Challenges

I like a challenge to keep my reading and writing ordered. I blog about them occasionally, usually no more than quarterly, with the SpaceTimeReads update (which I run).

I now have all my challenges in this page, with sub-pages for the reading ones are going. Writing and blogging challenges tend to be self-evident on the blog.

Blog Challenges

The main blog challenge I participated in is the Blogging from A to Z April Challenge, otherwise known as AprilA2Z and other short forms. I decided I don’t keep visitors for A2Z even after I selected themes that fit more readily with ‘My Blog’. It works well for people new to blogging, though.

History:

• 2012 theme was the A to Z of the Princelings world.
• 2013 theme: short stories
• 2014 theme: the NATO alphabet
• 2015 theme: natural phenomena
• 2016 theme: world-building
• 2017 theme: My Blog
• 2018 theme: Inspirations for my writing
• 2023 theme: Books, reviewed and not

30 Days Wild

From 2018 to 2023 I’ve usually completed the UK Wildlife Trusts’ 30 Days Wild challenge throughout June.  This is really tough, since a lot of it is blogging about things you do as the month goes on, rather than scheduled posts for A to Z.  But it is fun, dynamic, and gets me out and about a bit more.

I occasionally do more ‘wild’ posts using the hashtag #staywild.

Reading Challenges

Goodreads:

2024 Reading Challenge Target: 50 books

(if you’re trying to work out how to get this widget, it’s in your Goodreads User account settings under ‘widgets’. Took me years to find it!)

History: 2023 read 69 of 52…2022 read 71 out of 52! 2021 read 61 out of 52 books; 2020 read 60/60 books; 2019 read 59/52 books; 2018 read 68/52 books; 2017 read 63/52 books; 2016 read 65/52 books; 2015 read 63/60 books; 2014 read 61/60 books; 2013 read 53/50 books.

I usually struggle if I set the target at 60, and breeze through when I put it to 52. I need one a week for Saturday reviews. Many more than that and I get a logjam, as shown in 2022 when I had several multi-book review posts..

Ten-year Non-Fiction Reading Adventure:

To read 50 non-fiction books over 10 years, 2017 to 2026. For 2023 onwards I’ve upgraded this to 100 books over 12 years. i.e. till 2028.

• 2017-2023 total: 52
• 2024: target 10

Challenges for 2023: see progress on their pages

• Mount TBR Challenge (target 36)
• Alphabet Soup Challenge 
• SpaceTime Reading Challenge (target 10)
• 2023 Finishing the Series (target 5-8 series)

History:

2015-2020:

• 2014 KidLit Safari Challenge – 8/10 sections completed
• 2014 Mad Reviewer Challenge – Crazy Reviewer award (52 books reviewed)
• 2013 YA & MG Time Travel Challenge – 10 time travel books read
• 2013 MG Classic Book Challenge – 12 books read

Writing Challenges

My main target is to submit three short stories (1000-10,000 words) to open calls this year.

Summer – Camp NaNoWriMo

In 2020 they altered the whole cabin set-up for Camp, and unless you signed up very early, there were no groups to join.  I won’t be doing it again.

• 2021 – April; wrote Zanzibar’s Rings, revised in July (but not formally in Camp NaNo)
• 2020 – April; revised Princelings Revolution
• 2019 – July; revised Chronicles of Marsh
• 2019 – April; finished the first draft of Chronicles of Marsh and wrote first draft of Princelings Revolution
• 2018 – July; revised Corsair
• 2017 – July; rewrote The Perihelix and did the first edit/rewrite of Curved Space to Corsair
• 2016 – July; finished first drafts of Willoughby the Narrator and The Princelings of the North (POTE 7 & 8)
• 2016 – April; wrote the first draft of Book 2 of the Viridian System series
• 2015 – edited the first Viridian series book – The Perihelix and sent to beta-readers
• 2014 – wrote the first draft of the first book in the Viridian System series
• 2013 – revised and rewrote Bravo Victor, book 6 in the Princelings of the East series
• 2012 – wrote the first draft of The Talent Seekers, book 5 in the Princelings series

Check out the latest posts on challenges