Reflections on the 2013 A to Z Blogging Challenge

May 3, 2013

So you’d think I’d be all blogged out by now, wouldn’t you? You’d be correct and I am, but not so much so I can’t finish the challenge out with a ‘reflections’ post. Hmm. The bad grammar in that last sentence - I should be ashamed (but I’m not).

If you followed along at Between the Keys you already know I chose the theme “It’s All About the Books” for the 2013 A to Z.  Between the Keys is both a personal and a promotion blog, so the theme fit. Here at my blog is where you can get to know me. I post all sorts of things depending on my mood of the day. So far in 2013, I happen to be in full author mode.

In 2011 I did the A to Z Challenge by the seat of my pants. It was fun, I enjoyed it, but I’m a planner by nature. I like organization in major undertakings, which the challenge is. Last year I created a calendar and worked out the daily topics, but didn’t have a theme. This year it all came together - a calendar and a theme. Good thing, too, because I have a lot of writing projects in various stages of completion so doing some promo on the backlist was very helpful as a timesaving device.

Following the calendar, which was truly the foundation of my plan, I began in January to compose the opening statements. By February I was pre-scheduling the posts, and by March 31st, I was looking forward to the 2014 A to Z Challenge. (Yep, you read that correctly. I mentioned 2014.) Each Sunday evening I checked the pre-scheduled posts to make sure they were good to go and could rest easy I was prepared for the week.

Once the month started, I tried to get around to various blogs, leave a comment, and join as a follower if they were on blogger. I’m not well versed on wordpress or other blog hosts. A lot of blogs didn’t have a “followers” list, which made me question if Between the Keys needed to have one showing, but I think it does so I left it in place.

I even got in the spirit of the cute individual letters someone created and made 2013 A to Z Blogging Challenge board for them over at my Pinterest page.

 

The one thing that did happen was Between the Keys became the target of a spammer. It’s not the first time this has happened but it did force me to turn on the word verification. I know we’re not supposed to do that because it annoys folks and discourages comments, but I simply couldn’t risk some of those comments getting through. Call it my Executive Order privilege.

 

Did I enjoy the challenge? Of course! Would I have mentioned 2014 if I’d had enough? My hat’s off to Arlee Bird, the organizer, and his support posse. They do a great job and I’m sure each of them spends a lot of time on this project annually. The bottom line is the A to Z Challenge is a mechanism to build a community of bloggers and gives people a way to get a glimpse into the lives of fascinatingly normal people.

 

And there it is. Another challenge met and conquered. From here it’s on to 2014 and whatever theme, or non-theme, strikes my fancy when the time to create my calendar rolls around. 

 

Peace to us all.

KC