A to Z Blogging Challenge 2015: Reflections

Good morning all! May the 4th be with you! (Sorry, couldn't resist...)

So it's now May and the A to Z blogging challenge 2015 is officially over for this year. This was my first year participating in the challenge and I have to say, I loved every minute of it.

I didn't really have a specific theme for the challenge -  I decided just to post any writing tips or advice that I thought fellow indie/first time authors like myself might be interested in. After all, I originally set up this blog to document my journey through to becoming a published author and I thought that if there was anyone else out there in the same position as me, they might appreciate the encouragement, no matter how big or small.

I really loved having a topic to blog about for a whole month - normally I'm pretty stuck for blog ideas, or I find myself too busy to post, but this challenge has made me fall in love with blogging all over again. I'm definitely going to be trying harder to post new and exciting content for you guys from now on! I actually have a couple of ideas based around a few of my posts, so hopefully I'll have some interesting blog posts for you all this month as well :). This challenge surprised me: the posts I thought people would like to read and comment on where the ones that weren't as popular, and my completely random, weird posts about jackknifing, exceeding your expectations, villains and flash fiction are the ones that people seemed to like to read!

I really really enjoyed visiting other blogs and making new friends. There are a couple of blogs that I followed that I know I'm going to continue to visit. I felt bad that I didn't really get a chance to look at more bloggers who signed up, but as this was my first year participating, I found it hard enough to juggle blogging and returning comments. But that's going to be my goal for next year and for my monthly IWSG posts: to visit the linky list and discover more wonderful bloggers.

I'd love to participate in the A to Z challenge next year as well - the lessons I've learnt from this year are: to schedule more of my posts so I'm not rushing to write them (I scheduled the first two weeks of posts and it was definitely less stressful at the start of the challenge!), posting in the mornings instead of late at night and I'm thinking about having a definite theme for next year - I really enjoyed reading blogs that featured flash fiction pieces every day, so I might try my hand at that next year :).

I'd just like to say a big thank you to everyone who visited, followed and commented on my blog during the challenge. Your support and encouragement helped me to make it to the end - I know I never would've finished without you :).

Hope you're all having a wonderful May Day, and enjoying the sunshine while it lasts :)!