-length challenge to do the same with my second memoir, Behind The Kitchen Doors ~ Resort Life. I thought about doing this challenge again this year, but I’m tired. This is the truth. I am tired of chasing challenges when I need to be writing and working on my work in progress. I can spend hours working on the blogging challenge and then question why I haven’t made progress with my second memoir?
2024 is about getting the writing. Yes, the blogging challenge is about writing every day, but honestly, I would write six blogs on Sunday and schedule them to post that week. That time could have been spent on focusing on the novel. I know, I have said and I believe, everything happens for a reason. As I look back on my previous April challenge blog themes and posts, I was triggered to look at them a little closer. There are chunks of materials that I missed in my second memoir. I felt more comfortable sharing intimate details during the blog challenge than I had in the draft. I ask, why? I don’t have the answer right now. I could speculate that I “think” few people, if any are reading these blogs and I have nothing to be afraid of. But self-publishing the book, promoting it because I was to shout at the top of my lungs that I am a writer, and look, I’ve created something. Please read it. Yikes! Someone may read it and now what? I can’t take back what I wrote in the book because they have ordered a hard copy. Why would that stop me? Why am I hiding when you can’t hide in a memoir? This is why I am not doing the April blogging challenge. I have to pull up my socks and yes, they are literal socks because I live in a part of Atlantic Canada where it is still -10 overnight and I am wearing socks.
I may enter the blogging challenge in 2025, to help me flush out my third memoir or another book I’m working on. Or just for fun because writing every day helps me work on my craft.
Are you participating in the 2024 April Blogging Challenge? What is your theme? Why? I would love to hear from you.
Until Next Time, Keep on Typing…
My Name Is Marion Ann 