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Monday 9 May 2016

Reflections on A-Z 2016

reflections 

This was my 5th year of taking part in the A-Z April Challenge, and at the end I often  think “never again”. But I soon start thinking of another theme for the following year

I had drafted up to M before April 1st, but then in the latter stages was writing only a day ahead – complicated by a short break away and the fact I am apt to over edit and spend too long tweaking before posting.  I also seem to find it impossible to write short posts, and cannot keep to one topic per letter. 

My advice to anyone considering taking part - plan  and draft your posts well ahead, as the pace can get hectic.   

My theme of Childhood Memories had a wider appeal than in previous years, where my themes were strictly family or local history.  Bloggers seemed to like the questions I posed and memories I sought.   I was delighted at the comments received and reminiscences shared. The new Facebook page “We are Genealogy Bloggers” was invaluable in pointing me to new (to me) A-Z bloggers who I added to my Reading List – In previous A-Z Challenges I was aware of very few FH participants. and support the idea of having a Family History Category in registering

I tried to read and comment on other blogs regularly, but the slight downside was that I did not extend my reading into areas outside family history. 

Yes, the challenge was at times a bit stressful, but I have a few new followers, widened my own Family History contacts (which I had not done for sometime) and learned from the writing of others - plus overall I really did enjoy the experience.  

 Onto 2017 !!

In Case You Missed

A-Z Challenge 2016 Theme Revealed: I Remember......Memories of Childhood

A - Autumn
B - Babies, Books, Birthdays & Brownies
C - Clothes + Church, Chores, Christmas, Crafts & Cars
D - Dolls + Dogs & Desserts
E - Events + Eating Out & Easter
F - Food + Fads & Fashion and Freedom
G - Grandparents + Games
H - Hairstyles + Hobbies, Houses & Halloween
I - Inspiring Teachers
J -Journeys & Joining
K - Kitchens & Knitting
L - Libraries
M - Music + Movies
N - Needles + Nativity and Names
O - Occupations
P - Poulton - My Ancestral Home + Poems, Pets, Penfriends, Politics and Protests
Q - The Queen's Coronation
R - Radio + Religion, Remembrance and Russia
S - Speccy Four Eyes + School, Sports, Sundays, Student Days and the Space Race
T - Toys + Treats, TV, Theatre and Technology
U - Uniforms
V - Village Life + Vacations and Values
W - Wars and Weddings
X - XRays, Xylophone and Xmas
Y - Youth Culture
Z - Zoo at Blackpool













7 comments:

  1. I enjoyed following along with your personal reminiscences this year and having my own brought to mind. I don't think I saw that fb page. I will be looking at it.

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  2. Sue it was a pleasure doing this challenge with you - your childhood memories sparked a few of my own and it was fun to share the differences or likenesses in our lives.

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  3. I thought your theme was terrific at documenting your own family history - it was most inspirational.
    I agree that the challenge makes April hectic but I don't think I would have the discipline to refrain from publishing once I had completed a post if I wrote posts too far ahead. Regards Anne

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  4. Great work Sue! I especially enjoyed how the "memory" posts kicked off readers' memories as well.

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  5. Like you I tended to regularly comment on blogs that were writing about similar topics, but I did try to stop by and visit other blogs from time to time, like yours. I hadn't realized that genealogy blogging was a thing until the challenge. That's one of the good things about the challenge - stumbling across blogs who cover topics you hadn't really known much about before.

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  6. Like you, I sometimes had trouble deciding on ONE topic for some letters that gave me several good options. You had a good solution with your questions at the end of each post. It was fun having a similar theme because I got some good ideas from you.

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  7. Childhood memories was a good choice with universal appeal. It's important to document our own history, too. I hope the A to Z team considers a genealogy/family history category for next year. I was still discovering FH blogs at the end of the challenge...would have liked to visit them sooner. Congrats on being a multi-year survivor!

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