April is coming to a close, which means the annual A to Z Blog Challenge is doing the same. I participated in this challenge in 2016. It was my first time participating in the A to Z Challenge, though not my first blog challenge and definitely not my first writing challenge. I’m familiar with deadline pressure - what writer isn’t? - but the A to Z presented a couple of different types of pressure, for different reasons. As I progressed through the challenge, and even afterward, my opinions on some blog-related issues swung back and forth like a West Texas weather vane.
To Theme Or Not To Theme
When I started the challenge, I didn’t realize what was going on with the ‘theme’. I thought ‘A to Z’ was the theme. Just write one post per day, each with some connection to a letter of the alphabet. April 1 = A, April 2 = B, and so forth. Turns out that's the broadest (one might say laziest) interpretation of the challenge. Experienced participants take it to the next level. They select a theme, then within that theme, create posts related to the alphabet.
Once I figured that out, I thought, Whew! So glad theme is optional. Themes are stupid. Themes tie me down and restrict my writing. I’ll write whatever the heck I feel like. And of course after the hundredth random theme-less blog I visited, I was so thankful to stumble across blogs that had such narrowly focused themes I marveled in their ability to find 6 topics to write about, much less 26. I became a believer. Themes are the bomb. Themes are like fences. They may seem restrictive and unsightly, but in addition to keeping good things in, they also keep bad things out.
Themes weren't the end of my education. In my blog challenge naivete, I didn't realize we were expected not only to publish a blog post 26 days out of 30; we were also expected to visit other blogs and leave comments. In fact, many would argue the comment component is the main focus of the event. Don't be fooled by the word 'challenge' - it's a blog hop.
Categories and Comments
After the challenge concluded, we were encouraged to post a recap of our experience. Of 1300+ bloggers who completed most of the challenge in 2016, less than a third shared a recap. Still, that’s over 300 opinions, and I worked my way through nearly half.
Two areas were mentioned repeatedly: requests for tweaks to the blog category codes; and hand-wringing over the low percentage of participants who visited and commented at other blogs. My flip-flop on these two issues is intertwined.
First, to the categories: When we registered for the challenge, we were asked to describe our blogs choosing from a list of two-letter codes provided by the admins. The idea was to give other bloggers some idea of what your blog was about before they clicked. Many participants thought there should be more categories added. Some also suggested they should describe the challenge theme chose by the blogger, rather than the blog, since the two could vary wildly.
My initial reaction to the category idea was, Categories? I don’t need no stinking categories! I assigned myself one. But I basically ignored other people’s blog categories because I wanted to visit ALL of them, regardless of topic.I will also admit my initial reaction to blogs being categorized is that it had the potential to hurt some blogs that might be at a disadvantage if ghetto-ized into a category within a very narrow niche.
Secondly, the comments: Some participants said they didn’t leave comments because they couldn’t think of anything to say. And I’m like, What? Most bloggers are writers, for crying out loud. Surely you can come up with 10 words on the fly, like that old Toastmasters improv exercise. If you can’t come up with a few words for a token comment, blog comments are the least of your worries.
That’s how I felt about categories and comments - until I had my light bulb moment.
At around that time, I'd been listening to several writing podcasts. One in particular 
really solved a problem I’ve been having with a WIP. I couldn’t wait to get to the keyboard and type up a comment on the podcast. And that’s when I realized: If I’m not that excited about every comment I leave, I shouldn’t be leaving it. I shouldn’t be wasting my time on meaningless ‘hey, just dropping by from the A to Z’ comments in a likely fruitless attempt to increase my own blog's page rank.
After my light bulb moment, I now understand why people want the categories to be clear, unambiguous, and definitive of both blog and theme if possible. The bloggers who are asking for this have already had the light bulb moment. They know what they are interested in and where they will have the best chance of finding blogs they will want to comment on organically.
I like to think I have an open mind. I’m willing to change my opinion when I’m wrong, especially when learning through personal experience. The A to Z Challenge was full of those experiences for me. Here's hoping your next writing challenge has some light bulb moments for you as well.
Images via Unsplash. A version of this article first appeared on the A to Z Blog Challenge website as a recap after the 2016 event.
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