A to Z Reflections

Like I said last week, April was nuts. Productive, but nuts. I still have a lot to do this month, but it isn’t quite as crazy. Aside from my entry into the One-Page Dungeon Contest (which is posted to my downloads page) I also did the A to Z challenge. I’m putting together a PDF of the posts, but it’s not done yet, but I also wanted to take a minute and share some thoughts about the experience.

First off, anyone who hasn’t given it a try should consider it. The A to Z challenge is a fun exercise, and like any exercise it can be as easy or as hard as you want it to be. I didn’t make a big deal about it because I wanted the focus to be on the posts, not on the meta-stuff behind it, especially considering the grumbling of those who don’t like the challenge.

Now, onto the questions from A to Z

How did your journey through the alphabet go? Did you meet new bloggers with similar interests? Are there any you would like to feature and share with others?
It was a very busy month, and because I had planned ahead I started out with a week and a half of posts ready to go. That lead dwindled as the month went on, and by the final week I was about a day ahead, and by X, Y, and Z I was writing them the night before.

I found a couple of new blogs that I’m now following, but because of how busy I ended up, I didn’t get to visit many new blogs.

What were the highlights for you? (lowlights too...we want to hear it all)
Getting new visitors to the blog, non-gamers who seemed to appreciate the imaginative exercise was great.

Did you enjoy posting daily? What was your biggest hurdle? What was your easiest task?
I do enjoy posting nearly every day already. Because I had at least a post title/idea for every letter things went pretty easily. I did end up scrapping a couple because the post just didn’t work, but most of them flowed pretty well.

Was time management an issue? (I know, silly question, when isn’t time management an issue - but, it is worth reflecting on)
As the month went on, yes, but because I had worked ahead it didn’t become insurmountable.

And what about your content - did you have a theme or did you wing it? Was it easy to come up with ideas for each letter, or were some harder?
I decided back in February on the theme of magic items and spells. This helped me develop the list of topics that I stuck to pretty closely.

How about commenting - did you stumble upon lots of sites still using word verification? Did this prevent you from leaving a comment? What worked for your blog?
I only managed to visit a relative handful of blogs during the month, nowhere near the number I would have liked to have visited. Word verification was only an issue a couple of times, and it didn’t keep me from commenting. Wordpress, however, wasn’t as friendly as blogger to leave comments on.

What will you do different next year? (Yes, you are doing this next year, you know you are, even if your brain is telling you to run for the hills - it appreciates the exercise)
I’ll probably pick a different theme and visit more blogs.

What pearls of wisdom do you want to share with the Co-Hosts of this event? (We would love to hear from you and know what you think would make this awesome event even better)
Nothing to suggest this time around. It was very nice of them to come by my blog and leave comments though!