Tuesday, May 3, 2016

A-Z Wrap Up

or What am I doing with all of my free time?

Last Saturday was the final post for the A-Z Challenge that I participated in during the month of April. Some crazy people had three blogs going during that challenge. One was plenty enough for me.

2016
Upon reflection, this year was easier than last year. Even my husband noticed that I wasn't as stressed trying to keep up with daily posting. That's not to say that I wasn't stretched doing it or should I say stressed, but it was better. However, I can't quite put my finger on the reason.

Many people had a theme for their month of posting such as a travel log or writing techniques (many of the participants were writers). And I swore, after last year, if I ever did this again, I would only do it with a theme. However, that didn't happen.

Then I said that I would look ahead and have my alphabet planned out with topics. Well, I tried to do that but, I couldn't come up with much. Actually, it was easy to come up with words and topics, but thinking of something to write about them was difficult. So that also didn't happen.

So what did happen? I think, this year, I didn't try as hard to make the words and topics fit the letters. For example, the letter O was about M&M's. Logically that topic should have been under M but I stretched it with the title, Only the Red. In addition, I tried to get ahead on Sunday, our day off. I usually wrote Monday and Tuesday then which took some of the pressure off at the beginning of the week. Also, friends were suggesting topics for me which helped. I couldn't always used them, but they did help spark my thinking.

So the same question as last year. Will I do this again? Maybe. I think it took me out of my comfort zone with both topics and frequency and that was a good thing. Also, I enjoyed  the challenge. Let me rephrase that. I enjoyed completing the challenge. I wasn't always thrilled with the work and time it took, but it's good to say that I did it. But a month was long enough for me and I need to resurface and catch up on some things that were neglected. However, I hope to maintain some of the momentum I gained during April.

And before I finish, I also want to say thanks to all of the dedicated volunteers who made this challenge possible.

Now it's time to get ready for tomorrow's Second Look. :)