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Sunday, March 10, 2024

The 2024 A to Z Blogging Challenge Theme Reveal

 

Oh crap, the A to Z Blogging Challenge is approaching again! I almost ran out of time for this theme reveal.

This is my 12th year participating. Even when I am scrambling for time and attention span, I really love being part of the A to Z community. And I enjoy the challenge itself. In the past 11 years I've always had a theme:

Weird Princesses (2013)
Tales with Colors (2014)
Epics A to Z (2015)
Diversity A to Z (2016)
WTF - Weird Things in Folktales (2017)
WTF Hungary - Weird Things in Hungarian Folktales (2018)
Fruit Folktales (2019)
Folktales of Endangered Species (2020)
Tarot Tales (2021)
Gemstone Folklore (2022)
Body Folktales (2023)

I think this year (maybe due to being a new mom) it was especially, wildly difficult for me to settle on a theme. I made lists. Lots of lists. I always do "Mythology and Folklore" topics, as you see above, but I just didn't feel inspired by any of the ideas. 

I considered folktales about

- Emotions (I actually wrote 3 posts for this one and then got bored)

- Constellations (I am slowly assembling this one but it's not ready yet)

- Trees (Takes more research than I have time for)

- Natural disasters (Felt too depressing)

- Queer identities (Couldn't quite fill all the letters AND find tales for them)

- StorySpotting (Didn't want this to make watching TV feel like a chore)

- Music (Didn't wanna argue about interpreting songs)

I was about ready to give up trying to get inspired. I polled people on Mastodon and Facebook. I talked to blogger friends. Everyone had opinions on which ones would be fun to read... but nothing sat quite right. And then, finally, I remembered last year's big takeaway:

WHEN IN DOUBT, GO WITH THE IDEA THAT IS JUST DUMB FUN.

I don't need this blog series to be useful. Or neat. Or meaningful.

I just want it to be fun to research, and fun to share.

And then, finally, inspiration struck.

So, without further ado, let me present to you my theme for the 2024 April A to Z Blogging Challenge:

ROMANCE TROPES IN FOLKLORE!

A bit of context:

I don't read a lot of romance. It's not really my genre. I do appreciate romantic plots, but usually incorporated into other, larger stories. And romance tropes often feature into role-paying games, which I play and also extensively researched.

Also, I love discussing romance tropes with fellow writers and gamers. And spotting them in movies and TV shows. And I recently had a discussion with a folklorist friend about how romance clichés are not all that different from folktale motifs: they pop up again and again because people just enjoy them. We can argue till the cows come home about whether a romance trope is hurtful or elegant or overdone or cringe. But in the end, folktales are highly formulaic too, and no one accuses them of being unoriginal.

So, here is my own challenge this year: I am going to look up popular romance (novel, movie, game, etc.) tropes, and find folktales that match them. That's it.

Are you participating this year? 

Are you doing a theme reveal? 

Leave a link in your comments so I can visit back!


22 comments:

  1. Sounds like great fun! I look forward to seeing what you come up with.

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  2. Sounds like fun! And congrats on being a new mom!!! ♥

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  3. I am not a great reader of romance either but with you I have every confidence it will be fun...
    5th year for me over at https://how-would-you-know.com/2024/03/a-to-z-2024-theme-reveal.html

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  4. Twelve years as an A-to-Z participant? Good job! Great theme this year—romance tropes in folklore.

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  5. As usual, looking forward to see what you come up with.

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  6. Congratulation on being a new mum!!
    And once again, such a great theme. I can't wait to read more in April :-)

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  7. This sounds like a great theme. Romance Tropes in folklore actually sounds better to me than any of your other ideas .I like the one about music, but understand what you mean by interpretation.

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  8. This will be great! But your A to Z posts are always fun.

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  9. Congratulations on your new baby! Your themes are always so much fun. I've learnt a lot from all those folktales.

    My reveal is at http://carrieannebrownian.wordpress.com/2024/03/11/my-most-personal-a-to-z-theme-revealed/

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  10. Congratulations on becoming a mom! Your A to Z sounds interesting, especially looking at the photo you chose to illustrate it.
    https://findingeliza.com/archives/42540

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  11. Sounds like loads of fun!
    For your tree folklore research, try "The Forest in Folklore and Mythology" by Alexander Porteous.

    Ronel visiting for Theme Reveal for A to Z Blogging Challenge 2024

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  12. This sounds really fun and I can't wait to see what you come up with
    Debbie

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  13. I always love your tales - will be following along again this year!

    https://dbmcnicol.com/2024-a-to-z-theme-reveal/

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  14. Fun is fun! I hope it will be lots of fun for you, and I know your A to Z is always fun for the rest of us. Looking forward to it.
    https://nydamprintsblackandwhite.blogspot.com/2024/03/a-to-z-2024-theme-revelation.html

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  15. What a fun topic! I'm really looking forward to reading your posts, and am excited and nervous to participate for the first time ever!

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  16. Fantastic theme you've chosen for the A to Z challenge! Can't wait to see what you have in store for the next letters of the alphabet.
    https://whiskeyandwhispers.blogspot.com/2024/03/unveiling-my-atozchallenge-theme-genre.html

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  17. Fantastic theme reveal! I can't wait to explore your posts during the A to Z challenge in April. Wishing you all the best as you embark on this creative journey. Here’s a link to mine - https://hellfireandchaos.blogspot.com/2024/03/atozchallenge-theme-announcement.html

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  18. Congrats on being a new mum and I'm looking forward to what you share - I'll be sure to link it from my fairytale with a twist site!
    I’m doing the “AtoZ of me and my inspirations” and while I’m committed to doing a minimum of 26 posts, I’ll be doing extras and dragging my other blogs into it too. Mostly because I had an issue in October that means I’ve been building a blog out of the horrible thing that happened to help others.

    Kai

    https://kaiberie.com

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  19. Your A to Z sounds like a lot of fun. I look forward to reading it.

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  20. Oh, congratulations! Your theme sounds fun. I don't read romance as novels, but folklore is a different story (oops, no pun intended, really!).

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  21. ooohhhhh I'm looking forward to that.

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  22. Looking forward to reading your posts on romance tropes in folklore. I am also a romance author. Do check my posts here: https://www.sundarivenkatraman.in/

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