The April A to Z Blogging Challenge

This year marks tenth anniversary of the April AtoZ  Blogging Challenge. I've done it five times, I always enjoy it, and nearly always always get to Z! :)

The way it works is that you blog every day in April, excluding Sundays, and at the end of the month you should have 26 posts, usually on a single theme, working through each letter of the alphabet. The themes are many and varied, and the participants come from all over the world. Bloggers are encouraged to sign up to the master list and read as many other blogs as they can, making sure to comment and encourage.The AtoZ Challenge website has banners, calendars, and lots of helpful advice to get you going, and keep you motivated.

In my time I have read some weird and wonderful writing. There is a mix of religions but a majority don't write about faith at all. There's fiction, non fiction, poetry of every type you could imagine, and some unimaginable posts. Blogs with adult content are flagged as such, and there is no censorship. As I mentioned we are encouraged to read others on the list, but free to read what we want to.

I benefit from the challenge every year. Like NaNoWriMo, it gets me in a chair, writing regularly, which is hard sometimes with my busy life. April AtoZ has introduced me to genres I would never read, and bloggers I would never have found. I've got Facebook friends that I met my very first year, some are sisters in Christ who've been reading my blog ever since. I've also connected with American poets, and gamers from India. The challenge has also opened up some opportunities to guest blog on other sites. It's an eye-opening rollercoaster ride of writing and reading.

It's not too late to sign up. You can register until April 6th by clicking this sign up link. I've done devotional posts, I've used it for fictional short pieces, and this year my theme is 'Clumsy Carb Cutter.' I'll be using it to expand some thoughts on my WIP about weight loss, and hopefully get some feedback. Do drop by to www.auntyamo.com during April and say hi.

Please get in touch if you're signing up for the challenge, it's always good to have some company on the journey :) 

Annmarie Miles is from Dublin, Ireland. 
She lives with her husband Richard who is a pastor in the Eastern Valley of Gwent, in South Wales. She writes short stories, magazine articles, devotional pieces for Christian radio, and blogs about her faith at www.auntyamo.com Her first collection of short stories published in 2013, is called 'The Long & The Short of it'. Her second collection, 'A Sense of the Sea and other stories,' was published in 2018. She is currently editing a non-fiction book about being an overweight Christian called, 'Have mercy on me O Lord, a slimmer.'

Comments

  1. Hi Annmarie, great blog post and thank you for this brilliant idea too. I'm taking a big leap here, as the most I've done before is a blog post once a month, and a prayer email once a week but never a blog post every single day!!! In the process of dusting off my blog page and doing a test one and we will see! Thank you, :)

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