On writing over 20,000 words about TV Sitcoms #AtoZChallenge

I completed the #AtoZChallenge. I honestly didn't think it was possible.

26 posts in 26 days of the month (Sundays off!) based on a theme of my choice and the 26 letters of the alphabet.  I'm a 'one post a week' kinda guy. That's been my average for over a decade now. 26 was way out of my comfort zone.

Especially when I saw all the awesome themes bloggers from across the world were writing on, it got even more intimidating. I like having something unique to offer and I was sure I'd be dwarfed by the lyrical prose on offer from everyone else.

On Choosing TV Sitcoms as my theme

Writing about TV Sitcoms was not a sudden decision. I've honestly always wanted to do it. I'm a sitcom buff since a very young age and have always loved collecting trivia. The now defunct blog of mine, The Appletini, was in fact initially created with the idea of just sharing trivia on TV, movies and entertainment. But I just was not able to handle two blogs simultaneously.

When it came to making my A to Z List, I didn't have to look far.
I found entries as far back as in a 2014 diary, detailing the format I wanted. Even the idea to end it with a section on "What Aliens Would Think of Us Based Solely On This Show" was conceived years ago.

The 2016 shortlist. 

The 2014 long list extended across three pages!

That was part of the need to have a unique voice. But as always, life ensured I never followed up on that idea... until this challenge came along.

Many shows like MASH, The Wonder Years, Scrubs, The X-files  and The Golden Girls were pretty much locked in years ago. I consider these evergreen classics. There is genuine love as I talk of them in their posts - I want everyone to know these shows and enjoy them the way I did,

Others like MasterChef Australia & Brooklyn Nine-Nine snuck in on the basis of consistently good performances which deserved recognition. They are not classics yet... but they will be a generation from now. 

House, Friends and so many other superb shows were there in the initial list and seemed easy choices. And yet, they didn't make it, losing out to less popular shows like Happy Endings and Fringe.

That was deliberate. Some shows need no introduction to the present generation. Others remain criminally underrated and needed people to know of their existence: I actually ended up doing a whole post just on Underrated Shows That Deserved More Love.

Labour of love: 

The idea was to write short 300-500 word posts so as to be able to properly pace myself and complete the challenge, considering I spend most of my hours inside an operation theatre with limited access to the internet or even laptop. And yet a part of me demanded that the articles be worthy - someone who had not seen the show should leave the page knowing everything about it that mattered.

It was a tough balance. What should have been a tough 13,000 word challenge (500 words x 26 posts) ended up being a monumental 20,000+ word encyclopedia of TV shows with over 1.5 GB of photos shortlisted & downloaded and then edited to meet the needs of the post. 

Tons of research did go into it, seeking data and facts and crunching down the numbers (total episodes, awards) while also seeking out trivia for each individual show.

The Final A to Z list of TV sitcoms.

You can access them all here.

Lists:

Some letters posed a challenge for me. There were shows which started with that letter but I wasn't convinced they were worthy of an entire post (sorry, Quantico. Not yet.). That's when I used some creative license, eschewing the description of an individual TV show for lists involving many.
This gave me the added benefit of talking about other shows that did not make the list but deserved to be spoken of. This was also more painstaking since it meant seeking out dozens of TV shows for a single post instead of just one.

But I learned a lot too while researching and ended up with some of the best and most loved posts of the challenge here. My own favourite lists include:

• TV Couples We Adore
• 50 Hollywood Stars who Started off in Television Shows
• TV Shows inspired by Real Life People
• Villains Who Elevated Their TV Shows

There's even a hybrid post which is both an ode to a television show as well as a list with "10 times Star Trek: The Next Generation Boldly Went Where No Other Show Dared to"

One among more than a 120 pictures that were tailor made 

to suit the post

The list of TV stars who were successful on two or more shows was even more arduous as I had to find individual pictures of stars from two shows and then edit them all into new pictures. 

In each of the List posts, I gave the readers the chance to chime in and add their own personal favourites related to that particular topic, thus allowing for some unique opinions and helping me out with ones I may have missed while making the list. 

End result:

I joined the challenge three days before it began. But surprisingly, I was always at least three posts ahead of the deadline, completing my last post with a whole week to spare.

What worked for me and what I can recommend to you is this:

• Having a fixed template for all posts meant I just had to fill in the blanks.
• Love for the theme - it's easy when it is TV Shows!
• Keep it small entertaining - Give the readers something they would enjoy reading.
• Interaction - I got friends and fellow bloggers to try to guess which TV show would appear the next day corresponding to the letter. This gave me a fresh perspective on others' views, their expectations as well as made it a fun guessing game which kept readers waiting for the next post.

I personally had a great time achieving both goals -  completing the challenge as well as making articles I wanted on each TV show.

What comes next:

Here's the thing: My #AtoZChallenge is not over yet.

I've bookmarked the main link page at the A to Z Challenge site as well as certain blogs whose themes I loved.

In the weeks and possibly months to come, I want to seek out more themes from the 1343 other fellow challengers and learn from them - just as I had an advantage with my (totally useless) knowledge of TV Sitcoms, their far more useful knowledge on themes as varied as decor, recipes, life in the army and even dogs offers me mini encyclopedias on so many facets of the world and help me expand my knowledge and make new blogger friends simultaneously.

It's what we call a WIN-WIN situation. I certainly recommend it to you too.
You can read about the insights of fellow A to Z Challenge Survivors here.

Of course, if you are going to start seeking out themes, you could always start with my handy list of facts and trivia about TV Sitcoms! Touchwood, you will find a new awesome show to love.