A-Z Reflections

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This month of A-Z blogging has gone by super quickly, but it has been an enjoyable experience (and I survived!!).  This is my first year doing it, and no doubt I'll do it again.






Here are some posts that I found particularly interesting.

A is for Affirm Yourself Every Day
A is for Apostrophes
A is for Antrobus Soulcakers

B is for Brave New World
B is for Brits
B is for Befunky & Best of Craigslist
B is for Bodger and Badger
B is for The Book Thief

C is for Chronicles of Narnia
C is for Cassette Tapes, CDs and Catalogs
C is for The Crags
C is for Can't Remember The Alphabet

D is for Do It
D is for Did You Know
D is for Digital Pets
D is for Dessert

E is for Eyes Down
E is for Eiffel Tower
E is for Eiffel Tower Replica
E is for Everything Happens For A Reason
E is for English
E is for Eerie Indiana

F is for Flax
F is for Fantastically Fast
F is for Fun House

G is for Getting Myself To Write
G is for Grammar
G is for Giving Thanks
G is for Google Doodle

H is for Help Meet
H is for How Many Of Me

I is for Idiocracy
I is for Ice, Ice, Baby
I is for Illegal Stuff

J is for Joseph's Star Poem
J is for Jammies
J is for Jesus
J is for Juxtaposition
J is for Japan
J is for Jokes

K is for Kites

L is for never stop Learning about writing
L is for Lost
L is for Legwarmers
L is for Lyrics
L is for Lovely
L is for Lamb Chop's Play Along
L is for Little Miss Sunshine

M is for Munster Mansion
M is for Matilda
M is for Mondegreens and Eggcorns
M is for Mexico to the Island of Dolls

N is for New Kids on the Block

O is for Only Child
O is for Oxford Comma
O is for Opa Gangnam Style
O is for Orangutan

P is for Procrastinator
P is for Postcards
P is for Procrastination
P is for Palindrome

Q is for Queries
Q is for Queen Of The Dance
Q is for Queasy

R is for Round the Twist
R is for Rainbow
R is for Roald Dahl

S is for Shelby
S is for Sunflower
S is for System Of A Down
S is for Stale Words
S is for Slipcast
S is for Supermarket Scream

T is for Toilets
T is for Ten Tips From Famous Tale Spinners
T is for Tetris
T is for Treacle Mines

U is for Utopian Movies
U is for Uffington White Horse
U is for Umlauts
U is for Upside Down Cake
U is for Up
U is for Ube
U is for Underoos

V is for Very Short Fiction
V is for Vegetarian
V is for Video Killed The Radio Star
V is for The Very Hungry Caterpillar
V is for Verbomania

W is for Wall-e
W is for WRiTE Club
W is for Widdershins
W is for Wombles
W is for World Book Night
W is for What I Learned

X is for X-ray Paintings

Y is for The Young Ones
Y is for Yummy Healthy Chocolate Muffins
Y is for YouTube
Y is for Y U No
Y is for Your/You're
Y is for Yiddish
Y is for Yarn Bombs

Z is for Zoo
Z is for ZZZAP!
Z is for Zed
Z is for Zzzzzz

(I will be adding to this list as I make my way through all the blogs on the linky list)

So, for my reflections.  As with everything, there are good bits and bad bits.  I'll get the bad stuff out of the way first.

