An A to Z Wrap-up

Wow, what a month.

It passed by in a blur and I could have slept for a week after posting my letter Z post last Tuesday. Well, if work didn’t insist on me going in to the office everyday.

Now the dust has settled, I thought I’d do a wrap-up post re my first experience of the A to Z Challenge.

Firstly, thank you all for your visits, comments, likes and support during the month. I couldn’t have completed the challenge without it.  There were over 500 comments (over 1,000 including my replies), you doubled my previous best month for hits and over 100 new followers signed up.

How was it for you?

I found this challenge more INTENSE than Camp NaNo.

You might think that’s a crazy assessment, you might not. Having to write 26 posts in one month really challenged me. I didn’t want to post a few photographs and call that it. I tried to embrace the A to Z Challenge and push myself.

Lessons Learned?

Let me clarify something. I call myself a PLANNER. I’m a DISGRACE! 🙂

My idea of planning for this challenge was so inadequate it was laughable. Seriously, I had titles for around 11 posts.

That was my extent of planning. A TITLE!

Of the 11 titles, I changed FIVE of them and had only three pre-written posts by the 1st April. On reflection, that was not enough. Next year I will have more posts drafted before the start. Promise. 🙂

I even managed to edit 12k words of I Can See You during the first couple of weeks. Next time, I need to just concentrate on the blogging during this challenge.

But, you enjoyed it, right?

I have had a blast.

Despite the poorly planned start (on my part), I’ve been more organised in my blogging than ever before and I’ve loved every minute of it. I’ve also met LOADS of new bloggers and followed many, many, many new interesting blogs.

If you’re wanting a concentrated list of new sites to visit, then I recommend the A to Z Challenge list as a great place to start. A high-percentage of sites are tagged whether they are about Writing, Books, Cookery, photography etc.

I think this was a good touch and I’ve visited a good number so far and over the next few weeks, I plan on visiting as many of the Writing related blogs on the list as I can.

I like completing these challenges and receiving the “I Survived” badge. Jeremy Hawkins from Retro-Zombie designed this one and I display it with pride.

Next Year?

If you’re thinking about taking part next April, you have plenty of time for planning your posts and I would have a theme in mind and possibly posts planned. Go on, give it a go. You might have a blast too.

Thanks for reading.

Here are a few pictures that didn’t make the cut into the A to Z Challenge Posts.

Abe and Jezz as kittens

Bath – Pulteney Bridge

Castleton

Lake Garda – View from the hills

Symonds Yat