I like the #AtoZChallenge. It’s like Spring cleaning for the brain, in a way. If you’ve had ideas swirling around for a while, it’s a great time to purge them, get them out there. If you’ve been feeling unmotivated and un-creative, it’s a great time to get the rust scraped off and get back into blogging gear. I highly recommend it!
When I got the idea for my posts for the 2017 Challenge, I thought, well the Challenge has been around for a few years and this is only my 2nd time, surely my idea has been done to death, but I’ll give it a shot. Tell a story using one word a day, in alphabetical order. My thinking was, when people come around to read a blog during the challenge, it can be daunting to see a long post, considering that readers are trying to chew through lots more posts than is normal for them. Keep it short and sweet! What could be shorter than a single word? So, I ran with it. But, I ran r e a l l y slow, considering I kicked around the idea for pretty much the whole year since the last Challenge, lol.
If I could offer one bit of advice for the 2018 Challenge, plan your posts in advance! You’ll be so busy reading and commenting and responding to comments that you won’t have nearly as much time for writing as you think you will.
Like last year, I found some really great blogs to follow. Not everyone made it to the end but that’s okay – it’s about the try, right? 🙂 This is my personal 2017 Challenge Collection, the blogs I followed. I will be posting these to my blogroll in the coming weeks, like I did last year. 🙂
In no particular order:
|JEN’s Lexical Creations| |Life & Faith in Caneyhead| |~Idiot Writing~| |Drunk on Life| |Mail Adventures| |Finding Eliza| |keith’s ramblings| |Books and Revolution| |Coach Daddy| |My Random Ramblings| |2BlueEyes| |A Journey To Courageous Living| |Josie Two Shoes| |NamySaysSo| |Zombie Flamingos| |radhikasreflection| |transcribingmemory| |Hot Dogs and Marmalade| |*The KUANTAN blog*| |Space, Time, and Raspberries| |Penguin Ponderings| |Iain Kelly| |The Bookwright| |Plucking Of My Heartstrings| |Anything Veronica| |Shalzmojo| |Patricia Lynne, Independent Author| |McClendon Villa| |I Just Have to Say…| |The Sound of One Hand Typing| |Writer In Transit| |poetry penned in moon dust| |The Lady of the House Speaking| |Carolyn Astfalk, Author –| |WordDreams…| |QP and Eye| |Atherton’s Magic Vapour –| |Mainely Write| |Write to Inspire| |Making Life an Art| |
Now to get ready for next year! lol Hey, it takes a lot of effort to plan a 30 Word Story! 😉
Vanessence 
I always plan in advance, but it’s always all in my head. Guess I work best by the seat of my pants!! I enjoyed your take on the challenge 🙂
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You’re good with deadlines!
I’ve really enjoyed the trip around town that you’ve done – I have serious neighborhood envy! I can’t wait to catch up and see the rest of the streets you’ve posted about. 🙂
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I agree with your “spring cleaning” analogy. For me, this challenge was a catharsis. I had to get these characters out of me head. Or maybe I was in their heads. Whatever. Well done! Congratulations on completing the challenge.
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Yes, sometimes you just have to get it all out and down on “paper.” don’t you? It makes it so much easier to work with. 🙂
Thank you! You too!
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Absolutely!
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I wrote them 3 or 4 at a time and scheduled them in advance. My entries may have been too long though.
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You had lots of amazing pictures! They always make a post look longer than it is. 🙂
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Haha. That is true as well
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Does this mean you’re planning another 30-word story for next year? I thoroughly enjoyed trying to anticipate each next word this year, and I’m really glad we’ve connected. I scheduled my posts a week at a time, but I still fell behind in my reading. I’ll probably be catching up the entire month!
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I have a couple of words brewing, and I wanted to see how my brain played them out, see if anything popped up. I liked trying to capture the essence of an idea with just a single word – that was challenging!
I am so behind too! I was away from the computer for a few days and boy, it seems like I have a month’s worth to catch up on! lol
I’m so glad we connected too! 🙂
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❤
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Agree Vanessa, its quite a challenge to plan a 30 word story with the sequential letter of the alphabet. But you did an amazing job!!!
