Monday 7 May 2012

A-Z Reflections

The  A-Z April Challenge 2012 was certainly a highlight 
for me personallysatisfying to the core. 
Now exhausted but happy, 
I look forward to the next steps of getting   
a book out in print or circulating in the great electronic library out there.

At the beginning of the Challenge, the possibilities were daunting. 
A plan did not emerge immediately. I played it by ear, with this and that. 

I turned to visual prompts and worked on two favourite places. 
Malacca in Malaysia, from a historical point of view kicked off with 
E for Mista Ee, based on an ancestor and his family.

A recent visit to Istanbul and Cappadocia inspired 
the stories around F for Feriha,  the hamam masseuse and her band. 
This journey came back full circle to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
with one of the characters, Q for Quraishah. 

Characters seemed to develop one story after the other, 
each taking on a life of their own. 
I was pleasantly surprised by the flow of ideas.
My play on the choice of names and their meanings was aimed 
at highlighting how tradition and culture still 
play an important role in individual lives 
in the parts of the world mentioned. 


Positive outcomes:
  • a well organised Challenge with great support;
  • developing self confidence in publishing a story;
  • exposure to other bloggers of similar genre.



Suggestions: 
  • categorising genres eg. flash fiction, cooking, gardening, spiritual etc would make it much easier to filter through 1900 blogs and perhaps weed out the advertisers and marketing sites.
  • categorising or indicating city and country of origin. This will identify the gaps and improve participation from more countries. 

6 comments:

Amelia said...

Wonderful reflection post! I remember at the beginning that we were both unsure of what we'd gotten ourselves into! Thanks for all the support and prodding to churn out a post! And I'm so glad for you that so many characters were birthed out of this process :) Mista Ee!

Ro @ Eat Live Move said...

I really like your categorizing idea! Thanks for sharing your thoughts!

T. Powell Coltrin said...

I'm so glad you're going to e-Book it. Me too. It's going to take some editing. :)

It was fun, wasn't it?

Teresa

VonLCid said...

I love the categorizing idea. Part of the fun for me was reading other bloggers who where doing flash fiction too. I loved reading what others were writing.

Thanks and I'll be sure to keep coming back to see what you're up to.

Best regards,
Von L

EvalinaMaria said...

Congratulation on finishing the challenge. I didn't visit all blogs during the challenge but, cross my heart, I'm visiting every single one with reflections post! Thank you for sharing your thoughts.

Evalina, This and that...

boy from dungun said...

well done. good characters and great stories, i enjoyed reading them all.