Sunday, May 7, 2017

A to Z Reflection on the Unknown Journey Ahead

On April 1, I decided to do something daring - open my blog up to the general public (and not just people who already knew me in person or as a blogger) by participating in something called the Blogging from A to Z Challenge. 

My intention was to blog a book, but it didn't exactly work out that way.

Did I finish the A to Z Challenge?  Yes, and I hope you (if you participated) did, too.

A tradition of A to Z is to look back on the previous month, and that is what I am doing today.

If the truth be told....

Although I didn't make it public, I was blogging with two different blogs.  One blog is established, and it was my third A to Z on that blog.  This blog I've kept hidden for a lot of its life, and this was its first A to Z.

In fact, blogging in A to Z with two blogs (for reasons of privacy, I've chosen not to reveal my "true identity" on this blog) was rather overwhelming.  I would never do A to Z with two blogs at once.

But it was a learning experience, even if I didn't accomplish my goal.

I want to thank the bloggers who visited my blog.  These included (this isn't a complete list and I don't want to leave anyone out):

Write to Inspire - Shirley Corder   Shirley blogged an entire month on How To Build a Better Blog.  I wish I had read it before the challenge, because it had so much good information.

Hilary Melton-Butcher at Positive Letters - Inspirational Stories.  She won't be participating in A to Z next year, which makes me a little sad.

DeeDee at Mrs. DAsh says. 

 I also wanted to comment on questions the organizers of A to Z asked.  In past years, there has been a list with links to every blog that signed up for the challenge.  You didn't need to participate in any social media.  This year, the challenge went list free, which I fully understand.  The organizers do a tremendous amount of work trying to monitor the challenge, and should be congratulated on the wonderful job they do.  Yet....I'm not on social media as far as this blog is concerned, and I think it held me back.  There was a non social media way of participating, which I used, but I just got that feeling that I was missing out on a lot of the action. 

So, I do not think I will be joining in again next year, unless I take Shirley Corder's advice, spend the entire year really thinking about the book I want to blog, perhaps rewriting some posts, and maybe giving it another try.

Until then - I blog every Friday, and I would be thrilled if you join me every Friday to see what is happening in my Unknown Journey Ahead.

5 comments:

  1. Hi Bookworm - I loved your blog and the interesting posts you gave us about your turn of life with your autistic BIL.

    I said I wasn't sure about next year - so it's in my blood - whether I do or not is up for mental debate ... a year to go.

    I'd start drafting now if you have a thought for your own book - then it'll be easy to do ... the posts are set ...

    I couldn't do two blogs - 'completely mad!' - but congratulations on this one and for completing the challenge this year - cheers Hilary

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  2. I'm glad you shared this blog publicly. There is a lot of autism in my family; most are at the Asperger's end of the spectrum, but it all helps us understand.

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  3. Thanks for your visit. Braving the challenge with 2 blogs is a big thing to do. I'm glad you made it but I agree the switch to using social media more and no Linky List made it harder for me to participate.

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  4. Thanks a ton for the mention. It really made me feel so special. You wrote a beautiful blog. i longed to read every post.
    Hope to see you around more often

    Click Here to see what Mrs. Dash Says

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  5. Well done for making it to the end of the challenge. Hopefully next year they can tweak the system to make it less reliant on social media.

    Cait @ Click's Clan

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