My #atozchallenge Great Theme Reveal for 2018!

A to Z Challenge 1 Minute

It’s time for me to reveal what I’ll be writing about for this year’s A to Z Challenge.

I really had a hard time coming up with a theme for this year that would be as exciting as the last several themes have been. Three years ago, it was portmanteaus; two years ago, words that started and ended with the same letter; and last year, words that started with the letter of the day and ended with the next letter. All of those have one thing in common: they all started out as Jeopardy! categories.

Well, the categories on this year’s shows haven’t been as interesting as in years past, so I thought, and thought some more, and remembered that Jeopardy! will often have a category with words of a certain length. And, as luck would have it, I found a website called Best Word List that had alphabetical lists of words of different lengths. So, all I had to do was pick a word length, and I’d be golden. I started with nine-letter words, and noticed that a lot of them were plurals that ended in “S.” And I had this year’s theme!

Eight Letter Words!

Now, occasionally the word will be a proper name, and in others two or more words which together have eight letters. Those are usually situations where I thought of a better word (or words) for the letter after I chose one. Only one word is a plural formed by adding an “S” to the end of a seven-letter word.

So, that’s my theme this year. What do you think?

Published by John Holton

Internet disc jockey, lover of old TV (especially the commercials), inveterate wise guy.

Published

58 thoughts on “My #atozchallenge Great Theme Reveal for 2018!”

  1. Hi John: It’s been a long time since I have checked in with you. Though I believe I am following your blog, I think the posts go straight to Reader and with no e-mail notice, I hardly ever remember to check. My loss I know. I didn’t participate last year for the first time with all the screwing around they did making it too hard to bother. Obviously, I wasn’t the only one. Back with a master list, I’m on board again. This year my theme is BOOKSTORES, their architecture, location, and the great people who sell books, a passion of mine. Glad to see you are still toiling away in the blogging world. It has made me a better writer and I bet you feel that way too. If you have time or interest, come visit. Raising a glass of sweet tea in finding you and your blog once again.

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  4. Your themes are always so unique! Can’t wait to see what you write. I hate to ask you again (I asked you last year) but I forgot the code to add my URL link to comments. I wrote it down last year with the intent to keep it, but somehow that paper got thrown away (or lost). I looked for the post you wrote about this but couldn’t find it. Maybe it’s there…these darn cataracts! Thank you.

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  6. This is certainly a novel way of choosing a theme; I’m looking forward to reading your posts. Thank you for dropping by on my blog. This is only my second year participating and the first time I just picked a random idea every day – I really struggled to come up with with a theme this year, but I am determined to stay with it.

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    1. I find that Jeopardy! is a good source for annual themes. When I see a good category, I jump on it. I just haven’t seen many this year. I find I have much better luck with wordplay. I went without a theme a few years ago, and while it wasn’t as satisfying, it went well for me. Good luck!

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    1. I know I learned a few new words with it. This should be a good theme, and I know that if I’m stuck for a theme next year I can always go with a similar one. Wordplay always works out well for me.

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  9. I think that anyone who writes has a love affair with words, and enjoys playing with them too! This sounds like a fun theme, and since I’m new here, I’m eager to see what you do with the words each day. I’ll be following! 🙂

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    1. Jeopardy! is a great source for A to Z themes. They usually have at least one wordplay category per game, and I watch with an eye toward whether it’ll be a good one.

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  11. I will be looking forward to your A to Z because you always create something so interesting and difficult. I can’t help but think Charlie Chaplin would read your A to Z because he loved words and would read the dictionary and learn one new word per day.

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    1. I kept the words relatively simple this year, because I didn’t want to spend that much time doing research. I think I did a good job picking them.

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  13. Ooh, nicely done! I still remember all the portmanteaus, that was an excellent theme! This one will make for great Scrabble words, I just know it! I’m excited 🙂

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    1. The site I used to get the words looks like a really good one for Scrabble, and it isn’t the only one out there. Guess you need an iPad to look the words up while you’re playing…

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  16. Your themes are always enjoyable and educational, and I really like the thought process and the work you put in behind them. Looking forward to April and A-Z.

    Best always,
    Nilanjana
    Madly-in-Verse

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    1. Thanks! The word lists definitely were a help here. Sometimes it’s good to get a prompt from somewhere, and as often as not the words I saw made me think of different and better words. The site I linked (Best Word Lists) is going to come in very handy in the future, I can see.

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    1. Google (I use DuckDuckGo, similar but without Google’s penchant for tracking everything you do) and Wikipedia are the blogger’s best friends.

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    1. The word list helps a lot, especially near the end when there aren’t many words. I’m just about finished writing the entries, with plenty of time to edit. Should be a lot of fun!

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  24. Hi John – sounds a great idea … looking forward to seeing your choices – cheers Hilary

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  25. John,

    I’m listening to Tina rock the dance floor while I read this post. You always pull together some interesting A2Z themes and this one is no exception. I am sure to get an education visiting you daily throughout April. This kitten is ready to learn something new. Here’s to looking forward to a lot of fun in the coming weeks. Whenever you get a chance, you’re welcome to invited to read my Theme Reveal. Have a pawsome day and happy A2Zing, my friend!

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  26. Untheme is my theme. I thought Untheme was a better work than just me saying “Random things my coworkers thought up for me to write about” 🙂

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    1. I kind of like “Random things my coworkers thought up for me to write about” as a theme! But “no theme” works, too. I did that a couple of years ago, and it was fun. Good luck!

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  29. So, I clicked on an earlier post first and lemme tell ya, Ms. Tina is amazing! Wow! Eight letter words is a great theme. It’s something I would struggle with haha I can picture myself counting on my fingers. 🙂

    Elsie

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