The A to Z Challenge Theme Reveal

Here we are!  The April A to Z Challenge is almost upon us, and the time has come for us to reveal our themes!  The Theme Reveal was first started by the amazing Mina Lobo, and now it's a time honored tradition.

In previous years I've always posted some kind of fiction for the challenge.  It was fun, and it kept me writing.  This year, however, I've decided to do something different.  In the past year, I've gotten more serious about putting my work out there.  I self-published three books, and I plan on self-publishing several more.  I've been submitting more stories, and I even won the IWSG Anthology Contest.

With those things in mind, I've decided to offer writing advice.  Each A to Z post will offer a different tidbit of advice that fledgling writers may find useful.  Many of you may not learn anything new from me, but maybe you will.  I know I've learned a lot over the years from reading what you have to say on your blogs.

I chose this theme, in part, to help fellow writers.  I also chose it for another reason.  I need to keep building my confidence.  In the past I felt like I didn't have any kind of expertise to offer anyone, so I didn't try to offer much in the way of writing advice. Sometimes people I know asked me for advice on certain things, and I did my best to help them out.  Now that I'm trying to do more in terms of getting things published, I feel like I need to accept that I might have something to offer.  This challenge is a good opportunity to do that.

Are you participating in the A to Z Challenge?  If so, do you have a theme?

A Change of Mind and Other Stories Cover Reveal and The A to Z Theme Reveal Blogfest

I have some big stuff for you today.  This double post will contain much excitement, so stick around.  I'm participating in the Great and Powerful A to Z Theme Reveal Blogfest, but before we get to that, I'd like to share something awesome from our blogging friend Nick Wilford.

Title: A Change of Mind and Other Stories

Author: Nick Wilford

Genre: Contemporary speculative fiction 

Cover Design: Rebekah Romani

Release Date: May 25th

A Change of Mind and Other Stories consists of a novella, four short stories and one flash fiction piece. This collection puts the extremes of human behaviour under the microscope with the help of lashings of dark humour, and includes four pieces previously published in Writer’s Muse magazine.

In "A Change of Mind", Reuben is an office worker so meek and mild he puts up with daily bullying from his boorish male colleagues as if it’s just a normal part of his day. But when a stranger points him in the direction of a surgeon offering a revolutionary new procedure, he can’t pass up the chance to turn his life around.

But this isn’t your average surgeon. For a start, he operates alone in a small room above a mechanic’s. And he promises to alter his patients’ personality so they can be anything they want to be...

In "Marissa", a man who is determined to find evidence of his girlfriend’s infidelity ends up wondering if he should have left well alone.

"The Dog God" finds a chink in the armour of a man with a megalomaniacal desire to take over the world.

In "The Insomniac", a man who leads an obsessively regimented lifestyle on one hour’s sleep a night finds a disruption to his routine doesn’t work for him.

"Hole In One" sees a dedicated golfer achieving a lifelong ambition.

"The Loner" ends the collection on a note of hope as two family members try to rebuild their lives after they are torn apart by jealousy.

Bio:

Nick Wilford is a writer and stay-at-home dad. Once a journalist, he now makes use of those rare times when the house is quiet to explore the realms of fiction, with a little freelance editing and formatting thrown in. When not working, he can usually be found spending time with his family or cleaning something. Nick is also the editor of Overcoming Adversity: An Anthology for Andrew. You can find him hanging out on his blog or on Goodreads or Twitter.

Preorder Links: Amazon US, Amazon UK

Add it on Goodreads

These stories sound pretty interesting to me, so I'd highly recommend getting a copy of this book when it comes out!

Now for the next part of my post.

Today I am revealing what you can expect from my A to Z posts this year.  For further details on the Great and Powerful A to Z Challenge Theme Reveal Blogfest, go HERE.

This year I'm doing fictional pieces again.  Sorry, I just love producing fresh material to share with my readers.  I'm going to try to mix it up a bit.  Each piece will be inspired by the letter of the day, and some of the words I've chosen are more obscure or interesting than others.  Some of the pieces will be flash fiction, some will be drabbles (a story of exactly 100 words), and some will be poems.

There is one big difference, though.  Once a week, I'll post a Choose Your Own Adventure Story.  I briefly considered the insanity of doing only Choose Your Own Adventure stories, but doing 26 of them seemed like a herculean task.  These CYOA stories will be short, of course.  In total, you'll get three sections to read, and the total word count will place it in the range of a normal flash fiction story.  I know time is precious during the A to Z Challenge, so I don't want to overwhelm anyone (or myself, for that matter).

