Blogging A-Z - April Challenge - Reflections

It's time for the reflections of the A-Z Blog Challenge!

This is the second year I have taken part and for me it was a better challenge.

I debated on what to run with as my theme. Last year I was random in what I wrote about, but the common link was each of the items meant something to me. This year I was specific, yet at the same time a little random on the post content.

I wrote all my posts in advance, which helped me to focus on other things and visit other participants. Even at the point of writing this I am still visiting & reading!

My theme was Australia. I focused on my ancestors who migrated to Australia, both as free settlers and as convicts. I focused on localities that have links with my family and on places that I have visited. I spent time writing about the contribution Australia made in the First World War and linking that post into my Genealogical ANZAC Day post. Some of the letters were a bit of a challenge; Q featured Quilts and made mention of the Quilt that was made by the convict women that sailed upon The Rajah in 1841, X featured a Stamp about the Flying Doctors and was a little outside the box - you can have a peek HERE.

I also linked other regular meme posts to the theme - Postcard Friendly Friday, Sunday Stamps, Sepia Saturday. I loved every minute of it!

So, having written all my posts in advance, I spent the month visiting other participants. Some gave up early on in the challenge. I found commenting easy on other blogs; and only came across a few that had word verification enabled. What I did find was there was a core of bloggers that commented on each of my posts and I did likewise, and that was a nice extra bond, as if being cheered on from the side lines.

There were a couple of participants who shared a daily post of those blogs that they had come across and that helped the interaction with bloggers, whom perhaps I might not have come across.

At the end of March I was awarded the ABC Award for this blog and part of that was sharing 26 things about myself. I decided to save the response and feature an A-Z of other blogs that I had come across during the challenge.

I love the creativeness that the A-Z Challenge provides. The planning and thought process. The challenge is made easier by writing in advance and by having a theme. I already have a few ideas for the next challenge......

You can read the 2012 Challenge posts.