Another blog challenge....

Yup. It is A for April and A for the A to Z challenge, a blogging challenge I joined with my colleague Ros at HPSS whilst teaching a module about Social Media last year. Participating in Tom Barrett's #28daysofwriting challenge I remembered just how much I enjoy having a bit of external motivation to share and contribute. Starting my masters this year also means that a writing habit is probably a good thing to keep on developing.

So... It's not too late. You can join the blogging challenge too! Jump in, have a go, participate. Especially with two weeks of school holidays to get you started if you are in New Zealand. You can sign up here.


My top tips for a blogging challenge:

1. Preplan the day before when you will blog.
2. Set a timer. The 28 minutes challenge from Tom Barrett was particularly good. It forced me to write long enough to explain a single idea well. Hence, some of the more difficult to explain thoughts that had been drifting around in my head, were distilled to manageable chunks.
3. Use photos. A great way to blog if you are pressed for time is to take a couple of photos you would like to share and then caption those.
4. Try and push your creativity. Draw something. Annotate something. Review something. Try something new. Creativity is all about risk taking.
5. Because your mind will be looking for ideas to blog about, you might find that inspiration hits at weird times (the shower, in the car, whilst trying to concentrate in a meeting). Record those ideas as they are great to go back to when you are stuck. 

Good luck to all the other A to Z participants. Check out the #atozchallenge hashtag to see what they are sharing.