Reflections on the A2Z Challenge 2021


 

On April 1st, my partner and I were travelling back to England having spent the winter hiding from Covid 19 in Crete, next door to her sister. Naturally, I had prepared my first post of the challenge so that I had only to press the button before we set off a 3.30 in the morning! I didn’t realise, until the next day when we were hunkering down for ten days quarantine, that although I was on the Masterlist for Theme Reveal, I had not signed up again for the A2Z itself, so quick action needed to be on track!

My aim this year was to try and finish a science or speculative fiction novel that I had started some years ago and which had been languishing for lack of writing. I intended to publish a post around the novel and its themes each data, followed by a chapter of the book. I had 13.5 chapters finished at the outset and some six or seven post pieces. I vainly thought that this head start might allow me to achieve more chapters and to be fair I have 15 completed, but I hadn’t counted on pressure from the day job and also, writing the majority of the posts on the fly is a feat in itself.

I awoke anywhere between 5.30am and 7am and wrote, published and publicised until 9 am before turning to other work and although it didn’t leave time to complete the novel, many ideas were developed, encouragement received and other writers’ ideas investigated and so, overall, I feel that the whole exercise was very worthwhile! More than that, it was every bit as enjoyable, if pressured, as last year’s – my first A2Z Challenge.

Old friends like Frederique, Anne M Bray, Tamara, and Deborah Weber were around and new friends like Iain KellyPooja Priyamvada, and Josna. I have to say that because of the aforementioned pressure from the day job, I did not read as many new blogs, or keep up with all the posts from ones I already followed, as I would like to but Hey! there is no need to limit that lovely feeling of discovering new ideas, new ways of looking at things, new friends, just to April – there is more than enough material in the A2Z Challenge from 2021 and even past years, to keep one going all year – especially since authors keep on writing new posts as well. So expect comments on a blog belonging to you sometime…

There were some friends MIA – Sharon Cathcart comes to mind but A2Z is not compulsory and many people say they have taken a break for a year and so we will hope to see them again another year…

A thought that I had when I posted a comment to the A2Z main blog, each morning (thanks for the games by the way, found time to play a few) was that many of the people who had already posted comments, were the same ones each day. Apart from this, in itself, engendering a sense of community, I imagined the dateline sweeping around the world, brushing the Indian contributors, moving on to Europe (where Frederique either gets up very early or is in an earlier time zone) before garnering the comments of the Americas later in the day. It made me wonder at what time and from where, the A2Z team posted each day?

Some thoughts on individual blogs:-

  • Thanks to Anne M Bray, I had to visit the Fluevog website and now get ads for Fluevog shoes popping up lol

  • Iain Kelly’s catalogue of characters and themes from his trilogy “The State” was enough to persuade me to buy the first book, which I am enjoying greatly although I then stopped reading the blog to prevent spoilers (not that he gives them) but may return to when I have finished the books…

  • Jamie over on Uniquely Maladjusted but Fun was writing a Young Adult story that came to a dramatic and unexpected ending…

  • Pooja Priyamvada introduced us to some wonderful words – some from languages which many of us would be unfamiliar with and she expounded their meaning beautifully in the form of a poem.

  • Another internationalist is Gunilla Redelius, a Swedish jewellery maker who now lives in the Netherlands and wrote fascinatingly about Metal meets Textile  – knitting or crocheting with wire for example…

  • Although my mind wasn’t so much on fabric crafts, I did manage to visit Frederique’s APPLIQUE PATCHWORK QUILTING where her breadth of ideas and depth of research were, as ever, a stimulus to get crafty when all this April madness settles down…

  • Deepa Gopal at Hues n Shades gave us a painted image, a poem and a writing prompt since she was ambitiously doing Napowrimo simultaneously – with such beautiful efforts, no wonder she has won blogging awards…
  • On every different tack, Eli of Just a Dad, is another writer whose eclectic posts I really enjoyed – for example –  L is for Life of Pi, largeness, and whether I like Britney Spears

  • Tamara at Part-time Working Hockey Mom was the author of my favourite blog last year with her comprehensive guide to Swissair and I loved her theme this year which was the origin of words and phrases and I have to say, not so much Part Time Working Hockey Mom but Really Great Blog Writer!

  • Genealogy blogs (usually too personal to one family) and travelog blogs (make you too jealous) are not normally my thing but I did enjoy Linda May Curry’s account of a year in the England 0f 2004, was a little time capsule and the perspective of an Antipodean visitor made for a novel viewpoint over at THE CURRY APPLE ORCHARD .

  • Lastly but by no means least, Sarah Zama who gave us an in-depth study of The 20’s last year, gave us an equally deep account of aspects of the First World War at The Old Shelter. Not surprisingly, we learn from her reflections post that she has spent nearly a year pre-writing these posts and it shows. You might imagine that there is little that has not been said about WW1 but you would be wrong…

Finally, on the mechanics of the A2Z itself, thanks to the Team for their unstinting efforts and an idea that might simplify things next year… Could we not just have one Masterlist with ticks for the different stages Reveal, A2Z posts, Reflections and Road Trip. Maybe there is a technical reason and maybe it wouldn’t save participants from registering at each stage…

The Challenge is massive each year but I am going to keep the impetus going both in my novel and in visiting the prodigious output from the participants throughout the year. I would like to think I might pre-prepare posts for next year but actually I think I love “pantsing”. If anyone wants to read further chapters of “Train Wreck” please let me know…

5 thoughts on “Reflections on the A2Z Challenge 2021

  • May 6, 2021 at 6:07 pm
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    Well done on this challenge! And thank you for the mention 😉 I don't know if I'm so early, I woke up at 7:30AM and was as soon as possible on my computer (after breakfast of course, I can't do anything right before having a huge bowl of hot chocolate) and visiting AtoZ blogs ;)) I will come back and read the posts I missed, now that I'm not so in a rush 😉

    Reply
    • June 20, 2021 at 2:19 pm
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      Hi Tamara, I don’t know if you were following my novel “Train Wreck” – included in the earlier posts in April, but I have now published another chapter and also links to all the reviews of sites that I wrote on the Road Trip so far plus quick links to all the AtoZ posts
      Enjoyed (with great sympathy), your account of your being hit by a stationary tree – you surely have a way of telling a story…
      Yours
      Andrew
      https://how-would-you-know.com/atoz-2021-challenge

      Reply
  • May 22, 2021 at 3:20 pm
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    Andrew,

    Thanks for sharing a few of the blogs you enjoyed visiting this year. There are so many talented bloggers with their own signature style of sharing with others that lure us in like long lost friends. I apologize for not getting much of a chance to stop by your place but I will correct that mistake during my road trips. I have devised a system that insures that I’ll get everyone properly visited. It may take me all summer or even the rest of the year but I’ve committed myself to doing just that.

    Like you I envision getting the jump on future A2Z posts soon after April but that never happens, so I’m not even going to think that I will do anything different now but will think ahead about what sketches I hope to do in 2022.

    Congrats on finishing another year of A2Zing, my friend!

    Curious as a Cathy’s 2021 A to Z Challenge Reflections

    Reply
    • June 20, 2021 at 2:06 pm
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      Hi Cathy, I don’t know if you were following my novel “Train Wreck” – included in the earlier posts in April, but I have now published another chapter and also links to all the reviews of sites that I wrote on the Road Trip so far plus quick links to all the AtoZ posts
      Yours
      Andrew
      https://how-would-you-know.com/atoz-2021-challenge

      Reply

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