This was the first time I took up A-Z April Challenge and it was an extremely rewarding experience. I actually should have taken up this challenge long back. The theme for my A-Z Challenge was “People I met in my Life“. I am an observer and I love to observe people. Be it a CEO of a company or a homeless beggar, I love to observe both and try to know their stories. I always try to know about the pain, sorrow, happiness, success, and failure of a person. I love to pick up stories and curate them.
I am grateful that my readers loved my stories. I received some amazing comments in last one month. Some said the stories made them cry while others said that they felt inspired to tell stories from their lives.
The 26 stories that I told were ‘from’ my life but not ‘on’ my life. I was not the main protagonist but only the narrator. I almost stood in the corner and narrated their stories to you. They were not ‘my’ stories.
How I Survived until the end of the challenge:
I had taken the advice from veteran A-Z Challengers and all of them suggested that it is best to write the posts well in advance and then schedule them. I followed their advice to the T. I finished writing all 26 posts in March itself. I also finished editing almost 15 posts in March. The remaining 11 posts were also edited by the first week of April. So the only thing that I was doing in April was reading and commenting on other blogs. Daily, I was reading 30-40 blogs.
I created an excel sheet and followed a pattern in reading and commenting. As all my posts were scheduled, they used to get published by 1 am.
- The first thing I did in the morning was copying the url of my post and submit it in the #BlogchatterA2Z linky, the Write Tribe A-Z comment thread and in the A-Z website Google sheet.
- Next, I used to start visiting the A-Z Challengers whom I follow in WordPress Reader. I used to visit around 14-15 blogs from here.
- Next. I used to visit bloggers from Write Tribe. Many of the Write Tribe Bloggers are in my WordPress Readers, so I used to omit the common blogs and visit the rest. There used to be around 6-7 blogs.
- Then I used to go to Blogchatter Linky. Again there are many common bloggers whom I had already visited. After leaving out them, I used to find around 10-12 bloggers and visit them.
- I used to comment on each blog, even if I never liked the content and share them on Twitter or Pinterest.
- In a day I used to comment on 30 blogs. I also got an equal number of visitors on my blog.
Take away from A-Z Challenge
- I came across some amazing bloggers and blog posts through A-Z
- I especially loved the bloggers who followed a consistent theme for their posts
- I preferred those who wrote short posts as long posts became a bit tedious to read under the time constraint
- I am not fond of poems but this time I came across some nice poets whom I read religiously each day
Overall A-Z was an amazing experience and wish to meet all of you in 2019 once again. Till then keep writing, posting, reading, liking, commenting and sharing.
Trina Looks Back 
Congrats on surviving A to Z! And thanks for the great tips! I may try a few of those next year 😊
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Congratulations for completing this challenge like a pro!!
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I love people who plan their attack on an unfamiliar process.
You did great! Congratulations on finishing.
And yes, everyone has a story, and it’s fun to observe them. (Observing others seeded some of my AtoZ stories)
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Was wonderful reading your posts and loved your disciplined approach
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YOur posts were fantastic Balaka, each with a human touch These aer people whom we meet everyday, yet seldom look deep inside for a story. You must publish your e book with it all
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I loved each one of your posts, Balaka! And, now I love each of the points you mentioned here. I couldn’t visit as many blogs every day, but I managed as many as I could. Next year, I would like to finish writing all the posts in March so that I can visit more blogs and enjoy my time there.
Congratulations, dear girl! Wish you the best for A to Z 2019!
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Reading and commenting on 30-40 blogs is big feat, Balaka. I could not have managed this despite scheduling all the 26 posts in advance. Congratulations to you for completing the A to Z challenge successfully. You surely must be a great observant to have characters (people) from your life to go with all 26 letters. I could only manage to read a few of them but now that I am settled I will be regularly visiting your posts.
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Wow, you have some great planning skills! Finished writing in March itself!! Well, taking some tips from you for the next blogging challenge, dear!! God bless you!
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Wow! That’s a super organised way to go about the AtoZ. I stop at writing and scheduling posts. I must learn from you 🙂 Congratulations !!!
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I loved your posts Balaka and also love this pithy summation of your takeways from this challenge. I will definitely follow these when I participate in the challenge next year. Perhaps I need to follow them in my regular blogging life too ( reading 30 blogs a day. )
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Balaka, I know you are traveling, but do take out time to go through this.
You are nominated for the mystery blogger award – https://firsttimemommy.net/2018/05/11/the-mystery-mania/
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