A to Z Challenge changed my life!

Hiya,

How're you all doing? In 6 days the 2013 A to Z Challenge will begin. It is a challenge whereby every day for the month of April you must post a blog. You can schedule these in advance so you have more time to read others blogs or you can write each day. As you all know I have been busy this month with The Pasty Tour...oh! who am I kidding! WE have been busy this month with the tour and so I won't be scheduling posts that far in advance but I may write them the night before.

You see, my job is changing, I am moving and I shall be working on the podcast and this is also happening  in April! No peace for the wicked as they say.

But I wanted to take a moment in advance of the challenge to tell you all how this blog hop changed my life. Some of you may know that I started writing fiction only six months ago, and that prior to that I had been writing music reviews, well prior to that I took part in this challenge. For those interested in what I wrote last year then check out my A to Z Challenge page which has links to all the posts from 2012 and will eventually have the 2013 links.

I came across it one day in February 2012 and thought it would be a great way of discovering new blogs. You didn't need a blog but it seemed to me at the time that it would be easier to have one and by writing a few words each day you could get to know people.  So I registered a blog with blogger and in my haste I called it Suddenly Seeking Blogs. That's right, this here blog used to be called that for a month. I read the tips from the organisers with great interest about how to do this, how to keep on top of things and follow the blogs you liked. One of the key points that came across was that you may find it easier to wrote if you have a theme.

I thought a theme sounded like a good idea, and saw a suggestion for one, it was about your home town. So I went to work devising a list of things in Milton Keynes that would represent each letter. After I wrote the list and thought about what to write, I realised that it wasn't for me because I wasn't inspired by it. I thought of some other ideas but the same thing would happen. As the day drew nearer, instead of working on a theme, I decided I need a background to make my blog look pretty. So I grabbed some felt and cut out the letters of the alphabet and then made the backing for them and the photographed them quite badly. But I can't draw and so I didnt really have a choice. Here is the end result:

As April neared I booked myself a trip to New York City and knew that I would have to schedule some of the posts. Although there was a mishap the rest went relatively smoothly.

I am one of those people who has spent their lifetime wondering when I will know what I want to be when I grow up and as such have dabbled in most things. Still, last March I was at that place and decided that therein lied my inspiration for a theme and that theme was to be CAREERS.

I write each day about why I would be good at that career and why I would be bad and it went quite well. Well enough that I still read some of those blogs and some of the people who followed me then still read this one. If you are one of those people say Hi in the comments! Go on, don't be shy, its our anniversary!  :D

When the challenge ended I was left hanging in May, I wanted to write yet I had nothing to write, I wrote a film review but it wasn't that exciting for me. At the same time I was discovering new music on Twitter, I was so impressed by some of  the bands that I thought I would show my support for them by writing reviews. So that is how I begun. My love of music lead me to writing in a very direct way. I then posted some poems and then eventually you all know what happened. So here I am 12 months later, a self-published author of my very own eBook, a novel written, on the cusp of my podcast and I have met lots of great people. All this wouldn't have happened without the A to Z challenge....it might have I suppose but we will never know as this is the only version of events.

When I started to think about this years theme I looked back over last years and was surprised to see the difference in my writing, but even more surprised to see that some of the careers I had said I couldnt do...I have done! Well, not as a career but I have vaguely touched on the topic in some small way. It made me think if this was something that had happened subconsciously and I even considered trying a theme that made me set goals that I want to achieve in the next 12 months, big or small but I worried that if I did that I would be less likely to achieve them.

For instance, I had writer on my list, radio dj, singer, actress to name a few. I may not have acted but I expressed my desire to play miss marple, which I didn't do BUT I did write a murder mystery novel. I never sang but I have written two songs that have been performed by a singer. I am not a radio DJ but I am embarking on a podcast, and I am now a writer.

So, what is this years theme? I announced earlier in the year that it would be Paranoid Solo Traveller but I am having my doubts as to how motivated I will be each day to write this. Maybe you have a suggestion that will prompt my brain into action?