2022 A to Z Blog Challenge – Reflection

2022 A to Z Blog Challenge Reflection

My seventh year has come and gone. This year’s writing was truly a challenge. Instead of writing in my usual style of narrative, I chose to write each of my pieces in the form of first-person letters from one person to another. Some of the pieces were fictional letters from famous people to others, like “A” was a letter from Lewis Carroll to  Alice in Wonderland and “G” was a letter from George Washington to Martha. There were a series of letters written by me, to a fictional pen pal to relate things that happened in my life during blackouts, power failures, and blizzards (B, D, H, and I). There were a lot of rants about society and pet peeves of mine signed with made-up names (C, E, O, P, T, V, Y, and Z). And there were letters written by me to friends, my parents, my sister, and even to myself at different times in my timeline (F, L, M, N, R, and W). Then there were the letters involving the Folktale genre. Jack from the beanstalk tale gets summoned for a number of crimes including murder (J), and I combined a group of letters to create the story, “A Tale of Two Kingdoms” (K, Q, S, U, and X) –  (You can click on the link below for the whole story). That and Jack were probably my favorites.

I tried to give multiple perspectives within some of the pieces by referring to correspondence supposedly received by the writer in subsequent correspondence. If you read them, you’ll understand what I’m talking about. In the case of the Tale of Two Kingdoms, each A to Z letter used was from a different person so when combined, I could tell the complete story. 

This year more people read and commented on my entries than in previous years. I’m not sure why that was the case. But I certainly got more feedback on my writing. I also found a lot more A to Zers writing to follow and will continue to follow, especially now that April is over. By the middle of April, I spent so much time focussing on writing my pieces, that I chose to save the writing of others that I followed, in the hopes that I would get to them later. I apologize to those writers for not giving immediate feedback.

I was even inspired based on Sheri J. Kennedy’s entries,  (https://realitywithatwistbooks.wordpress.com/) to write a piece using mainly alliteration. That piece, “Frank’s Fiasco”, (also clickable below) took about 2 hours, with the listing of F words from the dictionary, and then choosing from that list to make an understandable story. 

So it was a busy month. Busier than usual for my A to Z Challenge entries. 

What follows is a hyperlinked list of all the pieces that I wrote for the 2022 A to Z Blog Challenge. You are also welcome to go to my Blog (www.hdhstory.net/storyblog) and read any of my other pieces of writing that I do throughout the year or that I have written since I retired from teaching in 2006.

A: Alice; B: Blackout – 1965; C: Conflict and Cooperation; D: Deep Snow – 1969; E: Energy Efficient Clothing; F: Future Insights; G: George; H: Hurricane Gloria – 1985; I: Tropical Storm Isaias – 2020; J: Jack; K: King’s Choices; L: Looking Forward from the Future; M: Marion; N: You Named Me What?; O: Organize; P: Pledge of Allegiance; Q: Queen’s Quandry; R: Recognize, Recall, Repeat; S: Seeking Out; T: Time Lord; U: United; V: A Visit from Venus; W: William – Friend for Life; X: eXes; Y: Yardwork; Z: Zero

The Tale of Two Kingdoms (complete)

Frank’s Fiasco – an alliterative attempt

As to next year, I definitely plan on doing it again, though I may go for a more potpourri direction which will give me more flexibility in terms of genre and style. I couldn’t figure out a way to get any poetry in this year’s writing. Hopefully next year I can get more of that into my posts. I definitely want more of the “to be continued” type stories that are spread out over the course of the month. After all, I am a storyteller.

Till then, I’ll keep on writing…and hopefully you’ll keep on following. 

Harvey Heilbrun