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Tuesday, April 5, 2022

#AtoZChallenge E is for Encouraging Each Other

 

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The team's theme of the April Blogging from A to Z Challenge this year is:
ACCOMPLISHING YOUR DREAMS, AND THE DUALITY OF 22

Day 5 of the challenge. You may be hitting your stride by now, or you may be starting to reconsider your choices... either way, we are in full swing! If you are a perfectionist like me, who wants to make the most of everything, I am here to tell you: You are doing great. You are doing ENOUGH. Being in this challenge, putting your posts up, visiting some others, is enough. Don't let the pressure to do more spoil the fun.

We are here to help you! All of us. My favorite thing about the Challenge is that we cheer each other on. Everyone can use a little encouragement from time to time, right? That's what visiting and commenting is for! Seeing that people have read what you've written. And they are engaging with your content. And letting you know you are doing an excellent job.

Keep going! Keep exploring! Tell us about your visiting experiences in the comments!

Visit some fellow bloggers, and leave some encouraging words! 
Isn't it nice to cheer each other on?
 

#AtoZChallenge D is for Doors #flashfiction Drabble

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The team's theme of the April Blogging from A to Z Challenge this year is:
ACCOMPLISHING YOUR DREAMS, AND THE DUALITY OF 22


The WEP team has accepted the challenge to write for the A – Z. This time we’re playing tag with the letter “D”. We’ve decided D is for Door/s. As we’re lovers of #flashfiction, we’re writing in the form of “Drabble” = flash fiction of exactly 100 words. (Yolanda Renee is on hiatus).
WEP 2022
 

Behind the Door

 
I’ll be lighthearted some time and peer in -
behind the door will be the ball you forgot,
neat hooks to hang things, walls that look too clean -
except a backpack-shaped amorphous spot
where that hung for years. A square rim of grime
will mark out a photoframe and passing time.
 
I’ll be lighthearted someday again between
your coming and going, growing, nothing caught
on the wardrobe shutters, bedclothes pristine.
Just some odd scraps of poems I once wrote
for some vanished milestone, in half-slant rhyme
will claw at my days and at passing time.

 
Nilanjana is a bi-lingual writer, blogger and market researcher. She specialises in poetry, panic and tinkering with bucket lists. Her physical address keeps changing now and then but thankfully her online home is constant at Madly-in-Verse.
 

They Told Her


She sat in front of the hedge where everyone told her there wasn’t a door. It didn’t lead to anywhere other than the neighbour’s yard. And Mr. and Mrs. Harrison wouldn’t appreciate either a hole in their hedge or a girl’s footprints on their perfect grass.

They told her the hedge was made only of leaves and branches. They told her there wasn’t a land full of wonder and magic beyond. They rolled their eyes and laughed. There definitely wasn’t a door in the hedge.

She pushed to her feet and opened the door anyway.


Jemi Fraser writes small-town romantic suspense stories filled with heart and humour.


Behind the Basement Door

 
It's also inspired by real life tornados that went through my state recently.
 
 
Huddled under the table, Mable cuddled into her mama’s side. The basement door rattled 
on its hinges. The wind howled.
 
Mama stroked her hair. “It’ll be okay, baby girl. The storm will pass soon.”
 
Mable knew what a tornado was. She’d seen pictures of them and the damage they could do. 
She never dreamed she would have to hide from one.
 
She covered her ears as the roar outside grew louder. She couldn’t block it out no 
matter how hard she tried.
 
The storm would pass soon, she hoped, but what would await them when 
they opened that basement door?

 
L.G. Keltner writes many things, though primarily sci-fi, while also caring for 
her energetic children. She lives in a small town in Iowa.

Romi Ran


Romi ran. If the enemies caught her, they would shoot her. Their boots trampled behind the corner, loud in the silence of the night. The houses stood dark, afraid. She didn’t dare knock on doors. Nobody would let her in, not against the occupants’ orders. Suddenly, stairs to a basement yawned in a narrow lane between two houses. At the bottom of the short staircase, choked with garbage, a half-door was ajar. Romi stumbled down and crawled in. She pushed the door shut, leaned on it. The enemies’ boots slapped past, their barrage receding. Safe for now. She started shaking.


Olga Godim is a speculative fiction writer from Vancouver, Canada. 
When she doesn’t write, she reads and makes book covers.

Vampire Hunter


The crumbling bricks of the castle behind me, I happen upon a twisting stone path below street level. I follow its twists and turns, sheltered by branches above which shake and whisper in the evening breeze. I imagine they warn: beware. The moon gives enough light for me to see. Around the curve, a door appears.  I stop. Look. See no one. See no thing. Where does this door lead? The hairs on my arms raise. To the subterranean tunnels beneath the surface where the vampires live? I feel the heft of steel in my hand. I push open the door.


Denise Covey is an Australian author of contemporary and paranormal romance. When she’s not dreaming up stories based on her travels, she loses herself in the pages of books.


Do you ever write flash fiction?



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Monday, April 4, 2022

#AtoZChallenge C is for “Creativity vs. Conventionality”

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The team's theme of the April Blogging from A to Z Challenge this year is:
ACCOMPLISHING YOUR DREAMS AND THE DUALITY OF 22

C = “Creativity vs. Conventionality”

When I learned I'd be assigned to write for the letter "C" for the A to Z team post, the first word that came to mind was creativity — mostly because so much of what I do for work as well as for fun requires that aptitude. Over the decades, it’s a "muscle" that I've worked out a lot. So, I know it to be well-developed when it comes to the way I approach most things in life. 

In deciding to view creativity through the lens of the A to Z theme of duality the concept that came to mind as being the opposite of creativity, to me, was conventionality. And so, it is the inverse nature of those two concepts that I've chosen to write about today . . . but, through a blogging perspective.

Balancing the Creative and Conventional

When you consider the life of a blogger, there are likely many habits and rituals that contribute to the convention of writing and posting to a blog on a recurring basis.

Every blogger has their own individual process that likely benefits from the use of something conventional. Perhaps it presents itself in the form of sitting down to write at the same time every day or routinely doing Task A before completing Task B and Task C. Perhaps your convention is eating the same breakfast every morning or wearing the same sweater when you write.

Some conventions are arbitrary to one's creative process and are just convenient or the result of "doing what you've always done."  But, some conventions are essential and necessary to a blog's longevity, such as those used to reinforce branding objectives . . . or those that allow followers to feel continuously connected to the content of a beloved blog.

What Conventions Inspire Your Creativity

Still, as non-creative as some conventions might be, there are benefits to having them . . . if they serve as the foundation on which one builds something creative and original. So, it's not a bad idea to periodically review your creative process and note the conventions that work for or against your creativity as it pertains to your blogging process. Are the habits and conventions you use every day working well for your process . . . or are they detrimental and dousing your creative spark?

As bloggers and creatives, we have to routinely walk the line between conventionality and creativity to come up with something relatable, yet original for the masses. What conventions will you rely on to spark original blog posts throughout the month of April as you write for the A to Z challenge? How do you use conventions to spark your creativity?

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Are there any conventions or habits within your creative process that spurs
innovative ideas for your blog or creative projects?

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Twitter @AprilA2Z@AprilA2Z
 

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2022 merchandise #atozchallenge

 

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