A
to Z rookie. Yep, that’s me. So you’ve got to be asking yourself…how can someone who’s never been through a
month of April blogging every day, write a survival guide? And an
even better question, why should I pay attention to anything he has to say?
Both
very good questions, so let me answer them for you. First, I don’t live under a blogging
rock. Even though I haven’t participated
for the past two years, I did follow along and read a ton of posts. I know what I liked, what worked, and
consequently what didn’t. Second, you
know what I spent a good many years doing for my job in the real world? Planning and scheduling! Third, you know what else I used to do in the
real world? I wrote instruction manuals
and trained new employees about the stuff in those manuals. And finally, I’m motivated. I have two goals for this post…to encourage
somebody who’s not signed up yet to do just that…and to reassure those of you
out there who are nervous about committing to what seems like a massive task
and show you how easy it can really be.
You can do this!
To
make it all the way to April 30th with your sanity intact, you’ll
need a survival kit. I’ll show you a
couple thing’s to place in that kit, but I’m sure they’ll be plenty more
recommendations offered in the comments below.
Pick and choose what makes sense to you.
First
item to place in your kit is also the most important. If nothing else makes it, this one item is an
absolute must. Take an index card, or a
small piece of paper roughly the same shape, and write on it this one word in
bold letters. BREVITY. As of today there
are 661 bloggers signed up for this challenge and we are expecting something
north of 1,000 when April gets here, so part of the challenge isn’t just
writing a post every day but also visiting as many of the other blogs as
possible to sample the awesome writing talent on display. Uploading long diatribes, regardless of how
fascinating the subject might be, cripples this initiative. So keep your submissions short and to the
point. They’re easier to write…and
read….that way. The fact is, the shorter
your post is the more comments you’ll probably receive. :)
Next
item to put in your survival kit, instructions on how to utilize the scheduling
feature on your blog. Posting every day
doesn’t have to mean writing every day.
There are six weeks until April gets here and if you wrote and scheduled
two posts a week until then, you would have 12 of the 26 letters/days covered
before the month even begins. Start
today…right now as a matter of fact…stop reading this post and write one of
your post for the Challenge. Planning
ahead will save you a lot of anxious moments.
So
you’re more of a pantser than a plotter, and no matter how many good intentions
you had when April 1 arrives you haven’t written a single post yet. No problem, time to pull out that next item
from your survival kit. A tea spoon. I know how standing at the doorstep of April
contemplating blogging every single day can appear daunting, overwhelming. The key is to not concentrate of the whole
and instead break it down into pieces, small bites. Take it one.post.at.a.time! If you find some extra time to punch out a
couple posts ahead of time, great, but don’t sweat it if you can’t. Just worry about today’s bite! And remember that BREVITY card? Small bites!
What
else should be in your survival kit? Definitely
something like a playlist for your MP3 player customized for the A to Z
Challenge, or some of your favorite CD’s, maybe some type of aroma therapy or
your favorite exotic coffee. This is not
intended to be a stressful event, and if you utilize some of the items in this
survival kit you’ll avoid most of that, but still there are some participants that
do get a little tense. To combat this I
recommend you utilize the items in your kit that best help you find a sense of
tranquility that will help you through those times. Remember, we want this to be FUN above
everything else!
Last,
but not least, duct tape. Every self-respecting
survival kit includes duct tape!
I
hope I’ve helped some. I’m here, along
with all of the co-hosts, to see that you have an enjoyable experience. A survival kit filled with at least those
five things will take you a long way to surviving April in one piece, but it’s
only a start. If you have a suggestion
for something else that needs to find its way into that kit, just leave a
comment below.
Have a great weekend!