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Thank you so much, Rashika! I am very humbled that you think so. 🙂
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I do my posts in advance too so I can focus on visiting and commenting. Although, this year my fatigue got the best of me and I didn’t get around as much as I’d like.
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It can be so hard keeping up with all the extra blogs to read! Fatigue is a really difficult thing to cope with and trying to read when you’re so exhausted can make the tired seem even more intense. Don’t feel bad for not getting around as much as you wanted – I’d be willing to bet almost no one else did either! lol 🙂
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Me too, I must say that you did it very well. It was a difficult challenge (like an extra challenge), but you managed to keep me engaged. I agree with most of your reflections. I’m not sure it I’ll take the challenge next year, it depends on the time I have. Not for posting, as I had scheduled my posts during the last week of April (even if then I changed some things), but for commenting and visiting other blogs. That is also a great part of the challenge!
Thanks for your story!
—–
Eva – Mail Adventures
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Thank you so much for your kind encouragement. 🙂
It definitely is a time commitment! I think the commenting and visiting takes more time than the actual writing, lol. 🙂
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I always say I will write my posts before hand, but truthfully, if I did, I would post them right then.
http://findingeliza.com/archives/23677
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Scheduling in advance can be hard to do! You want to get your stuff out there so people can read it. 🙂
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Planning your posts in advance is great advice. It made things run more smoothly for me this year which was my second with the challenge. WeekendsInMaine
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It was my 2nd year too!
Yes, I think the scheduling is what helped me the most – it really does help things run more smoothly, one less thing to think about. 🙂
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Congrats on such a brilliant finish- I was left guessing till the end. Its been fab to stumble onto your blog and be in touch all through the challenge – I hope to continue the association. You are one of the really good ones I connected with. I have no clue about my stats etc – whether they were really affected by the challenge – but I had such a ball!!! I shall keep dropping into check on what you are rambling about and let you know my thoughts on the same!!
Cheers Vanessa!!!
Reflections –My first and I loved it #atozchallenge
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My goodness, what were you doing in the spam folder, young lady?!?!! Nice girls like you definitely don’t belong in there!
So sorry about that – I have no idea why WordPress does that from time to time!
Thank you so much for your sweet comments. 🙂 I hope to continue to share “ramblings” with you, too – it’s been fun!
Cheers back, sweetie! ❤
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Your theme was a great one. Brilliant idea! I loved it. 😊 Yes, you’re very right. Planning posts in advance makes it so much easier! Towards the end of the challenge, I was quite busy with my studies and if it hadn’t been for the fact that I’d completed the posts in advance, I wouldn’t have been able to complete this challenge. Keeping posts short and sweet is a great tip too. Have you started planning already for the next year’s challenge? 😉 If I decided to take it up again, I’ll probably end up writing more tiny tales! 😁
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Thank you so much!
Yes, the shorter posts – I always feel guilty if I say too much, lol.
The planning – that’s the key I think. Get the posts done, that part you can control – keeping up with everyone else is the variable so if you’ve got your own posts covered, that helps with reading other people’s blogs. 🙂
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You said it! Yes, planning the posts in advance makes it so much easier! Before the challenge, most of my posts were long. It was almost as if I couldn’t stop once I start writing! But post this challenge, I’ve grown more as a writer and now I’m obsessed with creating flash fiction! 🙂
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Ooh, flash fiction! That will certainly stretch your wings! Good luck with that! I think you will love it. 🙂
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Ohh yes, I’m totally loving it. Thank you so much, Vanessa! 😊
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Congratulations for completing the challenge ( A little late, sorry). I really liked your theme and thought it very creative. I had never pre-written my posts until this year. I had to because of my theme. As you mentioned, I found this gave me more time to sit back and interact with others doing the challenge. I also agree that keeping posts shorts is good advice. Take care!
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Thank you so much!
Congratulations to you too!
No worries – I think we’re all a bit late!
The pre-writing – I saw that suggestion last year and man, it really does make a difference!
Your series was awesome! So helpful for so many people on different walks of life.
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