Reflections on A to Z 2015 Blogging Challenge

Last month April's A to Z Challenge was well, challenging to say the least! ;)

A theme certainly helped to focus my writing though I struggled with that initially as I changed it from 'gratitude' to 'heart things, heart strings' as I had wanted a heart theme 'cause truly at the time I couldn't think (of anything else)!

I had intended or rather had hoped to write my posts in advance; however, with a week-long head cold and then a sudden unexpected move (of residence), I was unable to. You can imagine then how I might have felt jumping in with both feet into this year's - my first - A to Z challenge! Yikes, what did I get myself into?!

And yet it took time, more than I thought and expected, the norm for me about four hours per day, rather evening on top of my already busy day with full-time work, travelling, and other commitments such as three long workshop days out of town. And that time spent primarily in response to those who commented on my posts and others whose posts I read who are part of a blogging community I belong to.

I enjoyed writing the guest post early on for B-A-R though now looking back at it, I wonder if it was a bit measly. Am I my own worst critic? ;)

But first before I go there, let me first thank Shailaja Vishwanath 'Godmother' of Blog-A-Rhythm (BAR) and administrators Sid Balachandran, Shilpa Garg, and Tulika Singh: thank you all for bearing with all my questions as a newbie! ;)

I was able to write a post for the Blog-A-Rhythm (BAR) blogging community at https://blogarhythmblog.wordpress.com/2015/04/09/atozchallenge-heart-strings-by-ellytreehugger/.

On my own blog post, here are my blog titles from A to Z (and since I seem to still have difficulty linking, my apologies but you may have to keep scrolling down till you hit the letter or on my sidebar...sorry!

A is for ABUNDANCE!
B is for Beauty
C is for Courage
D is for Dancing
E is for Emotions!
F is for Feelings
G is for …Growth!
H is for Home
I is for Inspiration!
J is for (Jumping for) JOY!
K is for Kindness
L is for Laughter
M is for Music
N is for Normality? NO! Non-conformity!
O is for … Openness
P is for Poetry!
Q is for Questioning
R is for R&R
S is for Singing (Your Heart Out!)
T is for Trust!
U is for Unique U!
V is for Values!
W is for …Wisdom
X is for Xpress!
Y is for Yes! Yearning for You!
Z is for Zest!

The two most popular posts (on my blog page sidebar) were the letters E and J which shocked and surprised me. Other than E and J, the most viewings of my blog posts were on the letters A, D, I, I, K, N, P, and S.

The posts I had hoped would be favoured (in terms of comments) and the ones I enjoyed most were the letters D, N, P, Q, R, U, and V. I had hoped that B, W, and X would be read just as well though!

During the A to Z challenge, I made some great connections and some newfound friends, as well as some new followers: a win-win situation - lucky me! A special thanks to my regular visitors - you know who you are (some mentioned below) as well as some newbies like Ranveer...sorry I couldn't find your posts except for one or two!

I thoroughly enjoyed the following posts in no particular order: learning some new words from my new hippie blogging friend Debbie D Doglady, a number of the most unusual phobias by Sanch Vee - thanks for educating me (and I'm not saying that 'cause I love to rhyme!, some of the most amazing yoga asanas with benefits and photos by flexible and elegant Rajlakshmi H Bourah, a much-needed advocate on women's issues by Parul Kashyap Thakur - thank you on behalf of me and all women, Vinodini Iyer with her interesting story-themed idioms, Lata Sunil with her true-to-life technie and non-technie couple known as Dia and Sameer respectively, Shilpa Garg with her amusing emotion-themed poems, Swathi Shenoy with her breathtaking in a thrilling suspenseful dramatic, pageturning novella kind-of-way - publish that will you?, Shalini sharing Shakespearean idioms about her exciting pre-wedding tale, Shantala Nayak who imparted wisdom in her short blog posts catered for her kids (I believe) as well as me (and others too I hope!), Nibha Gupta with her delightful book-themed posts of which I read a few, Vinitha Dileep sharing her brilliance through her exquisitely crafted poetry using the themed alphabet letter of the day, Cat Graham with her amusing poetry along with Laurel Regan - both always a joy and fun to read, Eli Ertresvaag with her joyous posts, Shailaja Vishwanath with her twisted stories - you are not only a Godmother but a Queen of angled writing!, Usha Menon with her doting motherly and teacherly writings was determined to have her blog post posted even when faced with a sudden major health crisis: such inspiration!

I am sure there are other bloggers I have missed and my apologies. Most of you are from BAR (Blog-A-Rhythm) as I felt I wanted to be faithful to our group of bloggers whom I love and admire, along with a couple or few newbies along the way.

Would I do the A to Z challenge again? Yes I would consider, though hopefully with advance draft postings rather than daily pantser posts this time! No kidding! Silly me! ;)