Dear O'Abby: The A - Z looked fun. How do I chose a theme?

 Dear O'Abby,

The A - Z Challenge you did throughout April looked like such fun!  I am really hoping to get involved in the 2023 version but was wondering how to choose a theme.  I'm a writer (or, trying to be) and would love to do something writing-related, especially since so many of the other blogs I visited also seemed to be book or writing focused.

Do you have tips on picking a theme?

Yours,

Alphabetically

Dear Alphabetically,

The A - Z is fun!  It's also hard work, but that's just part of the challenge.  In terms of picking a theme, you can choose anything, but I think it's important to choose something you're genuinely passionate about.  My two favourite things are reading and going to the movies, so I suggested book to film adaptations to Operation Awesome for this year's challenge.  I feel like we barely touched the surface with that one!  I mean, I think we could possibly have narrowed the focus to just Stephen King books made into films and covered practically the whole alphabet!

Which is the other thing to think about - can you find topics for even the tricky letters like Q and X and Z?  

It's good if you can get prepared in advance, so before March 31, it's a good idea to have at least mapped out what you hope to achieve in the month.  Personally, I never know how much time I'm going to have in April and tend to write posts in advance and schedule them so I'm not scrambling mid-April to write something awesome for M or T the night before it needs to publish.  But some people use the challenge to force themselves to write every day and get into that habit.

So some ideas for you to toss around before next April...

• Writing terms from Ampersand to Zeugma
• Book reviews from A - Z
• A serialized story with a word beginning with A - Z as the inspiration for each section - you could even get blog readers to supply these words ahead of time so they are invested in the story bfore you start
• Fantasy worlds from A - Z
• Authors from Austin to Zola - research and write bios.  You could even read one of their books and write a mini review in each if you have time
• Picture books
• Poetry challenges - try to write poems using only words of a single letter (except your joining words etc)
• Tell people about yourself by writing about your favourite things from A - Z and why you like them so much (or the things that irritate you)

Basically, the world is your oyster.  The point is to get yourself writing, so whatever you choose, make sure it's something you want to write about, something that will get you excited to sit down in front of the keyboard each day.

And most of all, have fun with it!  Visit the other blogs and make new friends.  Learn things you didn't already know.

Hope that helps!

We will look out for you in 2023.

X O'Abby