Wednesday, March 6, 2013

Challenges Galore!

I've been looking into joining the A-Z challenge for a while now, but was always intimidated by the amount of writing it would necessitate. For those who don't know, the A-Z challenge is a bloggingchallenge where once a day for the entire month of April except Sundays, you are to post an entry based on a different letter of the alphabet.
That's 26 posts in a month. More than I've written on my blog ever. That's definitely something to make me pause and second guess myself. Yesterday, I wised up and realized that the challenge was the point. It's not called the A-Z Happy Walk In The Park.

So I signed up and decided to start preparing what I was going to write about. I've decided the topic for each day and have started pre-writing a few just so I don't go crazy in April.

This morning I woke up and saw I had an email about Camp NaNo in April and started hyperventilating a little bit. Camp Nano is much less rigorous than NaNoWriMo as it has a variable word count requirement you can set for yourself, but it's still a significant undertaking. Since I'm pre-writing some of my posts for the A-Z challenge, I can't use them to fulfil the Camp NaNo challenge so now I'm torn as to whether or not I'll be able to participate in the April Camp. There is another Camp in July that I've already prepared a short story for, but April is really up in the air for me.

I really enjoy blogging, and doing the challenges hosted by other bloggers has really helped me out both on my own writing skills and in meeting new blogger buddies. It can get a bit overwhelming, especially since I'm still pretty new to the scene and I really need to just power through and keep on blogging, but having the Camp NaNo challenge and the A-Z challenge in the same month may be a bit too much.

So now for your input! How do you feel about all of the blogging challenges available to writers? Which are your favorites? Should I try squeezing in the Camp NaNo challenge or just hold off until July?
As always, I love comments so even if it's completely off topic, go for it!

11 comments:

  1. I got that email, too! And I thought, "Oh man, what a crazy month." Fortunately, I've all but sworn off NaNoWriMo, because I've discovered the books I produce require more revision than I'd like them to. So I'm not worried about Camp being in April...but man. I will bow to those who do camp AND A-Z.

    Good luck either way! Looking forward to your A-Z posts.

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    1. Yeah I haven't done a NaNoWriMo yet so this November should be interesting but I definitely see where you are coming from about the revision. Any ideas on what you are doing for Camp yet?

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  2. I know what you mean about the volume of writing in some of these challenges. Oddly enough, I find that if I don't do a contest I end up writing the amount they wanted anyway...I think I just like not having the pressure:) Cool post, great pics:)

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    1. Hah I know what you mean. I'm stressing about writing a 10-15k word piece for NaNo Camp in July, and yet I write at least 1,000 words a day!

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  3. I always get really interested in blogging challenges, but I never actually participate. The A-Z challenge seems terrifying to me simply because I don't know if I have that much to say. But now thinking about it, I'm getting tempted.
    The crux is that you have to pick and choose the challenges which most suit what you hope to get out of writing, and what you enjoy. If you love feedback from the online writing community, I'd go for A-Z, but if your goal is to produce original work (and you still get to interact with the community, although in a different way) then Camp is the answer.

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    1. The great thing is that Camp is in July as well so I can actually do both. I think it's important to balance between original work and online feedback so as to stay well balanced and to keep a strong digital presence. Original published works don't do much good if there is no marketing push behind it, so having the option to do both is great!

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  4. I'm envious of anyone who can complete the A-Z challenge. Doing what we do, there's no way we could do 26 posts in a month. Not while writing novels and retaining our sanity, that is.

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    1. Luckily for me, all of my writing ventures are still in the planning stage so I can hang back on those. I agree that you guys need to focus on your novels, mostly so I can continue to buy them!
      As far as sanity goes, I gave that up a while ago when I decided to try balancing writing with being a CPA.

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  5. I say you should try the challenge. I recently started blogging and right now am having a difficult time on finding topics to write about. how do you decide on a daily basis what you will post on your blog?

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    1. Honestly, the way I view my blog is that I'm not going to post unless I have something to say. Posting more often will likely net me more traffic, but if they all click on, see a bad post, and leave then I'm right back where I started.
      Most of my upcoming blog ideas outside of the various challenges are based on things in writing, life, video games, or whatever else that annoy me. Finding things you are passionate about (Positively or negatively) and writing about them will give your writing more depth since it's something you care about. Since my blog is largely focused on writing, I try to relate all of my random thoughts back to writing if possible.
      Keep with it! Blogging is awesome, but if you start viewing it as a burden, take a couple days off to get back to a better mindset.

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  6. My favorite writing challenge is the one through We Work for Cheese. It is a hilarious group of not-so-serious writers. Since my participation in that challenge, I am now a writing-challenge addicted blogger. Go figure.

    Popped in from the Blog Blitz.

    thriftshopcommando.blogspot.com

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