The Calm After The Storm

Took me two weeks of blogging vacation after the A-Z Challenge, and I feel like I'm on withdrawal. What a ride April was! And, as hard as keeping up was--the daily posts, returning visits & comments, visiting new blogs--I wish it wasn't over.

This was my first A-Z, and I'll definitely do it again, every year. I'm challenge-driven; I masochistically enjoy setting impossible goals for myself. I honestly expected the A-Z to be harder, to have more trouble keeping up, to find myself slacking mid-month. What I did not expect was the warm welcome of a community, the hundreds of people that stopped by and, either publicly or privately, shared their own thoughts and experiences with me. I did not expect the interaction to feel so real, in spite of physical distance, of only cyber-contact.



I did not expect to make friends. And I did.

The hardest part? Besides the daily-blogging withdrawal, you mean? Not having enough time to edit posts and ending up with pages of rants. I originally intended to keep posts at a max of 250-300 words. Riiiight. Look at the A-Z collection: they're all mostly over 500. Next year I'll make a point to stay closer to 250.

Other notes to self for 2013? Prepare posts in advance. No, really. I said I would for this year, but when April 1 rolled around, I had three posts ready and only two more with semi-coalesced ideas. Preparing posts in advance means I get to spend the whole of April visiting other blogs, which brings me to another hardest-part point.

I think I made it through maybe 500 blogs--more than the recommended 10 daily, but still. The list was huge, and many links led to non-participating blogs. I know it takes a huge amount of time for the co-hosts to verify every single link, and I'd be happy to help next year--maybe a line of communication could be set up so that when someone encounters a non-participating blog it can be reported and the link deactivated (with proper notice or something).

Maria's looking-back post at First Draft Cafe made a great suggestion: group the blogs by areas of interest. Perhaps the sign-up list could request a "Topic" selection, or perhaps the name with which we sign up, the name that will show up on the Linky List, should be required to include a word or two on the blog's theme, or the specific A-Z theme? Dunno, but I think that would make the browsing experience more focused and more interactive, too.

Great blogs I discovered? Too many to list here. Seriously--awesome people, this A-Z crowd, and I have them all to look forward to getting to know throughout the year.

Thank you all--co-hosts, visitors, commenters (yeah, especially commenters)--for making April a month to remember. See you all around the blogosphere!