Blog every day?! 2014 A to Z Challenge reflections

After a whirlwind April, it’s finally May – and the A to Z blogging challenge is over.

Since 2012, I’ve really enjoyed participating in this yearly blogging challenge, and whenever it finishes, I typically ask myself “Why don’t I do this every month?”

Well, the obvious answer is “Hell’s bells, I just don’t have that kind of time!” Between working my day job, editing my literary magazine (and finding new recruits to help me with it), and continuing to write and publish – and market – books on a regular basis, my life is pretty full already.

But blogging is definitely fun, and it’s always something I have on my To Do list that I look actually forward to doing.

So why is it so hard to keep up the momentum of blogging daily?

Part of it is because of this whole internal debate most writers have, perpetually asking themselves “Why should I write anything for free?” (Which is a blog post for another day!) Another part of it is simply that by adding more writing to your writing workload, you tend to get burnt out, or it simply becomes harder to finish all of your other writing projects. Since I’m always juggling at least 3 projects at once, things can definitely get tricky the more writing you feel you have to put out on a daily basis – especially if any of it is intended for immediate consumption.

Still, I do appreciate the discipline it takes to write a blog on a daily basis, and I do believe it makes me a better writer. So why don’t I do it?

I don’t have a truly legitimate answer to that question, other than the fact that some days I just don’t want to write a blog post. Some days I’d rather pen a private journal in a notebook just for me, or scribble some poems, or even try to get some of my crime writer friends to help me write a bank heist story over Facebook (which I did today, and by the way: if any Montreal bankers are reading this, please tell the police that all those Google searches I did for specs of that outdoor vault in the Old Port were totally for fictional use only).

In the end, I think I enjoy the A to Z challenge so much precisely because it’s only one month out of the year. It’s something to look forward to, and it’s a fun way to meet your writing goals. This year I also did Camp NaNoWriMo (with a goal of 15,000 words), and at least half of that word count came from my A to Z blog posts. (The other half were dedicated to my Zodiac Sex book, which should be ready for release in June if all goes well.)

I do plan to reformulate these posts into an ebook (complete with racy flash fiction!) during the month of May, so if you’re interested in pre-ordering a copy, the book will be titled Play With Me: Sex Toys from A to Z. You can order your copy for the mega-low price of $2.99 via Paypal here.

So all in all, I’m happy about my work this month on the A to Z challenge, and I my have even attracted a few new avid readers interested in my sex-related writing projects. If you’re one of them, please sign up for my mailing list so we can keep in touch! (I promise never to spam you, and this list will deliver content to your inbox just once a week.)

The next challenge is… coming up with a theme for 2015!