A to Z Challenge Reflection 2015

Posted on May 4, 2015 by | 15 Comments

A-to-Z+Reflection+[2015]+-+Lg

This was our second year doing the A to Z Challenge. Last year, it easily worked within our existing posting schedule, as we were posting like that already – a post a day, 6 days a week. Since then, we decreased our schedule – we post now Monday-Thursday, with a shorter “fun” post on Friday. We’re back to that schedule now – but it meant more writing for us in April!

We also successfully wrote all of the posts in advance (of their posting date at least), and that was really nice. We might just try to keep that up… we’ll see how that goes.

Last year we went with one of our existing themes – Character Studies. That was a lot of fun, and got people talking. This year was also an existing theme, Science Fiction Today – and it got people talking in a whole different way. There were some really great examples people gave, and some really great, heavy-duty discussions. If you are interested in science fiction, politics, or the idea of the world as a better place… check out the posts you haven’t read from our challenge this year! Oh, and definitely also the comments.

One thing I learned this year is that the first few days are the biggest. I wrote the first post for Sourcerer, and it was huge – as was the “B” post the next day. I recently got more likes for that one, it just keeps going! The “A” post here was an intimidating topic, so hopefully we didn’t scare too many people away. However, it also showed that we weren’t shying away from topics… and hopefully it was well done. People seemed to react positively to it, and had some good ideas in the comments.

Speaking of us doing guest posts, though, we did! Holly and I did guest A to Z posts on Sourcerer and Part-Time Monster, so we did more than the 13 apiece here! Here’s links to all our guest posts from the challenge:

Met some great bloggers along the way, I’m thinking we may need to share them sometime in the coming months through some awards that we have pending to receive! However, I would say that more than meeting new people, we’ve deepened the bond with a number of closer blogging friends, nearly all of whom did A to Z this year – and we were running into each other all over the Internet for a month! Hi, all! *waves*

Oh, and one last thing… if you’re looking for more A to Z fun, check out the party over on Victim to Charm… the idea is, people shared their favorite posts from the challenge – lots of posts to check out in the comments there!

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15 responses to “A to Z Challenge Reflection 2015”

  1. Sabina | May 4, 2015 at 9:06 am | Reply

    Yay thanks for shouting out the party! I’d say that I both did breadth and depth in terms of connecting with bloggers–a lot of new buddies, some of which are now deep connections. That was my favorite part of the challenge.

    Liked by 1 person

    • CompGeekDavid | May 4, 2015 at 9:09 am | Reply

      😀 Good deal! There’s definitely not enough time to read enough blog posts. The problem being that yes, reading 5-10 a day isn’t that bad. If you’re reading just that day’s post. If you’re not going back and reading other posts by other bloggers you’ve found during the month. Or friends who are doing the challenge. But if you’re doing any of that… it’s a commitment of hours a day. And I for one didn’t have that time every day!

      Like

  2. mbarkersimpson | May 4, 2015 at 2:16 pm | Reply

    I loved your theme, and you’re right, the threads were also pretty awesome. It was fun to enter into a discussion. I didn’t do that in quite the same way anywhere else, so it was really fun 😀

    Liked by 1 person

    • CompGeekDavid | May 4, 2015 at 2:20 pm | Reply

      I liked how many other examples people brought to the table (as well as my ability to add examples I had thought of but couldn’t fit in the short post format). There’s definitely a lot of different takes on most all of these issues! Thanks for keeping up with our posts 😀

      How did your challenge round out?

      Liked by 1 person

      • mbarkersimpson | May 4, 2015 at 2:26 pm | Reply

        You’re welcome. I try not to miss a post from you guys. One thing I love about Comparative Geeks, and the responses I receive from yourself and Holly, is that it’s a welcoming atmosphere. I’ve told you this before, but I wanted to mention it again because it’s a valid point about your visitors for A to Z. People are more willing to engage if their viewpoints are listened to, even when they’re different. Anyway. I had fun on the challenge. It was my first time and luckily I had a few cheerleaders, which is always nice! I’m going to do a reflections post. It’s on my growing list of things to do! I thought it was a challenge to keep up in April, but the last few days there have been so many blogs to visit, so many things to catch up on! Fun, but exhausting 😉

        Liked by 1 person

        • CompGeekDavid | May 4, 2015 at 2:31 pm | Reply

          Some of the reflection idea is so that you don’t just drop off the face of the Earth when April ends… which I found when I looked at some of the A to Z blogs I followed last year. Their last post was their last A to Z, or one or two into May.

          Established blogs & bloggers, like yourself, should obviously weather the storm better… but it can still leave you in a jumble right now, no doubt!

          Was odd for me – I hadn’t written a post in like two weeks, then I had to write this! Then a LitFlix to write still…

          Liked by 1 person

          • mbarkersimpson | May 4, 2015 at 2:37 pm |

            ooh, I’ve been looking forward to that! I’m writing something with Hannah, which is really, cool. I’ve never done a joint post before and I could quickly become addicted!

            Liked by 1 person

          • CompGeekDavid | May 4, 2015 at 2:52 pm |

            Yay! Glad to hear that thought is moving forward – I’m excited to see what it looks like.

            To be fair, much of Comparative Geeks is a “joint” blog post, we’re usually talking about the topic in advance, often but not always editing each other’s, and then with the occasional Comparative Opinions duo to boot. But we’ve never officially tag-teamed a post… I think we would do a Comparative Opinions instead. Although sometimes with those, one of the two posts ends up way more popular, and the other of us is like “but, my post…” So… joint post, we’ll see 🙂

            Liked by 1 person

          • mbarkersimpson | May 4, 2015 at 3:06 pm |

            I’d really like to see that – a tag-teamed post. You both have a unique voice, and that’s great in terms of post diversity, but every now and again…yeah, I can see that working really well 😀 I love collaborative writing. I’ve done it quite a lot in fiction, so writing with Hannah has been a treat. It’s also different, not the average review, so I’m hoping people will respond to that!

            Liked by 1 person

  3. Alex Hurst | May 5, 2015 at 3:14 am | Reply

    I’m kinda considering starting a Blogger Share feature at my blog. Basically, an award style, with no fixings. No questions to answer, no one else to nominate, but a personally curated list from me highlighting bloggers that are just awesome. The criteria would have to be figured out, but I really like that aspect of the Reflections post… introducing people to other bloggers!

    I loved your theme. It had the best comments section of what I saw in the event, for sure. Real discussions across multiple threads. It was great!

    Liked by 1 person

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