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May 01, 2023

Reflections: Notes on the 2023 A-Z Challenge

a-z 2023 collage

Here are my thoughts on the A-Z Challenge this year.

01 - An unofficial participant — This year, I didn't bother signing on the Reveal list or the Master list which makes me an unofficial participant. I think they (the a-z people who hosted the challenge) is collecting a bit too much data from participants especially on the master list. It is mostly social media links and physical locations and yes/no questions but still, it's a bit much but I guess excessive info is necessary for reasons I'll never understand. Just a name, a blog link and whether you are posting adult content - that's enough information for me which is how it was in the beginning.

02 -  I didn't post regular posts — I just didn't seem to have the will or the energy to post other things that aren't part of the a-z challenge. My mind was too busy on the challenge. I might have checked the A-Z blog just to see if I got my alphabet in the right order. If you do something often enough, you start to think you're wrong for some odd reason.

03 - I didn't comment as much — I started really well at the beginning of the month and had been commenting regularly on participant's blogs and those I visit regularly. Then I don't know what happened. I just got lazy and didn't want to comment. I guess it's why I have the lowest readers this year although I didn't check stats but I can tell by the amount of comments I get but it's expected. You can't blame people for not coming by when you don't visit them. I'm more disappointed in myself for not commenting.

04 - My favorite posts to write are:
- Honest Voicemail Greetings
- A or A: Alien or Attitude?
- Kindred Spirit Animal
- Nearly New News From the Weird Wide World
- Queries

05 - Too much question posts? — One of my goal for the challenge every year is to sort of engage the readers and that's why I have a lot of question posts. I really like it when people participate instead of just reading a post. But it's difficult to come up with anything that readers will want to join in. I hope I had made some people laugh or at least smile during this challenge. I think challenges such as this a-z challenge, people should do more fun post. There used to be a lot of participants that did a lot of stuff. I remember there was one blogger wrote haikus and you guess what she was talking about - that was fun. I mean, it's nice to be educated and find all kind of new things but where is the sense of fun?

06 - This is it for me
— The A-Z challenge, for me, is to post every day except Sundays without pre-writing any posts. I enjoy thinking up daily post ideas but it always seemed like my brain worked overtime which I don't dislike. But I'm too indecisive about what to post and that's why it's more stressful than it should have been. I've done the A-Z challenge about 8 or maybe 9 times now and each time I had completed all 26 posts. I enjoyed the challenge each time but these few years wasn't as much fun but it's probably due to my severe laziness and my bad habit of changing my mind about what to post. But I just don't think I have the energy anymore to do the challenge so this is the last one for me. Of course, I might change my mind when next year comes but it's definite no for now.

07 - My List of A-Z 2023 Posts Links
• A or A: Alien or Attitude?
• Backward and Forward (Fiction)
• Copyright Notices
• Dumb Dweets
• Errors - A Rambling
• Feline Secrets For Getting Along With Humans
• The Ghost Husband (Fiction)
• Honest voicemail greetings
• Idle Days (Fiction)
• Just three things
• Kindred Spirit Animal
• Long Vacation to the Moon (Fiction)
• Messages from beyond or wherever

• Nearly New News From the Weird Wide World
• Opening Lines
• Procrastination: A Rambling
• Queries
• Reading and Respect: A Rambling
• The Sometimes Girl (Fiction)
• TV Show Revivals - A Rambling
• Unusual Creatures of Unexplained Existence
• Vacillation, Vocation & Vexation
• Weird tales from the Wardrobe (Fiction)
• X Questions
• Yada Yada
• Zig or Zag

Have you particpated in the A-Z Challenge this year? If so, how did you do?

14 comments:

  1. The A-Z thing is too much for my lazy self, and with so many extra posts to read I struggle to comment on all of them.
    Congratulations on finishing - and I thoroughly enjoyed your quirky take on the theme.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Elephant's Child: I don't actually have a theme. But it sort of lent itself to a certain theme of something, I don't know. I enjoy the challenge but it's a bit much sometimes.

      Thank you for coming by. Have a lovely day.

      Delete
  2. Yes! Make and set your own rules for the A-Z Challenge -- that's the way to do it! Question posts with a lot of questions, especially questions requiring more than superficial thought, are too much for me. I might answer ONE question but that's it, generally speaking. Yes, I'm shallow and in a hurry, lol.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Debra: I try going for easy questions but somehow, I ended up with a little bit more complex. But it's alright to answer only one question. I didn't expect anyone to answer all the questions.

      Thank you for coming by. Have a lovely day.

      Delete
  3. Replies
    1. Christine: I don't think you're missing much in not doing the challenge.

      Thank you for coming by. Have a lovely day.

      Delete
  4. I like how fun and varied this was. It was fun to come by and see what you come up with. I didn't realize you had so many! I missed quite a few I guess. But yes several of these did bring a smile t omy face so mission accomplished!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Greg: It was varied because I have no theme but I enjoyed thinking up all kind of different things.

      I did the a-z challenge almost since it started but sadly, some of those posts are gone now.

      I'm glad if even one post makes you smile.

      Thank you for coming by. Have a lovely day.

      Delete
    2. Roberta: Thanks for reading commenting/reading these posts.

      Delete
  5. I haven't done the A to Z challenge, but I liked reading your posts from it. :) The question ones were fun.
    -Quinley

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Quinley: I do try to make the questions fun but maybe they are a bit too hard to answer.

      Thank you for coming by. Have a lovely day.

      Delete
  6. I'm always impressed by people who do this challenge. I've done it once, and it was exhausting.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Aj: Yes, it was exhausting each time but I like the challenge.

      Thank you for coming by. Have a lovely day.

      Delete

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