• Replies to comments, or lack thereof - I understand that April is a busy month, what with posting your own blogs, plus visiting and commenting on other blogs, but if someone has stopped by to comment on your blog, it is polite to reply, even if it's just to say "Thanks for stopping by."  It makes us feel as though you, the blogger, appreciate our comments.
• Difficulty in finding posts - Many (if not all) of the bloggers taking part in this challenge also blog about other things.  This means that the A-Z posts can get lost.  Some bloggers put a handy little 'A-Z blog posts' tab at the top of their blog, which kept all their posts in one place.  Other bloggers just let their A-Z posts get lost.  What with April being a busy month, it would have been nice if all bloggers could make it easier for others to easily find their posts without  having to trawl through their entire blog.
• Minimal information in post title - A lot of bloggers were helpful when titling their posts (eg. W is for Writing, Q is for Questions, C is for Cats), which gave us, the readers, a bit of an insight into what the post might be about.  It also gave us the choice to either read the post or not (depending on our interests).  However, I came across a few bloggers who didn't give anything away in their post title (eg. A is for ..., L is for ...), and you didn't find out the subject until halfway through the post.  Perhaps they did this for suspense, or to entice the reader, but I just found it frustrating and didn't bother to read them.
• Not knowing the alphabet - I know the alphabet can be a difficult thing at times (I still get confused when it comes to ellemenohpee), but a few bloggers didn't seem to know anything about the alphabet.  I came across posts like K is for How Much I Love Dolphins, or P is for Writers' Block.  Eh?!
• Captcha and word verification - No matter how many times the lovely people at A-Z asked us to turn off the word verification thing on comments, I would still come up against a wall of 'rofGhs PO7ne'.  Gah!!!  It took the fun away from commenting, as I would nearly always spell the "word" wrong and have to do it again *grumble*
• What to say?! - Occasionally I would read a post and enjoy it, but not really know what to write as a comment.  I didn't want to keep saying 'Great post' and other generic things like that, but I did want to show my support.  
• Momentum - At the start of the month I visited a bunch of blogs and made a bunch of comments, and the same was happening with people visiting me.  And then as the weeks went on, the visits decreased, as did the comments.

And now for the good stuff.

• Writing 26 posts - I can get a bit lazy when it comes to blogging, but it was great that I had something to focus on.  It really got my mind into gear and kept my old brainbox ticking over.
• Meeting new bloggers - I'm fairly new to the world of blogging, and don't tend to stumble across other blogs.  But this month I've found some great blogs that I will add to my 'blog roll' and read on a regular basis.  And most bloggers doing the A-Z were really friendly and supportive.
• Getting awards - By taking part in the A-Z challenge, I was awarded 3 Liebster Awards, and an Inspiring Blog Award.  I was so happy to receive them, and I doubt I would have if I hadn't been involved in the A-Z challenge.
• Postcrossing - While browsing blogs, I came across someone doing her A-Z about Postcrossing, and have now signed up to participate.
• Celebrate The Small Things - I happened to stumble across VikLit's blog, where she runs a bloghop, celebrating small things that have happened during the last week.  This takes place every Friday.  Subsequently, I have made contact with other bloggers and have found more interesting blogs to read.
• Organisation - Before the blog-hop started I had a bit of a scruffy looking blog, but in order to make it easy for people to navigate, so I added my facebook and twitter buttons on the right hand side, plus a few other bits and pieces.
• Learning stuff - Within all of the new blogs I was looking at, a few gems would appear with a wealth of information.  I'm a writer, and I like to think I know a thing or two about grammar, but I learnt loads of stuff that I'd never come across.
• Variety - I was amazed to see such variety in the blog posts.  People have amazing imaginations and lives.  I read blogs about family history, British folklore, crochet, dogs, contronyms, children's television programmes, healthy cake recipes, gardening, places visited, places never visited but want to, and some sci-fi something or other that I didn't understand. 
• New followers - What's the point in a blog-hop if no-one gets new followers?  The views to my blog have gone up leaps and bounds, and I've now got some lovely new followers.  So thank you to those who deem my blog worthy of reading.  And thank you to those who retweeted my blog posts throughout the challenge.
• A-Z Hosts and of course Arlee Bird - You guys did a great job.  Thank you.  You kept us up to date with your blog posts, and on twitter and facebook.  You encouraged us.  You advised us.  You looked after us.  Now have a rest!!

All in all, it's certainly been an interesting month and something that I'm glad I was a part of.

Leave me a link to your reflections post in the comments to let me know your thoughts on the past month of blogging.