This will be my fourth time participating in the annual event known as the ‘Blogging from A to Z April Challenge‘.Judging by the enthusiastic participation in The Great Theme Reveal, it’s going to be another crazy yet exhilarating experience this year!
As usual, I’ve fallen short of my goal to have all entries completed well ahead of time. (Much too pedantic to be a ‘pantser’!) Life in the real world always puts the kibosh on that, along with my penchant for procrastination!
So far, A to K are done, which leaves a whopping fifteen more to do. 😮 Time to stop messing around and get back to it. This is my last post until April 1st. Comments will be answered, but likely not in a timely manner.
A few parting thoughts:
Some people are upset about the lack of an A to Z linky list this year. Arlee Bird, founder of the A to Z Challenge, has some excellent suggestions about that issue on the blog today. Click HERE to read the post. Two sites I know of are offering link ups as well: (Click on the links to view)
Blog Chatter A to Z Challenge Blog Chatter A to Z Theme Reveal
It’s All a Matter of Perspective
Please remember that the Blogosphere thrives on reciprocity, Visit other sites, leave quality comments (not the “fly by” kind) and share posts, whenever you can. Also, and this is a big pet peeve of mine, respond to the comments left on your blog as much as possible. Doesn’t matter if it takes a few days – it’s the courteous thing to do.
Have easy-to-find sharing buttons on your site. If you want your posts shared to Twitter, – here comes another pet peeve – make sure your username is included in the tweet.
Please read THIS.
Wishing everyone a fun and successful experience!
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Dog Mom and (retired) Canine Innkeeper in suburban Toronto, Canada, known as The Doglady. Former corporate workaholic. Writer, photographer, digital creator. Animal lover, music fanatic, inveterate traveller. Eternal hippie/rockchick. History, literature and cinema buff. Hockey and soccer fan. Dedicated night owl. German/Canadian binational, multilingual. Let me entertain you!
42 thoughts on “GEARING UP FOR THE APRIL #AtoZCHALLENGE. ARE YOU READY?”
I’m kind of on the same boat. My previous AtoZ challenges were without a theme, but this time I chose to write on a theme. But I still don’t have posts sorted out and scheduled, which makes me nervous. But at the same time, that’s the fun part :D. I definitely need to check out other blogs and comment more than I used to, which also needs some planning. Thank you for your offering and Good luck!! 🙂
Thanks for dropping in, Aura. 🙂 This was a post I wrote last year that I thought might be helpful for 2018 AtoZers. I’ve decided to bow out this time. Wishing you much success, though!
Am I ready? I’m trying to do A to Z with two blogs, which is something like a hire wire act. People in their 60’s don’t have good balance. But, as a true pantser, I am trying. And, Doglady, I know you will pull it off, too. Look forward to your posts
I am running against time to schedule my posts… Writing isn’t as time consuming as processing all the pictures and lining them up… Hope I get to finish on time. Great tips… I am double checking my media buttons. Best of luck.
I agree with you, Raj. The formatting of each post takes longer than anything else. Worth it in the end, though. 🙂 Have a great A to Z Challenge! 🙂
Looking forward to your challenge posts!! I envy your preparedness!
You are behind? Well, than it’s time for me to panic as I’ve only prepared five letters (and not the first ones). But I will do it. And you will do it. And there might be a survivor badge waiting for us, won’t there?
Wilkommen, Claudia! 🙂 Yes, we will get it done and there is definitely a survivor badge at the end. Looking forward to your travel posts. Happy A to Z-ing!
Tried to leave a comment and your website thought it was spam. Weird. Was it my website address?
That could be, Jen, but I can’t say for sure. Did you use this link? http://lexicalcreations.weebly.com/jens-blog/
It should go through. I’ll whitelist your IP address and see if that helps. Thanks for dropping in. Try again, if you like. 🙂
Thanks! I’m trying again:
I wanted to say wonderful things about your website and how I learn something new about blogging every time I do this challenge. I wish I could figure out how to put my twitter handle into my shares… my blog has that problem, and I always rewrite others’ tweets to include their handles.
It worked that time. 🙂 Use that link instead of the main website link and all should be well for the A to Z. Adding twitter handles in manually is way too time-consuming especially in April! (Although I do it, anyway, most of the time.) I don’t know anything about Weebly, so can’t offer any advice. Maybe this will help? https://support.twitter.com/articles/231474
I’m glad you like the website. 🙂 Thanks for coming back and happy A to Zing!
I think it is amazing that you have roughly half of your assignments completed.
I mean, you have to allow time for other important things.
Like hockey. And snow. And pets… Did I mention hockey?
Always time for hockey, Myke, especially with the playoffs coming up! 😀 I’m lucky because I work from home with dogs. They sleep a lot and let me blog. 🙂 Snow’s gone for now.
