Blog Blues and Brings Back Characters Who Blog

The first few months after the A to Z Challenge are always the hardest for me. I'm never sure what I'm supposed to do with myself. I sometimes find myself planning out posts that begin alphabetically, only to remember that A to Z is over. Sigh. What's a blogger to do? 

As a way to deal with my blog blues, I decided to come up with a few blogging challenges for myself, you know, to keep things interesting. On Mondays I'll focus on movies. Tuesdays are for reviews. On Wednesdays we wear pink . . . no wait, that's Mean Girls. 

Now as for my posts here on the Blogging from A to Z website, I'm thinking of bringing back my Characters Who Blog series (if you're new to this site, check out a few here and here). I had a lot of fun coming up with all the different literary and film characters and what they might write about if they had blogs of their own. 

Which prompts me to ask, what are some of your favorite characters from movies, TV and books? Are there any that stick out as particularly influential? Are they well known or tragically unheard of? And perhaps the bigger question, any Characters Who Blog requests? 

Happy Monday everyone, and as always, happy blogging! 

S. L. Hennessy can be found blogging at Pensuasion.  

Hitting the Road with Mario

We're all up against the clock these days. Being connected online does not save us time; it absorbs it like a sponge. Yet we're here, so how can we best meet our Challenges online as well as in other parts of our lives?

I've devised a plan for my start on the AtoZ Challenge Road Trip. 

First I've got a great blogger to share the load. She's efficient and she's dependable, and I greatly appreciate her inviting me to join her on this year's trip. Wave to Madlab Post on your way by.

Next I've convinced Mario the Muse to be my dashboard buddy. He's there to guide and inspire and keep me awake on the those long stretches.

As I start off, my plan is visit at least 2-3 bloggers each day who are on the road with me. 

I'm starting with any blogs beginning with the letter A and moving ahead through the alphabet. If there's no X, so be it, but I'll look for a blog with that letter.

So bye for now. I'm off to visit A blogs. Hope to see you as I make my way through those 26 letters. 

Do you have a plan? Is is just easier for you to wing it? 

Are YOU Ready to Go on the 5th Annual Post-Challenge Road Trip? #AtoZChallenge

Are YOU ready to cruise through the 2015 A-Z Challenge list? I sure am looking forward to visiting a number of blogs I missed in April. 

Thanks to the late great Tina Downey at Life is Good and Shannon Lawrence at The Warrior Muse who started the Road Trip (formerly known as the Post-Challenge Challenge) -- by calling on each other to visit all of the blogs on the list before the next A-Z Challenge rolled around -- we now have this year-round event to stay active in the blogosphere during the "off-season."

I've had the pleasure of co-hosting this with the founding ladies and then continued with Tina after Shannon hitched a ride at a rest stop to embark on other adventures. Soon, Heather Gardner at The Waiting is the Hardest Part joined us as a travel guide and brought Stormy the Weather Gnome along to swap shifts taking the wheel on this open road of A-Z blogs. After racking up lots of mileage out here in blogland, Heather and Stormy parked their car in the garage for a tuneup earlier this year. Luckily, I gained another driving partner in C. Lee McKenzie at The Write Game who will be helping with refreshments, maps and other necessities to keep everyone's engine running and going in the right direction (i.e. forward) on the highway.

Starting today, C. Lee McKenzie and I invite you to join us on the 5th annual Post-Challenge Road Trip, a meandering journey through the 2015 list of A-Z participants, at your own pace, with your own rules, and very few expectations.

The most important thing to keep in mind is you're the boss of you're own schedule and approach to visiting blogs. Whether you want to visit one new blog on a daily basis or hundreds of blogs per day, you're the one at the wheel. The Road Trip is really just some buddies in the blogging community hanging out and visiting new voices in the A-Z world.

A few strateties that may have worked for Road Trippers include...

• Visiting all the blogs with similar topics or categories as yours
• Visiting all the blogs whose names make you curious
• Visiting all the blogs at even (or odd) numbers on the list
• Start from where you left off and keep on truckin'...
• Visiting blogs that are low (or high, or in the middle) on the list
• Visiting blogs randomly by just clicking on titles located in different areas of the list

Whatever you do, remember that signing up on the linky doesn't mean you're committed to visiting ALL of the blogs on the list. Coming along with us on this Road Trip just indicates that you're not done yet and would like to show your fellow A-Z participants some visiting and commenting love. These are among the things that keep a blogging community strong.  

Who's with us for the 2015 Post-Challenge Road Trip?

~ Nicole @ The Madlab Post

SIGNUP to Be Our (A to Z) Post-Challenge Road Trip Traveling Companions HERE: