08 May 2015

A to Z Reflections

Well, I suppose it's time to officially wrap up this year's A to Z Challenge. It's been a blast and I will miss all the fun but's it's also a relief to get back to regular blogging and *gasp* maybe working on my novel! But first, reflections!!!


This was my second year doing the Challenge, and I feel as though each year I'll get a little better at it. Last year, I didn't have a theme and wrote every post on the day it went up. This year I planned a little bit more. I did have a theme (The Name Game!!) and before April began I had a list of topics for every letter (except 2 that needed to be figured out). I didn't write anything until the last day of March. I thought this would be the end of the world because I initially wanted every post written before April even began. 

It wasn't a disaster, though. What really saved me was having those ideas already figured out. My theme was sort of complicated in regards to putting topics with letters. I was able to rename topics so they could fit different letters, and so I was able to fit in every idea I wanted to write about. If I was figuring this out day to day, it would have been impossible. Actually writing the posts was not as hard as just figuring out where they would go. I thought I would eventually get ahead, but the best I ever did was writing posts the day before. A few I even wrote on the day they were posted, depending on how much I had procrastinated the day before (usually to the point where I was too tired to write the posts). 

I really liked my topic. I had fun with it. Some ideas came to me right away, others took a bit. I did feel like my enthusiasm wore out as the Challenge went on, and that my earlier posts were better quality than the later ones. I also kind of gave up on finding pictures or gifs to go with the posts. It was a hard topic to find pics for, so after a certain amount of searching and not finding anything, it was easier just to forget about it. 

Where I was really disappointed in myself was in visiting other blogs. I did not get around to a lot of new blogs. I would usually start the day by just going through my blog feed, but since a lot (A LOT.) of blogs I already follow were doing the Challenge, it was a lot to get through. A few times I did try to pick at the list, usually looking at the WR blogs, but I didn't do this as much as I wanted. I was also a minion/sidekick for the first time this year, so I did get to check out a lot of new blogs that way. 

All right, I'm rambling again so I'll wrap this up! Having a theme was super helpful, as well as planning out all of my ideas. I think if I do the Challenge next year, I'd like to actually write the posts ahead of time so that I'll have the month of April just to look at blogs. 

Don't forget to sign up for The Muse Party Blogfest!!! I've already gotten more signups than I thought I'd ever get (you guys are awesome!), but there's still room for more! It should be lots of fun! 

14 comments:

  1. I loved your theme. Probably because I can't shut up about character development and their names are so important. Yay for The Muse Party Blogfest!!!! :D

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  2. You had a great theme. Even with writing all my posts ahead of time, I still found it hard to visit new blogs because of all the ones I was already following. I used minion duty to read news ones and called it good.

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  3. I agree. I wrote all my posts in advance, but it still takes up a lot of time and energy to a) visit those who visit you and b) to visit new blogs as well.

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  4. That's all I could manage - just visiting my regulars. Fortunately, some new people found me.

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  5. Themes are part of why I love A to Z.

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  6. The Name Game was seriously the most creative one. I mean, blog posts with such a defined topic with basically no scope of diverting in the middle of the challenge (I diverted, if just a little) are hard to find. When found, they make an amazing read!

    Loved it! <3
    Mithila @Fabulus1710

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  7. I thought your posts were great! I wouldn't have known they were written at short notice, and didn't see a dip in quality, it looked pretty seamless from here. :) I usually didn't get everything done I wanted to do every day, so I mixed it up by some days visiting new blogs and some days getting to a bunch of my regulars. I would return comments last thing at night and many of those were regulars, anyway.

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  8. Congrats on finishing the challenge :)! I definitely wouldn't have been able to finish the challenge if i hadn't figured out my topics beforehand. I also found it difficult to visit new blogs - I managed a few, but that's something I'm aiming to work on for next year :)

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  9. Writing posts ahead of time definitely makes the challenge easier. I've done four now and the two I posted ahead of time were the most successful. Congrats on making it through the challenge!

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  10. Loving your theme :) I think it's really interesting seeing what everyone chose for their themes! This was my first year and I didn't have a theme - I like to just write about whatever I fancy in the moment - made for some hair raising days lol
    Popping by on the A to Z Road Trip
    Debbie
    www.myrandommusings.blogspot.com

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  11. Just now getting around to visiting the blogs in the challenge. April was a busy month for me. Congrats on completing the A to Z Challenge! Looking forward to next year! See you on the Road Trip!

    Mary
    www.JingleJangleJungle.net

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  12. Just calling in to say hi on the road trip of the A-Z Challenge. Congratulations on completing the challenge.

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  13. Just calling in to say hi on the road trip of the A-Z Challenge. Congratulations on completing the challenge.

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  14. Hello there.
    Congratulations on completing the challenge! This was my second year too. I didn't get to visit your blog during April, but I'm popping over today from the Road Trip.

    Entrepreneurial Goddess

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