Quick update:
I am keeping up with my French writestreak, but I have decided not to keep cross-posting it here. I may do so if something interesting comes up, but otherwise it serves little purpose being in two places. I'm not there yet, but the daily writing task is definitely moving me past my writer's block in French, and I feel more ready to write when needed. So far I am completing one exercise from my 100% réussite book each day. I realize now that I can't just do each task type once, and move on. Once I finish with the workbook I will go back and do a fresh answer to some of the exercises. My hope is that I will become accustomed to the types of phrases I would need in any question of a similar type. There are a few types of questions on the A2 exam: the first question is described as creative writing, and it will ask me to describe a personal event, a holiday, a visit, a family occasion, a holiday, or something like that. The second question will involve answering something (an invitation, an email or letter, a petite annonce, etc), either accepting or explaining why I can't accept, and asking for more details about the thing. I think if I have made several attempts on my own to answer a wide variety of these types of questions, it should be pretty simple to answer whatever they ask on the day.
The tricky part for me will be things like the conventions for informal or formal letters, vs formal or informal emails, blog posts, etc. Looking up online "how to write a letter in French" and so on, there are so many possibilities for formal and informal greetings and closing statements. I have decided that I just need to pick
one formal option which would be applicable in multiple situations (letter, email, internet, etc) and
one informal option. For example, I got "Je vous envoie mes amicales pensées" from a website as an example of a formal closing option. A French speaker replied to the post that "La formule que tu as employée n'existe pas vraiment mais elle est envisageable dans un contexte où tu t'entends bien avec le ou la prof". In other words, he doesn't recognize the closing, but it sort of works. He suggested "Cordialement/Respectueusement", which I will bank away as two good options for a formal letter or email. For a formal greeting I will stick with "Cher Monsieur/Chère Madame" or for a person with a given title something like "Monsieur le Directeur", "Monsieur le Maire", etc. For an informal letter or message I think I'll go with "Salut [name]" or something like that. For closing an informal message I'll probably go with "À bientôt !" Simple is best for these openings and closings. I could see myself getting hung up on how exactly to start and wasting a lot of time! Which, of course, is something that happens in a petit Nicolas story.
Another new thing is that I have decided to tailor my reading and watching/listening to exam prep rather than simply things I enjoy... just for a while! So, for example I've found a bunch of podcasts and YouTube videos from "Learn to French" which are oriented towards helping with DELF. I've also bought a kindle copy of "Conversational French Dialogues". There are at least 3 books which have a similar title, but I just picked the one that had the most positive reviews. I intend to read and re-read the dialogues, and take note of some phrases which will be useful for the DELF. I might even make some flashcards, but I dunno.
I also started to look at GCSE French resources, since GCSE is approximately A2, and topics for the oral portion are similar to DELF topics. I have found a set of podcasts aimed at helping GCSE students pass the oral exam (
https://learnfrenchwithlara.com/french-gcse-podcast/), which look like they will be good listening material for at least a few commutes.
Finally, I'm switching my main podcast choice from "Easy French" to "Paris oclock", which is definitely at more of an A2 level. When I start an episode I'm almost shocked at how slow she speaks! However, the topics are really interesting (mostly about culture and history), and the level of language is more appropriate for my exam prep. At this point, I'm better off hearing natural but slow French and understanding 100% of the words, than something at a more natural pace but which I miss a lot of little words here and there. In other words, I'm expecting the language in "Paris oclock" to be a sort of model for how I can speak on the oral portion of the DELF exam. I really would recommend "Paris oclock" to any learner as a first foray into 100% in French podcasts for learners.
EDIT: well that was longer than a "quick update" should be!