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