This is the best A to Z blogging booster I’ve ever seen! Thanks for the daily letter schedule – I’d forgotten about “Never on a Sunday” 😉 I’ve penciled in my thoughts for each day. With any luck and despite a tendency to dawdle, I’m determined to have at least the first two weeks done before day one!
Actually, there will be one Sunday post this year – the last one. At this point we could all use a boost to get in gear. Have a great challenge, diedre! 🙂
Life always has a way to trip you, doesn’t it? I was going to have all my posts ready well before March ended, but then I cought a very nasty flu and I was incapable of doing anything for two weeks. Serious.
I’m still working to my drafts, I’m still hoping to have the drafts ready for the end of the month, which woudl be a HUGE help. But let’s see. I’m a bit nervous, but I’m going there 😉
Have a fantastic challenge! I’ll see you around.
I’m so sorry you were sick! 🙁 That was my problem last year. Glad you’ve recovered now and I hope all goes well for you in April. Thanks for dropping in.
It’s not long to go. We’ll get there – I’ve only written up to H!
Good luck with your posts, Nick. Only four more days. Yikes! 🙂 Have a great A to Z Challenge!
Not nearly as ready as I would like! But I’ll get there…for the rest of the year I’m a pantser, posting whatever gets written the day before, or even hours before, but can’t do that for the A-Z. Interferes majorly with the comment-returning and reading.
Best always,
Nilanjana.
You’re so right about the A to ZChallenge! It’s impossible to participate fully when you’re too busy still writing posts. I hope you’ll get all of yours finished in time. And me, too. Cheers!
I don’t know how you do it. My “overachiever” comment was a direct reference to this post, you know. I was a day LATE on the theme reveal, and haven’t even thought about A, let alone B, C, D, E…
Hahaha! Well, I do have the advantage of working from home – with dogs. They sleep a lot. 🙂 You’re obviously one of those ‘pantsers’ I admire so much, knocking off brilliant posts on the spur of the moment. Wish I could do that! Instead, I agonize over every word and graphic, editing and re-editing ad nauseum, until I’m satisfied. 😛
Hahahaha…what makes you think us “pantsers” are immune from perfectionism and editing agony? Oh, no – we just thrive on unreasonable deadline pressure and acts of rhetorical heroism!
I just figured your material is already awesome from the get-go and you wouldn’t need to do much editing, given your extensive writing and computer experience. 🙂
Oh, you should write comedy. That’s comedy gold, right there. 😀
You are ahead of me! I’m a bit of a ….panster??:)
Birgit, I am in awe of pantsers and wish I could be like that. 🙂 Good luck with the challenge!
Looking forward to seeing what you come up with, each year I say I am going to participate and each year I don’t!! lol.
Thanks for your support, Caren. Maybe one of these years you’ll join the party. 🙂
You’re doing far better than I in preparation. I need to get busy on this!
Thanks for this great promotional post.
Arlee Bird
Tossing It Out Theme Reveal: It’s About Time
Wait, what, YOU are behind? How is that even possible?
I am surprised, Lee. 🙂 Then again, you have a knack for knocking out those posts in quick time, which I envy. It’s my pleasure to promote the A to Z Challenge, hIghlight of the blogging calendar for so many of us.
I have everything ‘roughed-in’. My problem is deciding how much info to provide. Everyone is busy blogging, commenting, responding, reading…. I try to keep it entertaining and not too wordy. Consequently, I have rewritten several posts. Several times.
Hahaha! I do that, too and check one last time before the allotted posting hour. 🙂 Looking forward to your travelogues.
I know I’m going to wish I had joined all of you. I will be visiting and commenting on your A to Z posts though. I thinking about post a FlashBack Friday of my 2016 Theme Reveal and also reblogging a few of my 2016 A to Z posts. Just so I can still feel a part of it all. 😀
https://meinthemiddlewrites.com/2017/03/22/growing-older-growing-wiser-if-you-keep-this-in-mind/
That’s kind of how I approach NaNoWriMo, most years. Why not?
Holly ~ I was at a Festival of the Book event where the author mentioned NaNaWriMo. Can I find the link to that on your website?
Thanks for your support, Mary Lou. 🙂 It’s too bad you won’t be joining in this time, but I like your idea. Aren’t we all tempted to reblog our old A To Z posts? 😀 I have been tempted to skip it, but it’s an addiction at this point, along with blogging itself.
You are actually further ahead in your writing than I am! While I have mine all planned out, I’ve only actually written A – G currently. Need to find a few spare moments to get the rest of them pre-written so I can concentrate on promotion and responding to comments when the time comes.
Hi Mary; You’re probably a lot faster than I am. 🙂 Mine are all planned out as well, but the actual writing and formatting takes long. Yes, the only way to pull everything off with a minimum of stress is to finish them ahead of time, but I’ve yet to accomplish that! 😛 Hope you get yours done.