Last year was my first A to Z, and like most things that challenge me, I had a love-hate relationship with it. It was amazing meeting so many new blogger friends, many of whom I still chat with regularly in the blogosphere, but writing new blog posts every day nearly put me down for the count. If I was going to participate again, I had to do things differently this time.

 

Well, Jocelyn, why don’t you write your posts in advance like the sane people do? *falls to the ground laughing hysterically* Yeah, that’s not gonna happen.

 

Besides the rampant and appalling procrastination, I think my biggest issue last year was I made things too complicated. My theme was actually six different themes, one for each day of the week. The variety was supposed to keep things fresh for both my readers and me, but it ended up keeping me from finding a blogging groove. I also put a lot of unrealistic pressure on myself that every post had to be hysterically funny and deeply insightful at the same time. Yeah, that’s not gonna happen either. 

 

So I needed a simple theme, but the clock was ticking and I couldn’t think of anything. Then a few weeks ago the 15 Minute Tweet Tales word of the day was contronym, which is a word with multiple definitions that are the opposite of each other. For example: dust can mean to remove fine particles (dust the furniture) or to add fine particles (dust the cookies with sugar). 

 

Despite my love of words, I’d never heard this term before, and it kind of blew my mind. I mean, how weird is English that we have words (turns out quite a lot of them) with meanings that are complete opposites AND we actually have a word to describe that illogical phenomenon? Fascinating! Well, at least it is to this word nerd. Speaking of word nerd, here’s my tweet tale using the word contronym: Tiger was excited to hear he was being fixed, thinking his stolen claws were being replaced. Poor kitty didn’t know about contronyms.

 

As I hit up my old friend Google for more info about this new-to-me word, I found several lists with example contronyms. A whisper at the back of my brain pointed out that the words seemed to be covering a considerable span of the alphabet. I felt a thrill – could this be it? Had I finally found my theme? With more research, I found a contronym for every letter but two. Close enough! I’ll just have to be creative on those two days. 

 

I’m really excited about my contronym theme. I’ll get to explore more about this concept that has captivated me, and the posts should be relatively simple. Each day I’ll post a contronym and its contradicting definitions plus something fun to illustrate them – it might be pictures, maybe a tweet tale, perhaps a very short story, or any other ways I find to get creative. I hope you’ll drop by during A to Z to revel in word nerdiness with me.

 

But if that’s not enough to entice you back, then how about cute doggie pictures? Like last year, each day I’ll feature one of the Rish family dogs displaying the letter of the day. They’re too cute to miss! To give you a sneak peek, here’s the video I put together last year for the A to Z Video Challenge:

 

 

 

The Blogging from A to Z challenge is tough but rewarding, so if you’ve never participated before, you really should try it. Click here to sign up. Hope to see you around the alphabet in April!

 

Last year was my first A to Z, and like most things that challenge me, I had a love-hate relationship with it. It was amazing meeting so many new blogger friends, many of whom I still chat with regularly in the blogosphere, but writing new blog posts every day nearly put me down for the count. If I was going to participate again, I had to do things differently this time.

 

Well, Jocelyn, why don’t you write your posts in advance like the sane people do? *falls to the ground laughing hysterically* Yeah, that’s not gonna happen.

 

Besides the rampant and appalling procrastination, I think my biggest issue last year was I made things too complicated. My theme was actually six different themes, one for each day of the week. The variety was supposed to keep things fresh for both my readers and me, but it ended up keeping me from finding a blogging groove. I also put a lot of unrealistic pressure on myself that every post had to be hysterically funny and deeply insightful at the same time. Yeah, that’s not gonna happen either. 

 

So I needed a simple theme, but the clock was ticking and I couldn’t think of anything. Then a few weeks ago the 15 Minute Tweet Tales word of the day was contronym, which is a word with multiple definitions that are the opposite of each other. For example: dust can mean to remove fine particles (dust the furniture) or to add fine particles (dust the cookies with sugar). 

 

Despite my love of words, I’d never heard this term before, and it kind of blew my mind. I mean, how weird is English that we have words (turns out quite a lot of them) with meanings that are complete opposites AND we actually have a word to describe that illogical phenomenon? Fascinating! Well, at least it is to this word nerd. Speaking of word nerd, here’s my tweet tale using the word contronym: Tiger was excited to hear he was being fixed, thinking his stolen claws were being replaced. Poor kitty didn’t know about contronyms.

 

As I hit up my old friend Google for more info about this new-to-me word, I found several lists with example contronyms. A whisper at the back of my brain pointed out that the words seemed to be covering a considerable span of the alphabet. I felt a thrill – could this be it? Had I finally found my theme? With more research, I found a contronym for every letter but two. Close enough! I’ll just have to be creative on those two days. 

 

I’m really excited about my contronym theme. I’ll get to explore more about this concept that has captivated me, and the posts should be relatively simple. Each day I’ll post a contronym and its contradicting definitions plus something fun to illustrate them – it might be pictures, maybe a tweet tale, perhaps a very short story, or any other ways I find to get creative. I hope you’ll drop by during A to Z to revel in word nerdiness with me.

 

But if that’s not enough to entice you back, then how about cute doggie pictures? Like last year, each day I’ll feature one of the Rish family dogs displaying the letter of the day. They’re too cute to miss! To give you a sneak peek, here’s the video I put together last year for the A to Z Video Challenge:

 

 

 

The Blogging from A to Z challenge is tough but rewarding, so if you’ve never participated before, you really should try it. Click here to sign up. Hope to see you around the alphabet in April!