#atozchallenge: Sunday Summary February 26, 2012

There's lots of activity going on as we make our big push for 1000 sign-ups by March 1st.  If you haven't signed up yet why not do it now.   Also please consider liking the A to Z Facebook page.  We're still sort of 200 likes there--shouldn't we have more like at least 700 likes?   Same with this A to Z Blog. Have you clicked the "Follower" button yet to become a "Friend of the Alphabet"?   Let's fire up some A to Z spirit!

We had some great posts on the A to Z Blog this past week.  If you missed any be sure to go back and check them out.  We are no longer accepting guest posts for the A to Z Blog as the schedule is now full.  Thanks to all of you who have shown such hearty participation.

Fellow co-host Konstanz Silverbow is providing some incentive with a great give-away.  Check out what she's offering at her blog No Thought 2 Small and then be sure to tell others about it as well.   Somebody's going to win a very cool package.

Be sure to be at the A to Z Blog this coming Tuesday February 28th.  I won't tell you what's going on, but I bet some of you can guess.  Tuesday is a very special day to celebrate.

Jenn at Scribbles from Jenn participated in Jenny Pearson's game of tag and helped with the push for 1000 by March 1st.

Sommer Leigh at Tell Great Stories provided one of the best A to Z posts that I've seen so far.  Make sure you pay her a visit to thank her for providing this valuable information and make sure you follow her advice when the April Challenge starts.  In fact, don't wait, start now!

RJR Daydreamer gave not only a nice summary of what the Challenge is but also provided an excellent graphic layout of what he did last year.

Donna Mc is a first-timer on her blog My Write Spot and she's getting organized for April.  She provides some excellent tips on how to plan for the Challenge.  I hope all of you will go through her checklist and make sure you've got these points covered.

A to Z got a slightly eccentric mention at The Slightly Eccentric Diary of Rob Z Tobor.  Thanks Rob--I think. Now don't you forget to start the Challenge on time.

Jman at Death of a Hardcore Gamer appears to be ready for April.  I think you'll have loads of fun, Jman.  Let all your friends know about this.

Susan Kane at the contemplative cat provided a round of A to Z brainstorming inspired by the "How It's Made" TV show.

Teresa at Journaling Woman was having an internal debate about the Challenge, but it looks like the Alphabet won.

Mish at Writer-In-Transit got very creative with her Challenge post.  Just goes to show what kind of inspiration comes from Blogging from A to Z.   Can you top this one?

Marcy at Maine Words (#235 on the Linky List) played the "Getting to Know Me" game by answering some of the questions posted to co-hosts.  Always a good time to get to know one another better and everyone is welcomed to join in the fun.

Dave at Dave Wrote This is another blogger who joined in the "Getting to Know Me" fun--Dave went with the entire list.  Whether you answer them all, just some of them, or make up your own questions; we'd all enjoy hearing some of your answers.  As we head into the Challenge you might want to set aside a post to introduce yourselves to the others who may not know you yet.

Susan Gourley/Kelley at Susan Says provided some important tips on her blog that can't be said too many times.   I hope everyone listens to what Susan says.

And hooray Inspire Nordic who also touted the Challenge on her blog.  So glad you're with us this year.

Patricia Stoltey is a solid supporter of the A to Z Challenge.  She's been giving weekly shout outs for us on her blog.

Janice at Jabblog had some kind of snafu with her sign up on the Linky List, but it gave her a reason to post about the Challenge which is always good.  Might as well turn lemons into lemonade.

Call it what you will, there's no reason to be in a tizzy about the April Challenge Lizard Happy--who is #370 on the sign up list by the way.

Tower of Archmage is a gamer blog that is returning to play the A to Z Challenge for the second year.  Have fun!

Thank you Christine Rains for helping push for the March 1st 1000!

I'm learning about Twitter and in doing so I spotted Laurie Carlson's Challenge to her readers.  Check out Laurie's great A to Z Post.    Then follow her blog while you're there--she deserves it.

