![A-to-Z Reflection [2014]](https://kborman.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/a-to-z-reflection-2014.jpg?w=300&h=142)
As a first time A to Z blogger, I was impressed with how many writers participating. As a first timer, it was a fun challenge to be a part of, but it also becomes easily intense. As someone who works a 9-5, it can be hard to blog, read and hop each and every day. I was good at getting a post up every day, but after week two, it was hard to blog hop each night. I often caught up on the weekends.
I *think* one of the hosts stopped by once, but I am not sure as they didn’t necessarily identify them as such.
As a first timer, I tried to keep the recommended number of people to follow at about 5. This made the challenge more doable. Add too many more in, and I think it would be impossible to keep track of everyone, read and comment.
As a recap of my A to Z experience, if you didn’t follow along, I will share a handful of my favorite entries. These are entries that best represent me, my work and my passions.
Thanks for all those who took the time to read my posts, and especially to those who took that extra effort to like or comment.
I would be interested in giving it another go next year. But I think some prep work, or picking a theme would be a nice approach. We shall see what next April brings!
![survivor-atoz [2014] - SMALL](https://kborman.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/survivor-atoz-2014-small.jpg)
How was A to Z for you? Planning to do it next year? If so, any changes you will make in your process?
Daily discovery 
I think I exceeded the 5 recommended people in the first half of the challenge. I was clicking through to quite a few each day. Most of them didn’t return the favor, so it didn’t create too much work. Congratulations on surviving the challenge!
Thanks so much! Yes, it is easy to weed out those who don’t reciprocate efforts. Even if a blogger didn’t visit my blog, as long as they replied to my comments on theirs, then I likely kept with them. I understand we all had certain blogs we were trying to keep up with.
Like I was telling Jak, I had some anxiety about keeping up with people who obviously didn’t take the time to read and left a generic copy and paste comment. I would often visit these blogs back, but found myself having to read and leave a nice, long comment. It was a bad cycle and I think if I do it again next year, I will say from the beginning, I don’t respond to generic comments.
But overall it was good. I’m don’t really see myself as a blog challenge person, so that was interesting to kinda break that mold. And it was great to get all that writing practice in.
Off to visit some of your posts I missed 😉
I completely agree with you and it only make sense to reciprocate “weak” comments with weak responses. A to Z is already challenging enough to be an active reader and commenter. In cases where they simply leave a comment like “great post”, I almost always wish they would have just “liked” it instead. It would save both of us the wasted energy of simply being nice.
Congratulations on completing the challenge.
Last year I followed a whole bunch of people, any time I found a blog posting a theme that appealed to me. The result was a massive and unmanageable list of people to follow, many of whom stopped posting or slowed right down or posted things that I just wasn’t interested in reading after the month had finished.
This year I’m going to use the Road Trip to find new blogs to finish so I was able to focus on just working through the list and leaving comments on posts that actually interested me. I just wish I’d been better at keeping track of the blogs that did interest me because it’s going to be a struggle to actually go back and find them again.
That’s something I’ll have to work on for next year.
Good luck with your blog in the future. 🙂
Thanks so much!
I like the road trip approach. Allows for some flexibility and also a way to find new blogs that really captivate you.
Thanks so much for stopping by. Best of luck to you too!
I failed at the five recommended people by day three or four. The fact that you work full-time and managed both the daily posts and the reading is impressive.
I am actually quite impressed with myself as well, hah! Having a deadline and daily tasks must have been huge motivators for me.
I am so glad I found your blog in the challenge. You are a phenomenal story teller. Don’t ever forget that.