A to Z Challenge Reflection

This is the first time that I’ve done the challenge and did manage to post all 26 posts. A couple were a day late but I still got them up. Here is my A to Z Challenge Reflection.

I was really excited going into the challenge. There were so many ideas and possibilities going through my head. Which also means I have a few future post ideas up my sleeve! I also thought that I could draft posts ahead of time. In reality that didn’t happen. Most posts I wrote on the day that I posted them.

In the middle of the challenge I hit a real slump and thought why did I do this? However, I continued to the end and was glad that I completed the challenge. I was also excited to have my first guest post.

My top 5 viewed posts for the challenge were:

1. F- Food Allergies – World Allergy Week 2019
2. M – Microvolunteering Day
3. Y – You Can Do It!
4. H – Holy Week and Easter Family Ideas
5. J – Jillian, not Jellybean!

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Posts I enjoyed writing the most:

The 2 posts that I enjoyed writing the most were Jillian, not Jellybean! and Ode to Life. One was an acrostic and the other was about International Haiku Poetry Day. I think I enjoyed them because it involved a different style of writing. Once I had the idea for them I very quickly wrote the acrostic and my own haiku while I was cooking in the kitchen. I had to go and grab a paper and pen to write down my ideas. Perhaps I need to dabble in poetry a little more?!

Which of my A to Z posts did you enjoy the most?

What I learnt from the Challenge:

1. Having a plan was great. Even though I changed some posts I had a general idea of what I was going to write each day.
2. I’m not very good at writing and scheduling posts ahead of time.
3. If I have said I’ll do something I’ll generally commit to doing it.
4. Writing, editing, adding photos and scheduling posts often takes more time than I think.
5. I could have used my ‘A’ post – A is for Apple (A to Z list of foods we can eat) for the whole challenge and talked about a letter each day. This would have made much quicker posts to create. (Perhaps I have next years theme and posting plan ready to go??)
6. The Thesaurus and Dictionary are handy tools to use when trying to fit posts into a certain letter.
7. It was good to go out of my comfort zone and be challenged to post 6 days a week and stick to A to Z at the same time.
8. I’ve learnt more about formatting my posts and made better use of headings and other elements.
9. Hopefully my writing has improved as well.

Going Forward:

• I want to continue having a blog and writing plan. I’ve printed a calendar for May and written in my writing for each day including drafting posts, preparing for workshops, assignment writing etc.
• I want to continue to write 5/6 days a week as I was in the habit of doing during the challenge. (This goes with having a plan as mentioned above.)
• I will continue to schedule new blog posts twice a week as per my original plan for this blog.
• I will start sending out my fortnightly newsletter again – it kind of got lost at the beginning of March but will start again.
• I will start working on the other things I planned for last month but didn’t get to – watch this space!
• I’ll more seriously consider this challenge before deciding whether or not to jump in next year.

Thanks to the team that organises the A to Z Challenge. Hundreds of bloggers participated so there are plenty of A to Z topics that you could read about.

How were you challenged in April and what did you learn?