Oh boy, it’s already May 10. Can you believe May is already one-third over? I think time flies. Today, I am rather late joining in with the #AtoZChallenge reflections. April seems so far behind me, but it’s good to look back on the challenge.
The good part is I actually completed the challenge this year. As you may know, I signed up each year since 2015, first on my old blog and last year here. In 2015 and 2016, I completed the challenge. I had the topic of autism awareness/acceptance as my theme for 2015 and the alphabet of mental health in 2016. In 2017, I made it myself rather hard by picking autism again even though I was in the midst of being re-assessed for it. I only published one post. I can’t remember how I did in 2018, but last year, I was fooled by the letter X. I had had a word in mind that I thought meant something different than it turned out to mean (xenial) and couldn’t think of any other word once I found out I couldn’t use that word.
Then this year, I had the letter X already figured out before I even wrote a post. I know, I cheated a little, but well. I ended up unconsciously choosing the theme of self-care. I actually stuck to this theme rather well to be honest. I know I also cheated by using The More or Less Definitive Guide to Self-Care for inspiration. However, I mostly wrote down my own thoughts and gave credit to Anna Borges, the author, where needed.
The more challenging part was reading an dcommenting on other bloggers’ posts. I still must say I find the Google spreadsheet a harder to use format than the linky the challenge used until 2017. However, I was able to work it somehow. Then, still, it took quite a bit of time to visit a satisfactory (to me) number of other bloggers. I had only a few bloggers I followed in my feed reader, so most I visited only occasionally. I liked the new connections though.
The absolute best part of the challenge though was that it kept me motivated to write. Or maybe my motivation to write helped me complete the challenge. I’m not sure. In any case, I loved being active on my blog and look forward to staying in this zone for a long time to come.
A Multitude of Musings 
You’ve learned the secret of the A to Z Challenge: Figure out what you’re going to do with X first…
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LOL, thanks so much for saying that! In 2019, I had “Xenial” in mind forever, but had apparently misunderstood its meaning.
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You sure did good with the challenge, that takes a lot!
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Thanks so much!
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What is this challenge you speak of???
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It’s a challenge in April each year in which bloggers aim to write 26 posts during the month by following the alphabet. You can find more info at http://www.a-to-zchallenge.com/.
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Thank you 😊 Appreciate you letting me know!
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Congrats on completing the challenge ! I never would have had the patience 🙂 xxx ps. Another thing to do: I nominated you for the Liebster award !!! (see my last post) Don’t feel obliged to respond though, I know some people are getting tired if this thing going round 🙂 xxx Anne
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Thanks for commenting. Thanks also very much for the blog nomination! I forgot to comment on your post but I nominated you for the Real Neat Blog Award.
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hahaha yaaaaay mutual nominations ^^ xxx Anne
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My experience this year was pretty similar. I had a really tough time keeping up with other people’s blogs. I feel kind of bad about that. But the challenge really spurred my creativity and helped me get back into my writing groove. It was also a nice distraction from the COVID crisis.
As for the letter X, I never had a problem with that one. X is pretty easy when your theme is science or Sci-Fi related. 😉
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Yes, that makes sense, the letter X being relatively easy for that topic. I’m so glad you got some distraction from the COVID crisis too.
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