2016 A to Z Reflections Post

Another A to Z Challenge is over and what did I think?

I'm so glad I decided to join in at the last minute!!

I was still dithering right up to the last few days; but I have to thank Tracy at Black Boots Long Legs and SENCO Cat Herder at Special Teaching at Pempi's Palace for their encouragement - it definitely helped tip the scales towards putting my name down.

I think Blogger to Blogger encouragement and support is an integral part of the Challenge, and that is plentiful from the A to Z Challenge, whether it's your first time or your seventh - or your third in my case.

What did I enjoy the most?
With all 3 Challenges, it's been the discovery of new blogs, writers or themes, catching up with old friends, the making of new ones and learning about different worlds, both real and imaginary.

My own handmade glass beads - photo courtesy of Born Of Fire

It was also getting over (some of) my fear of talking about my own work.  I normally write about what other people make that I like.  Showing my own work and writing about it feels very different, I have dithered about properly coming out of my bead making closet, especially opening the door into Curling Stones.  Now that I have done this, and the world hasn't imploded, I feel really good; although the temptation to scuttle back into the closet is quite strong!

I always enjoy the conversations I have on Curling Stones with people, it one of my favourite aspects of blogging and it usually offers a different perspective.  This can directly affect what I write (especially if I'm writing on the fly, as I did for this year's challenge) and I love that interaction - I did my G post based on an idea from a conversation I had on my A post comments!

What did I enjoy the least?
Lack of Time - I wish I'd been more prepared with my own writing in order to spend more time blog hopping; I felt guilty that I didn't visit as many blogs compared to previous years.

I simply ran out of time on many days to get around all the blogs I wanted to.  In fairness I did know this would be the case before I started; it was one of the reasons I almost didn't take part.

What did surprise me is that apart from Q, which was a bit close to the wire, there was no danger that any post would be late, as I managed to keep on top of the writing all month.  Keeping up all the way through has taken it's toll, since the challenge finished I haven't done a thing, either writing or making glass beads as I'm still catching up with myself!

If you only read one more A to Z Challenge Blog from start to finish...
I enjoyed many of the blogs I found over the course of April but the one I couldn't wait to get to every day was Sophie's Thoughts and Fumbles.

Photo courtesy of Sophie's Thoughts and Fumbles

Sophie wrote her A to Z Murder Mystery letter by letter and I was gripped from Day 1!  I've pointed the link to her A post so you don't accidentally come across any spoilers prematurely, although it was written so that you could join in mid-theme and not need to reread any earlier posts as the catch up notes were excellent!

Improvements
A-Z Team - I don't have any suggestions for improvements, the team seemed to be keeping on top of the lists, visiting blogs and removing those that weren't participating as the list shrank quite a bit during the challenge.  I'm very curious about the A to Z lite experiment that I stumbled upon closer to the end of the challenge and how that might work running alongside the main challenge?

My feedback to other participants:

• When leaving comments please leave an A to Z blog link, or at least your blog name.  On a few occasions I had to give up trying to find out if you had an A to Z blog as I kept finding dead ends.
• Please consider tidying up your blog layout for the challenge, sometimes it was hard to find the A to Z posts, or figure out if you were taking part or not
• If I have to log in via my Facebook Account, or any other social media platform I have locked down for privacy, or sign up to a new commenting system in order to leave a comment, I will not be commenting, sorry!  I will try and find a way, but if it's not easy I will end up leaving - sad that I couldn't let you know I'd been and enjoyed your post.
• This year I came across very few blogs that had CAPTCHA still turned on, so I think that message is really getting through about turning it off for the challenge.  During the A to Z I have to be a lot more vigilant in catching spam comments myself, but I think I managed to delete them all quite quickly!

I would definitely encourage other bloggers to join in next year, it's great fun even though it's a challenge and it can be tough to keep it up, or in my case recover after you have kept up!

Especially if like me you hadn't prepped beforehand and you disappear off to F and have 4 days away in U during L to O - Confused? You'll have to read F and U to figure that one out!

View from the bus this weekend

It's rather ironic that the book to finish on my kindle this weekend was a find from the A to Z Challenge, picked from a Z post by Kathleen Valentine about her characters Zeke and Gabe from her novel Each Angel Burns - and yes I do recommend you go pick up a copy!

Do you have any tips to share with me
to improve my own A to Z experience
and / or navigation of my/your blog?

P.S. If you want to get involved and write your own *Reflections Post, all the blogs taking part are here. The A to Z team are interested in your views, whether you wrote and finished, wrote and stopped, or just read the A to Z!  The list is open from now until Friday.

*As long as it's about the A to Z this year, if it's not, or spammy, the link will be deleted.

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Here's a quick reference link to all my A to Z posts below - ignore, enjoy, revisit or just marvel that it all got finished considering I only decided to join the party at the last possible minute!

My Glass Beadmaking Journey by Mars

A is for Addiction & Adventures

B is for my Beads, Business Cards and a Bead Tester Group

C is for Coring

D is for Diddys

E is for Experimentation and Errors

F is for Flame Off

G is for Glass

H is for Hat

I is for Inspiration

J is for Jewellery

K is for Kiln

L is for Lessons

M is for Mandrels

N is for Naming

O is for Oxygen Concentrator

P is for Passing The Flame

Q is for Quality Control

R is for Rod Storage

S is for Silver

T is for Torch (and how to POOP)

U is for Uttoxeter

V is for Ventilation

W is for Website

X is for X-rated!

Y is for YouTube

Z is for ZigZag Razor