From your perch on the fence, you’ve seen the A to Z Challenge banners pop up around the place. You’re thinking that WordPress is looking smart, spruced up as its is with all the banner colour around and you sense a stirring excitement amongst your fellow bloggers. Your creative juices are starting to flow – the Challenge is about to begin.

You then start to seriously consider taking part and the executive committee inside your head starts its questioning. Can I handle a blog a day? Is this too big a time committment? What happens if I miss a post? Is my writing up to scratch? Will I know what to do?

Let me help you to address the concerns of the executive committee.

Dear Committee Members,

Thank you for under taking your usual comprehensive risk analysis on the proposed activity.

Your concerns have been noted and can be mitigated as follows:

• X may not blog every day, but X knows that X has several posts in them. Sometimes X gets the urge to post more than once a day because X reads or experiences something that triggers the words. There are plenty of people who undertake the Challenge without a plan and blog off the cuff.

• Alternatively, X may choose a theme for his/her blog posts which will give his/her alphabetical creations a bit more structure. Doing the research for the posts will an enjoyable and educating process.

• There is always an opportunity for X to programme his/her work to post on a given day and time, so that X does not have to write every day. This is particularly useful if X knows he/she has a another commitment during April.

• If X misses a day or two or three, X can make up the missing posts during the Challenge. There are plenty of bloggers who post multiple posts to catch up.

• The posts don’t need to be particularly long. Whilst it’s up to X to choose the length, a rule of thumb is that the optimal length for a Challenge is between 250 and 750 words. It’s quality that matters, not quantity.

• Every participant brings something individual to the Challenge. X’s writing and ideas are unique.

• The concept behind the Challenge is simple, blog and comment. X is undertaking these activities already with much aplomb.

This is a unique opportunity for X to grow as a blogger.

Rest assured that the Committee’s work is appreciated, however April will be the optimal time for the Committee to take a much needed vacation.

Still note sure?

Take a look at some of these WordPress blogs taking part in this year’s Challenge:

Daily (W)rite – Damyanti is a Challenge co-host and will be showcasing Indie books and authors

Circles Under Streetlights – first Challenge and writing about all things bookish, writing and fictiony

Sound of One Hand Typing – an A to Z chronicle of White Sox baseball players. Batter Up!

Tropical Territory – the theme of this blog is pictures from Australia’s Northern Territory, particularly the Top End. Can’t wait to see what this blogger comes up with.

Peter Denton – Writer – Peter writes flash fiction, scripts and short stories

A Common Sea – returning for a second round after last year’s Challenge

Bob’s Wife – who will be sharing little illustrations of the Islands of the Philippines … from vignettes of beautiful scenery to images of the Filipino way of life

Mental Indigestion – blogging about imaginary friends

Irreverent Feminist – a feminism theme

The Speeding Turtle Gets Fit – a new blog from a new blogger. If you do nothing else, check out the fantastic banner photo on this blog!

And there’s a whole lot more WordPress blogs taking part, not to mention a bunch of Blogger blogs. Total participants now number more than 1,200.

That fence starting to feel slightly uncomfortable?

Hop on down and join us. 1 April is just around the corner.

Join up by clicking the here.

It as easy as …..the quick brown fox jumping over a lazy dog post!