Once again, I am going to join the 2019 writer’s blog hop called A to Z Challenge—
–but with a twist. Normally, I post 2-3 times a week. This is a good schedule for myself and readers. A to Z requires six posts a week–double my norm! Last year, that seemed to bury my regular readers with far more articles than they could read. That meant they skipped them and that meant–why write all those posts? Yes, the goal of A to Z is to increase readers for participants but I didn’t see that. I got a different set of readers, about what I normally get in any given week, but most of those new ones moved on in May. So although I am joining #AtoZ, I’ll spread the 26 posts out over months (not one month). I’m thinking 1-2 articles a month.
Now for my theme reveal:
Genres
..a genre for every letter of the alphabet. I’ll include:
Definition
Writing tips
Popular books in the genre
Yeah, you’re right. I’ve done this the last two years. The truth is, there are just too many genres. For example, in the past, my F genre has included:
That didcn’t even touch on Fractured Fairy Tales. That’s my F topic this year. I skipped the genres I did in 2017 A to Z Challenge and 2018 A to Z Challenge. As a result, many of this year’s genres were new to me (like Kusazoshi–who knew?). I’m amazed how much I learned researching for this blog hop.
Here are the genres I will cover in this year’s challenge (the links won’t work until the article is published, so be patient with me!):
C Chicklit
P Prose
S Satire
Z Zine (ezine)–is this done?
OK. See you April 1st!
#atozchallenge
Jacqui Murray is the author of the popular Building a Midshipman, the story of her daughter’s journey from high school to United States Naval Academy, the Rowe-Delamagente thrillers, and the Man vs. Nature saga. She is also the author/editor of over a hundred books on integrating tech into education, adjunct professor of technology in education, an Amazon Vine Voice, and a columnist for NEA Today and TeachHUB. Look for her next prehistoric fiction, Quest for Home, Fall 2019. You can find her tech ed books at her publisher’s website, Structured Learning
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I’ve never even heard of Fractured Fairy Tales – looking forward to be enlightened. 😉
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Jacqui,
Sorry for just now visiting but at the end of last week I had an episode with my stomach that rendered me useless Thursday and Friday with Saturday and Sunday slow improvements. I’m still not 100% but I feel tons better, so now it’s time to play catch up.
Your A2Z theme sounds interesting and I know I will learn something new with each installment. I am anxious to catch your first post! Happy A2Zing!
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Thanks, Cathy. I hate stomach problems. I do hope you feel better? The nice thing about blogging is that it isn’t time-sensitive. Today’s as good a day to hear from you as last week!
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Certainly looking forward to this Jacqui!
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Thanks, Janet. I’m off to visit your contribution right now.
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Holy cow! I wouldn’t have imagined so many genres! I’ll be following along, because some of these I have never heard of. Great idea for a theme, Jacqui!
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It definitely amazed me. And as I dug into them, I realized how important it is for writers to identify our genre. The rules are so different!
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Looking forward to the new series Jacqui 🙂
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I will be fine tuning A this weekend!
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I’ll be back! 🙂
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I’ve really enjoyed your A to Z genres in the past, Jacqui. And looking forward to it again this year!
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Thanks, Diana. Knowing there are so many genres has given me more depth in my writing than I knew existed. I understand better what I’m doing because others do it differently.
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Great idea for the A-Z posts, both the topic and spreading them out.
Congrats on your new release. If you want to feature it at my place, just sing out.
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I would love to, Sandra. How do we arrange that?
Did I mention I just bought your Western fiction, Silverhills? I can’t wait to read it. It’s about #15 in my list (I read about 3 books a week so it’s not as far off as it sounds). Western fiction is my favorite genre right now.
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So many genres, so many posts to look forward to. And I like your spread. As a blog reader, I get overwhelmed in April and never get to catch up – a shame.
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Agreed, Roland. I’m glad you approve!
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Wow, I didn’t realise there were so many genres out there! Time to get my head out of the sand and learn- looking forward to this series, Jacqui, thanks 🙂
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And this is my third year of 26 per year! Plus, I almost have another 26 for the next iteration. There are more all the time as we get more detailed in defining what we write. Interesting, innit?
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This is an interesting concept. Looking forward to the posts!
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It’s good to know other genres (in bite-sized pieces) so you better understand yours. At least that’s my philosophy!
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You are one brave lady for sure. But I see by your background you are absolutely up to the challenge. What an admirable effort you are making. I look forward to the posts. There is so much to learn. Thank you kindly.
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It’ll take about two years. I already have the next list started!
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I love your genre theme, so I am glad you are giving it another go. And I think it’s awesome that you are setting limits which you are comfortable and which work for you. I’m a little nervous about A to Z this year. My husband has been in the hospital for several days. I have all of my posts written and scheduled, but I don’t know if I am going to be able to keep up with comments. I already have fallen behind and A to Z hasn’t even begun.
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Oh I hope your husband will be OK. I will send positive thoughts his way. And you’re right–the posts are maybe half of the Challenge. The rest is keeping up with comments. That took at least several hours for me every day.
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Sounds good! Looking forward to it!
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Maybe you loosely fall into Digital Storytelling but probably more like Graphic Stories (or Novels). Thanks for the thoughts, Ed!
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Thanks for yours! I’m doing a children’s story now, sinned like you got me pegged!
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Wow, Jacqui, a lot of these genres are new to me! On Jeopardy the other day they mentioned the Cli-Fi genre: Climate Fiction. That genre could apply to my WIP. 🙂
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Oooh that’s a new one. I must check it out.
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Wow. Definitely digging into genres I’ve (and probably many others) have never heard of. Good for you. Thanks for enlightening us.
