A to Z Blogging Challenge - Themeing is more difficult than it sounds!

So, I've mentioned before that I'm doing the Blogging From A To Z April Challenge for a second year in a row. For anyone who doesn't know what this is, it's a month-long (April) blog hop, where bloggers all join in and post a blog post every day (except Sundays), and each post is inspired by a letter of the alphabet. Then, during April, everyone hops around to other people's blogs (the organisers recommend about five bogs a day), checking out what is going on and interacting with loads of great blogs. Personally, I found a good selection of new blogs to follow last year, some were other writers, but others I'd never have even thought of visiting without the A to Z.

Anyway, last year, I did a bunch of random posts inspired by different words starting with each letter of the alphabet, which was tough enough, but really, really fun. This year, I've decided to aim for consistency, I'm going to theme my posts. I'll be revealing my theme on 21st March as part of a one day A to Z blog hop, entitled, funnily enough, The A to Z Theme Reveal. However, before that, I've got to organise my posts around my theme and prepare the content. I'm finding this takes a lot more organisation than last year.

I want my posts to have a consistent look and feel, so I started with the easy bit, I created a theme banner while I was mulling over the alphabet-inspired posts themselves. I even came up with a format for my posts i.e. what sections are going to be in every post - I'm mixing my own fiction in the form of an original serial for the month with some fun facts around my chosen theme.

However, post design was very much displacement activity for the difficult bit, collating information and putting together content for each of those sections. X and Z are proving especially tricky! I have recently found myself consulting word lists and synonyms, trying to find appropriate words to go with each daily entry. FB3X Drabble Cascades have made me better at this, I feel, since I am used to working with a weekly idea which inspires, but doesn't necessarily have to be taken literally. However, it's still proving tricky to fill every single letter of the alphabet :).

I hope other people's preparations for the A to Z are going well. 

If you haven't signed up yet and want to, the list is still open here.