A-Z Challenge Reflections (2017)

And so the 2017 A-Z Challenge has come to an end! This was my second year participating and to be honest I wasn’t even entirely sure that I was going to attempted it this year. I didn’t make that decision until the last minute. I mean, I had a list of what I would write about for each letter but I hadn’t committed in my heart until the last second. As a result, I struggled more this year. My time management for writing and scheduling posts was a bit of a mess (totally uncharacteristic of me) and I felt the pressure this time, unlike 2016.

So what did I make of the challenge this year? Those who joined in will know they changed things up a bit this year. Firstly there was no linky list (or whatever it’s called) – where you go to see who else is writing for the challenge and click the links to read your 5 posts per day. This year instead it was all about adding a link to your post on either the A-Z Facebook page or the website itself. I actually preferred this as I found I was always guaranteed to be finding websites that were actively writing for the challenge rather than clicking on links of those that had since dropped off and stopped writing. I tended to use the Facebook page for the most part as I initially struggled to post my links on the A-Z Challenge website (in the end I had to go through the hassle of setting up Google+ and Blogger logins just so I could access the bulk of the participants). I know there was also a synced version on WordPress but it didn’t really attract a lot of people and as such I found that it was the same group of people linking every day (and I was following and reading most of those lovely people already).

What I do love about the challenge is the opportunity to connect with even more bloggers. I had been absent from my blog for about 12 months and was nervous about whether my existing readers (can I just say “friends” instead? Because I feel that’s what they are) would return to reading my snippets. Luckily they did and I felt welcomed back as though I’d never left. But I also had the good fortune to meet a whole host of other wonderful writers! And that’s something I love about this forum, this world of blogging and sharing stories, you form all these fantastic connections with a world of people who are positive, supportive, encouraging and just plain engaging. I want to thank you all for reading and commenting and stopping by! So, all in all …? The A-Z Challenge was, once again, a well worthwhile endeavour. For those that would like a recap or who might’ve missed a few posts, here’s a link to this year’s challenge posts from Ramblings of K 🙂

AUSCHWITZ – Poland

BERLIN TO BUDAPEST – Germany & Hungary

CESKY KRUMLOV – Czech Republic

DUBAI – United Arab Emirates

ELEPHANT SANDS – Botswana

FISH RIVER CANYON – Namibia

GUESTS at a bush BBQ – South Africa

HO CHI MINH CITY, HUE & HOI AN – Vietnam

ISTANBUL – TurkeyISTANBUL – Turkey

JERASH – Jordan

KRAKOW – Poland

LIST LOVER

MEKONG – Vietnam

NITMILUK NATIONAL PARK – Australia

OSSUARY AT SEDLEC – Czech Republic

PRAGUE – Czech Republic

QUEENSTOWN – New Zealand

READING

SYDNEY – Australia

TA PROHM – Cambodia

UNUSUAL FOODS

VIENNA – Austria

WARSAW – Poland

XENOMANIA

YPRES …

ZEALOUS TRAVELLER