I am using the word tool loosely here. One of my favorite challenges through the years has been the April A to Z challenge at the A to Z Challenge. I have made about four attempts so far but have not been able to finish this challenge yet. This year, well, this is my year!

The A to Z challenge is a blog challenge where you write a blog post for 26 days related to the alphabet. You get to choose a theme if you like. I have used my old characters one year, and I can’t remember the others, mostly because I didn’t finish all 26 days. But now that blogging daily has become more and more a habit; I feel a bit more confident in my ability to get it done this year.

Every March, participating writers take part in the Theme Reveal day, where they announce their theme, if any, and how they will approach the challenge. To get double duty out of this, I will read 26 short stories and write about them. That keeps the challenge in line with my BHAG to get really good at writing short stories because reading 26 of them can’t be a bad thing. Especially if I am reading good ones and awful ones. Sometimes reading bad ones is more helpful because I am starting to learn what doesn’t work.

So this week, I am officially throwing my proverbial hat in the ring and announcing my theme. Then I will skim through the other themes and find 6-10 blogs to follow through the challenge. Part of the adventure is the requirement to take blog “road trips” to other blogs and comment on them. It is a wonderfully supportive community for writers, and I am excited to do this in 2021