I did it!
I didn't do as well as I'd intended, but I succeeded in getting through the alphabet, mostly on theme. I had half of them set up in advance, and thought that would help ensure I had time to do more blog visiting this year, which is always where I fell short.
Due to life, the fact that I'd planned in advance merely allowed me time to deal with the new chaos generating around me, so I still didn't visit many blogs until nearly the middle of the month. Rather than run down the list of blogs, I generally visit ones with a them that I like, or blogs I've visited previously.
This year, I was able to tick off a few blogs as "yes, visit again later" during the first few days when I was visiting one or two as I could. But by the time I was ready to sit down and knock out a good chunk of blog-visits... several of the ones I visited had abandoned A-to-Z - either dropping off blogging, or random blogging without adhering to the letters. I'm all for blogging how anyone chooses, but it seems to me that if someone registers to follow a particular set of rules for a challenge, they should stick to them. I don't know why, but it bugs me. I'm a rule follower. (One or two of the blogs that had simply cut off at an early letter still made it to my "check them out later" list, but none of the "using AtoZ to gain followers while not really participating" blogs did.)
This year was more stressful. I LOVED the stories I wrote. I had fun with them. Of course, being flash fiction, there are things I would change on an edit, or if I lengthened them and added more depth, but overall, I'm happy with my part in this.
Will I do it next year? I will take into consideration what is happening in my life at that time. I may do as one of my favorite bloggers, Liz A. of Laws of Gravity, does: Simply follow the alphabet as I do my regular blogging in April. I might not even register. Just to relieve the stress. If stress is what my life is offering me next year. We'll see.
