Well I did it! I survived the A-Z Blog Challenge for the second year in a row.
This year I had a theme. Last year I winged it. Was it easier with a theme? Yes I think overall it was easier. The only problems came on those pesky letters U, X and Y where I really had to stretch to come up with something. The rest weren't too hard. Last year I had a lot more hard letters.
This year I pre-wrote a couple of weeks of posts. That helped me immensely as my April got busy at work and it was hard to write. I would definitely do that again.
I didn't get to visit a lot of new blogs. I did go through the list (which is super long) and tried to pick blogs to check out because of their name. I went to lots of them and if it looked like something to read, I would try it out. But so many of the blogs are writers looking to write stories and that's not what I want to read about I think I gave up. I did find a few new blogs that I'm following that I am looking forward to reading.
If your blog post was long or had lots of pictures, I really didn't read it. Sorry but I don't have a lot of time to get into some of those posts. I tried to keep mine pretty short this year (taking the challenge leaders advice) and I think that worked well for me. Especially with the topic I chose.
Would I do this again? I honestly don't know. I missed my random blog posts (which I tried to do with my Friday Fragments and Hodgepodge) but I know I missed talking about things in April. If I do it, I will definitely use a theme.
I agree having a theme helped. I also agree there were lots of blogs with writers and stories. One I found told a story in 100 or less words; that was a neat blog to read. I randomly blog, maybe no more than four times a month, so blogging every day was a challenge in keeping track of comments received, blogs visited, my regular blogs I follow, etc. I did really well visiting blogs at the beginning of the challenge, but did dwindle it as the month went by :)
ReplyDeletebetty
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ReplyDeleteI think all of you did an awesome job with the challenge...not sure I could have stayed with it that long.
ReplyDeleteHi Tracy,
ReplyDeleteI agree that the the A-Z Challenge was tough in part because it did restrict what I really wanted to write about. That's pretty much what I said in my reflection here too. http://www.singlemomsmiling.com/marriage-lessons-learned-z-challenge/
April's also my busiest work month so I have a lot more blogs to catch up on. Looks like I'll be A-Z'ing it through the year, not just through April! Congratulations on finishing!
Hats off to all of you that did the A-Z Challenge! But, I'm with you, I get lost in those that are extra long are have a ton of photos. Just not to my liking. Happy midweek!
ReplyDeleteCongratulations on completing the challenge.
ReplyDeleteI agree that scheduling posts definitely helps, as well as having a theme to help you to come up with things to post.
Hello there.
ReplyDeleteCongratulations on completing the challenge! Thanks for sharing. I'm just stopping by briefly before the next A-Z Challenge begins. Visiting from the 2014 A-Z Road Trip.
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