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Well, if we are denizens of our craft, this is the sort of stuff we should know. Am I right or am I right????
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You’re definitely right!
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Sounds really interesting! 😀
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As you see, one of the categories is microfiction. I think that’s what you write? If so, I’d love some tips from you.
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I would love to! But i’m much too amateur to be handing out tips! 🙊 It hasn’t been long writing microfiction for me!
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I enjoyed your posts last year. Look forward to joining you again for another a to z. Love how you already know what you are writing even though you are spreading them out. (I’m so behind)
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I like short posts–so you don’t have so much to read! So I spend a bunch of evenings fleshing them out. I’m ready!
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I’ve enjoyed your posts to this challenge the past few years. Look forward to it.
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Thanks, Roo! That’s how we met. Love it.
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How nice to hear you remember. And how impressive 😊
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I am always impressed but bloggers who take on the A to Z Challenge but it really has reached the point where no one can follow all the posts that month. You’ve got a good idea, spreading them out.
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I went all out following only a handful. The rest, just couldn’t do it. And it’s sad because they are really interesting.
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I was very interested in your comments above, Jacqui. I also think that our readerships can’t cope with posts every day from the whole blogging community. For me sometimes, I feel so overwhelmed that I don’t read any of these posts from a particular blogger. I did read many of yours because your topic was so interesting. I blog c. 3 posts a week on each of my blogs. I have different followings on both as I focus on different things. That seems to work for me.
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I think the idea was to grow the audience but I don’t think that happened–for me. Others swear by it.
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Jacqui, some terrific categories and I look forward to reading these! A great idea about spreading these over some months and gives us all a chance to do justice to them and your hard work by reading them all – it can be a bit overwhelming with so many posts a week otherwise!
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I’m so glad you (and others) don’t think this is nutty. I actually ended up feeling guilty for those loyal readers who tried to keep up last year. I almost told them not to worry!
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Jacqui, you actually did tell me not to worry! 😀😀 Very kind of you. I’m away for more than half of April so won’t be on WP much.
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How funny. I’m glad I did. I think that guilt is the biggest reason I’m not following the rules this year.
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I’m expecting to have a lot more books to add to my TBR list! Glad you are doing it again, Jacqui.
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You are one I followed daily last year. You had such interesting posts! I can’t believe Michael’s didn’t hire you in marketing after all of that.
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Honored, Jacqui! I sent several messages with links to Corporate but no takers 😦
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Good strategy, Jacqui. I did the A to Z my way the two times I contributed, and also posted about once a week, or less. I love your genre selection for this year – will probably take you into next year as well. U, X, and Z* are always a challenge – I like your independent attitude. Looking forward to reading all your entries.
Possibilities: U is for Unforgivable Derivatives, all those books that are just like whatever is currently earning lots of reader attention, only with a different title. X is for X-ing, as in X marks a map. Z is for Zzzzzz-ing – what puts us to sleep. Just having fun here.
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I remember your AtoZ posts. Maybe you’re who gave me the idea!
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Too many posts do distract the regular readers. I like this idea of spreading AtoZ challenge Jacqui. Looking forward to some interesting themes. 🙂
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Thanks, Balroop. I appreciate the feedback.
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Looking forward to it.
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I do have an aversion to following rules. This feels good.
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This sounds like a good decision! I’m still prevaricating, wondering whether to go for it … I’m looking forward to your posts Jacqui – they are always interesting 🙂
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I prevaricated for over six months and finally decided this approach worked best for me and my readers. It’ll make next year difficult! Oh well. I’ll come visit your posts if you join!
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Some interesting topics there. You had to dig deep to find them, I bet. You are being sensible by stretching out the challenge. I participated for the first time last year, 2018, and it truly is a challenge. I learned, even with planning and posting ahead of schedule, it was overwhelming since we move back north in mid-April. I did enjoy the event meeting bloggers and broadening my horizons. Best wishes in 2019 A-Z!
JQ Rose
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They are odd genres which was another reason I’m extending their publication. They aren’t as common as those I’ve already covered–historical fiction, romance, thrillers, that sort. I don’t think they’ll be as interesting!
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Who’d have thought there was enough for a third year! And not everyone disappeared after last year’s A-Z *grin*
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I actually have enough for a fourth year (genres) but with two a month, it’ll be two years before I get there! Sigh.
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I learn something new every post from you!
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These get into those niche topics that you only read if you write them. Although Fractured Fairy Tales and High Fantasy are pretty popular!
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Hi Jacqui – I’m not doing it … though could easily do so – just need to get my head down and get on. It’ll be fascinating to read about the genres as and when you post them … and I’m sure many authors will be really interested to read about the various choices. Good for you = I’ll see you around though – cheers Hilary
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Thanks, Hilary. I am going to start American Realism on April 1st but that’ll be it! Then, sporadic contributions. Once I reached this decision, I actually felt at peace with it.
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Good luck and I will look out for your posts though I’m not participating this year
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Thank you! Yes, two years was enough to see the trend for my particular needs.
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Goodness Jacqui. You are a powerhouse of creative energy. Best wishes.
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I would have simply skipped this but there really are a lot of fascinating genres still out there I haven’t discussed. High Fantasy–can’t wait for that one!
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Blessings Jacqui as I’ll be cheering you on!
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Thank you! I prewrote most of them, when I was still wondering if I would participate, so they will be easy posts!
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You’re welcome Jacqui! Awesome. I signed up this morning! Blessings, my friend! ✨
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Looking forward to your posts, Jacqui! I always learn so much. I can’t believe it’s almost April!
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American Realism is a good start. It’s pretty interesting!
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