All done & Zonked out : A-Z Reflections

It's been heaps of fun and a bit exhausting, but most fun things are also tiring. I am glad I survived, and have the big, beautiful survivor badge up. Feather in cap, pat on back.  If you have completed the A-Z too, congrats to you!

This was my second year, and as before, what I loved about the A-Z is the challenge bit, the work involved, the research, the writing, the rigorous discipline of it all. That grows me in unexpected spurts and in unexpected directions.  I am more of a lurker than a commenter, except for people/blogs I know really well, the A-Z helps me overcome that diffidence for a month :) I am also more inclined to be a pantser - scheduling posts goes somewhat against the grain.  I overcame that by keeping a paragraph or two to add on the night before.

Like last year, I visited and commented on way more blogs than I got returns.  I saw many 'likes' on my comments, some of them returned mine, many didn't.  Mostly WP bloggers didn't. Made me wonder if WP bloggers have an equally hard time commenting on Blogger blogs as the other way around? :) But no big deal - commenting should be fun-driven as well as courtesy-driven.  Returning comments on a poetry blog that you wouldn't be seen dead at otherwise makes no sense. 



I tried and returned every comment, but some were untraceable after all my attempts.  That blog signature bit should be mandatory for the duration of the A-Z. I did end up gravitating towards those who commented here more often, I couldn't find a way to avoid that, don't think I want to either.

However, finding blogs which were not related to books/writing was a mini-challenge within a challenge. I wish assigning those codes was mandatory also. And I wish too that poetry had a separate code, so that people knew before visiting what this blog's about. That way, no-one clicks on expecting some punny take on maths or something and ends up getting in-your-face poetry and a sinking feeling.  

The number of non-participators/drop-outs I encountered this year was less, the monitoring felt tighter. Kudos to all the co-hosts and minions, a special vote of thanks to Alex J Cavanaugh, Michelle Wallace, A Tarkabarka Holgy, and Susan Brody among them for being supportive throughout.  I read some amazingly creative A-Z posts from them and from Hilary at Positive Letters...Inspirational Stories.

An apparently random, unrelated thing happened during the A-Z  - this blog got chosen on a list of top Indian poetry blogs! Whoop!!  Wait. Maybe not so unrelated.  I have a sneaky suspicion that this happened somehow because of the A-Z, because of the extra activity on the blog or the extra poetry. You never can tell when and how karma will choose to pay you back, and for what. So now I have two badges put up instead of one. How supercalifragilisticexpialidocious is that? :)

Bottomline:  I had a great time, A-Z adds the zing to my spring here. Smug as a bug in a rug, due apos to PGW again. No reason not to come back for more.

Linked to the Reflections Post at the A-Z Challenge. 

A long round of applause for the creator and the co-hosts. Thank you all.