This was my first year participating in the A to Z blogging challenge, and I only heard about it in March. I wasn’t too sure about signing up, because I’d already committed to Camp NaNoWriMo, and I suspected two challenges in the one month was a good idea!
Well, probably it wasn’t. A to Z took a lot more time than I had expected, not because of writing the blog posts (which turned out to not be that difficult!), but because there were so many other blogs I wanted to visit and comment on, and so many new friends on Twitter to chat to. Sadly, Camp NaNoWriMo lost out, and although I did make it to 29,000 of my aim of 50,000, I did mostly stop writing in the second half of the month.
But, I’m still really glad I did A to Z. Blogging every day was really good for me, and made me realise that I can do it! I made the effort to learn how to follow blogs (which I hadn’t done before), so now I know how to keep up with all the new friends I made! I also learned that writing a blog post every day is completely possible, and scheduling is great.
You can check out my A to Z blog posts here.
But the best part about it, was getting some active conversation going here on my webpage, and joining in on conversations on other blogs.
Some of my favourite blogs to visit were:
Blabbin’ Grammy – with her awesome continuing story that kept me coming back for each new installment.
CHICADEROCK – for her touching stories about her life in Galicia, North-West Spain. And for being a great person to chat with.
Kelly’s Eye – for writing thoughts, cool songs, and again being a great person to get to know.
One Thousand And One Parsecs – Absolutely the best sci-fi theme, exploring so many different aspects of the genre, and really getting me thinking.
There are SO many others that I really enjoyed reading, it would take me hours to list them all. I have many bookmarked, and plan to keep checking back on everyone’s blogs. A big thank you to all the people I haven’t personally named, you really made this experience great.
And to the moderators, who posted such helpful tips on subscribing to pages, making subscriptions easy, and motivating us to keep going, an extra special thank you.
I’ll definitely be back next year!
Glad to here you enjoyed the challenge too, and it keeps going with the reflections posts, as everyone is mentioning more great blogs for us all to visit, congratulations on completing your challenge.
Yes, I know! I keep discovering new blogs, and I’m sad I missed them until now. Thanks for visiting.
I really enjoyed following it and will hopefully take part next year (assuming I’m not crazy enough to be doing postaday 2014 which I’m pretty sure I won’t be! Once is more than enough!)
Yes, I’m not sure I could do a post a day for a whole year! I’m in awe.
That said, if you’re already writing a post a day, theming them to the letters of the alphabet for a month wouldn’t be that much harder!
I think it might even be easier, as it would give me a topic! My difficulty now is constant inspiration!
Yes, I think that was my favourite bit about it. Picking most of my topics in advance (to be sure I could come up with something for all the letters), really helped me write consistently. So much so that I’ve written out a plan for May too.
This is great. You’ve finished well and decided to come back. Well done 🙂
http://effervescencia.blogspot.co.uk
Thanks Udita. I think I gained a lot from this challenge, so coming back didn’t even need thinking about.
Yeah, Camp NaNo and A-Z in one month isn’t the best of ideas. I managed to win Camp NaNo (got over my 30,000 word goal), but I completely failed at commenting as much as I’d hoped in A-Z.
Yes, I think I really should have set my goal to 30,000! I could have just scraped in at that one. I also didn’t comment as much as I would have liked, but I think I did okay for a first try! Hopefully next year will be smoother.
Congratulations on the completion of the Challenge,
also a great reflection post.
Yvonne.
A TO Z AMBASSADOR
Thanks for visiting Yvonne. I had a great time with the challenge, so the reflections post was easy to write!
This was my first A to Z, too. I completed it but failed to write any new fiction during the month. Great meeting you!
I didn’t do too badly the first week or two, when it was school holidays, but mid way through all my daughter’s activities started up again, and I swear we were never home! Didn’t help at all.
But I think the investment in blogging and building a reader base will pay off in the long run. I can always write next month! (So long as I actually do that, and don’t find some other excuse!) Nice meeting you too.
Congrats, Rinelle. I enjoyed coming in here and reading your posts, and plan to continue my visits. Even if I’m a bit late sometimes …:)
Great posts for the Challenge and in general!
Thanks Silvia. I plan to keep visiting all my new friends too (as time allows).
Thanks for all your nice comments. The hardest part for me was the commenting and hopping. Are you doing it next year or is it too early to ask? See you on twitter.
The commenting and hopping was definitely the most time consuming part. I think I’ll probably do it again next year, and probably even look around for more challenges to participate in after I get over this one! It was a great way to meet new people, and I did enjoy it. Must finish the current draft of my novel first though, it suffered badly during the challenge.