Spirit Called put forth a call out for more folks to be a part of the April A to Z.   Yeah! That's the spirit!

The adrenaline is pumping high at Whatever.  Thanks Gossip Girl for your energetic post.

Susanne Drazic at Putting Words Down on Paper announced our drive to get 1000 sign-ups by March 1.  Come on bloggers!  Get everyone you know involved in the April Challenge.  Let's make this a party to rival any Oscar party out there.

Lindi from F.A.I.T.H. Girls gave the Challenge a nice mention and provided the link for others to sign up.  Anyone can do this--how about you?

More and more of you are posting about the Challenge.  We are trying to keep up with these posts to list on our Sunday Summary.  I'm watching Google Alerts, emails from co-hosts, and the messages I receive from you who contact me.  If you've posted something and we've missed it here, let me know and I'll try to put it up.   In the weeks to come we may have so many mentions that I may have to distill them into the highlights and the most unique posts.

 But Please! no matter what--keep on promoting A to Z to get more sign-ups.  We are looking for 1000 by this Thursday and it would be nice to pass 1300 by April 1 so we can surpass last year.  Our goal is to make the Blogging from A to Z April Challenge bigger and better each year.   Thanks to all of you for helping us meet this goal.

And now a word from our sponsor courtesy of Ron Easton at Dads Unlimited:

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#AtoZchallenge Fiction and Call for Writing Prompts

 All A to Z participants have  some or the other plan for how they're going to meet the challenge. Like last year, I'll be doing fiction, based on prompts left by commenters.

Since this year I'll have hosting duties, I hope to pre-schedule at least some of the posts. 

So I'm requesting you, our blogging audience, to challenge me with an interesting picture that you would like me to write on, and drop me story starters, each sentence/phrase beginning with a different letter (i.e. the first word of the starter must start with a different letter from A to Z).  Last year this brought me to A to Z Stories of Life and Death. I hope I write enough stories this year to do another collection.

You can drop me the prompts in the comments on this post. Of course, when I post each prompt during April, I'll link to you and explain why I chose it. You may also mail me the pictures and story prompts at atozstories at gmail dot com.You need not be participating in the A to Z Challenge to challenge me with either a story starter, or a picture, or both. The more the merrier! Last year I had asked for word prompts, and I got loads to choose from! This year, I'm taking it a step further.

As a sort of warm-up and illustration of what I hope to do, I'm pasting below a picture, a story starter( both randomly chosen) and the resulting story.

Story starter: I can no longer... 

Picture:

Story:

I can no longer fit in small corner spaces. 

My body lurches as I run up the stairs, my joints have not been oiled in years, and my feet make thumping noises in tune with my overwrought heart. My breath wheezes, and I'm sure you can hear it from downstairs, where you count up to hundred, your face to the wall. I try hiding behind a cupboard, but my belly and my behind jiggle this way and that, and I know you would spot one or the other. I try hiding under the bed, but can only go in as far as my shoulder. I sneak behind the curtains, but they billow around me, calling to you. 

In the end, I stand amongst the clothes hanging in the changing room. As I hear the patter of your feet, your squealed warnings, and whispered threats, I squeeze my eyes tight shut and breathe the paint on the wall, rubbing the softness of my old cotton dress between my thumbs.

I think of yesterday, when you could have fit anywhere at all, but instead chose to hide your face against the wall. 'How can you see me Granny,' you said when I got you, your pigtails flying, your eyes trembling with unshed tears, 'when I can see nothing at all?'

I'll let you teach me, I decide, as I relax my grip on my dress. You walk past me in my search. 

Between you and me there's only the cloak of a few years, a hundred wrinkles, and a few dozen pounds. Wearing these, I hide from you in plain sight, and as it turns out, from my self.

-------

By Damyanti Biswas, co-host #atozchallenge

DL's Guide To Surviving A to Z

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 30^th 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!