For those of you who are interested in checking out my CYOA stories, here's a list of the dates when I'll be posting them.

Week 1:

Wednesday, April 1st (letter A)

Week 2:

Friday, April 10th (letter I)

Week 3:

Friday, April 17th (letter O)

Week 4:

Thursday, April 23rd (letter T)

Week 5:

uesday, April 28th (letter X)

I'm excited about another year of A to Z fun!

The Great & Powerful A to Z Theme Reveal

April is right around the corner, and that means it's almost time for A to Z to begin!  For those of you who have not signed up and may be interested in doing so, you can do that HERE.

Today, a few of my fellow A to Z bloggers are revealing their theme for this April's challenge. You can sign up HERE if you'd like to join in on the fun of the great reveal.  A theme isn't required for A to Z participation, of course, but having a theme can be helpful.  It makes it easier to plan your posts, and if a reader is interested in the theme you've selected, they'll keep coming back to your blog.

My theme for this blog is: DRABBLES

For those of you who may not know, a drabble is a story that is exactly 100 words in length, and this word count does not necessarily include the title.  I know I didn't include the title, anyway.  In such a short piece, every word counts!

Last year I wrote an ongoing story, which turned out to be quite fun.  I knew I wanted to dabble in fiction again, but I also wanted shorter posts, and I wanted it to be something that someone didn't need to necessarily read from the beginning.  That's why these drabbles are stand-alone pieces.  I used a random word generator and combed through dictionaries to come up with a word for each letter of the alphabet, and each word inspired its own little story.

All of my drabbles are written, and the posts are scheduled.  I think readers will enjoy them, because they're quick and entertaining.  Some of them are funny, some sad, and some of them are just plain weird.  There will be a little something for everyone!

The Name Game

What’s in a name, really?  These days a name can easily mean the world, or in many cases, absolutely nothing at all.  Some people name their children after family members, or people who were otherwise influential in their lives.  Or perhaps parents, through research, discovered a name that had a meaning behind it that resonated with them.  And, of course, there’s always the equally viable “I liked the way it sounded.”  I, for example, have the middle name Gene.  Yes, I am female, and I know that my name is therefore supposed to be spelled J-E-A-N.  I get that, and I endured a lot of teachers misspelling it over the years.  Yet, my parents’ use of the male version of the name was quite deliberate.  First of all, I had an aunt named Gene.  And second, my parents loved Star Trek, so it seemed that having the same name as Gene Roddenberry would be a desirable thing.  This is just fine with me.  It proves that, from the very beginning of my life, I was always going to be a geek.

Anyway, getting to my main point, though our names may, or may not, have special meaning behind them, our culture accepts that titles generally convey a lot.  If they don’t, they fail.  The title of a book is an opportunity for the writer to connect with potential readers.  Now, I realize I am essentially unpublished (I’m not sure how much the occasional published poem and single essay in a small magazine over a decade ago count), but I have enough knowledge to say this with confidence.  And as I know that the titling process is important, I figured I would share a little of my process with the world.

First of all, I never start with a title.  I’ve tried to start with a title and work from there, and the title certainly gave me a launching point, but by the end, the story had outgrown the original title I’d chosen.  These things happen.  That’s why the concept of “working titles” is so prevalent.  And while I may use a working title along the way, I still go through a final naming process at the end.

The process begins with me making a small list of important themes and objects/places/events present in the story.  Sometimes it’s as easy as choosing an important object or event to double as the title, but in my case, it usually doesn’t.  I’m much too hard on myself for that.  I usually end up traveling the thematic route, though on occasion I’ve combined the two methods. 

When traveling the thematic path, I select a handful of words that go along with the themes I’ve identified.  For example, a theme might be death, so I might choose the word “darkness” to symbolize nightfall.  Yes, not original, but it’s just an example.  Once I’ve picked out a few I like, I compose a long list of variations that I think would accurately portray that mood of the story I’ve told.  Going with darkness, I could call it “Darkness Descending” or “Walking into Darkness.”  With the final list of options in hand, I read them out loud so I can get a sense of how they sound.  I may share them with others to get feedback.

Obviously this is a task I take quite seriously.  Sometime in the near future I’ll post a written example of how this process goes down.  The example will be given in precise detail.  I tried to explain it clearly here, but it can get quite complicated, and I know making sense of my ramblings can be challenging for anyone, even on the best of days.