Monday 8 May 2017

Dragon Diaries - Reflections - A to Z Challenge 2017 #AtoZChallenge #AtoZChallengeReflections

Dragon Diaries

elcome to my reflections on the Blogging from A to Z Challenge 2017:


Each day, I'm told you about a dragon - a dragon inspired by a name that I generated randomly using a name generator (I didn't look up the derivation of any of these names, I just ran with how they made me feel, their sound on the tongue).

I told you all about my Dragon of the Day, and shared some flash fic about their lives. Any genre, any character, any look - I hope folks were surprised and entertained by my dragonly inspirations :). And now I want so share a few thoughts about this year's A to Z Challenge, and honorary mentions of blogs I enjoyed.

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So, it was a big change this year, in that we did not have one list to sign up to, we, instead, were signing up each day to a post on the A to Z blog. This was designed to make the A to Z more sociable and ensure everyone on the list was taking part. Well, I suppose it achieved its second aim, because, logically speaking, if you had given up on the challenge, then you wouldn't be joining each day, but, I would say I don't think this new sign up method increased the social aspect of the challenge - not for me, anyway. I actually found a lot of the blogs I wanted to read during the challenge during the theme reveal posts and I had already made my own list of places I wanted to remember to visit. This really helped me during the challenge, because, since the daily sign ups were not in the same order every day, I wasn't always sure if I'd visited the blogs on the list. I did add a few people to my list throughout the challenge in one of two ways:

  1. When someone visited my blog who I hadn't visited and I then hopped on over to them.
  2. The people just above me on the sign up days.
I'm not sure what the key to making the A to Z more sociable is, maybe being a lot clearer on subject categories, so people can find the kind of things they are interested in - although I have to say, I did find myself reading the odd random blog (type 2 above) on subjects I would not have picked from a category list. What could be interesting might be a 'take me to a random blog' option, but, unhelpfully, I know of nothing that would offer that kind of functionality for a signup list :(.

Having said all that, thanks to all of you who work hard and run A to Z and make it possible, and you were brave to try something different. Thank you also to everyone who visited and commented on my blog, because it was great to get the feedback on my dragons and great to talk to you.

And, of course, I did enjoy visiting the blogs I found this year and there were quite a few I went back to regularly (though none everyday, I have to admit, because some days I struggled to get my post up, let alone visit anyone else, which was just down to mad things happening in real life). So. below are a few honourable mentions in no particular order :).  


PersonThemeURL
ShaliniA to Z Indian Dishes to Die Forhttp://somethingiscooking.com/
AJ VosseMusic & Memorieshttps://ouchmybackhurts.wordpress.com
Patricia LynneStrange Feelingshttp://www.patricialynne.com/
Hilary Melton-ButcherRare Breedshttp://positiveletters.blogspot.co.uk/
J Lenni DornerTelepathy and Misused Wordshttp://jlennidornerblog.what-are-they.com/
Sarah Zama40's Film Noirhttp://theoldshelter.com/
Josie Two ShoesFull Circle (FF)http://www.josie2shoes.com/
Jean D DavisEditinghttps://jeanddavis.blogspot.co.uk
Pamela WrightThe Scottish Highlandshttps://thewrightsdaysoffun.blogspot.co.uk
Sara SniderMagical & Medicinal Herbshttp://saracsnider.com/
Rae SquigglesAbbeys and Cathedrals of UKhttps://thequietwriter.com
Tamara NarayanConspiracies and Controversieshttp://www.tamaranarayan.com/
Zalka Csenge VirágWTF - Weird Things in Folktaleshttp://multicoloreddiary.blogspot.co.uk/
Mary BurrisBillboard Hits of 70'shttp://www.jinglejanglejungle.net/
CD Gallant-KingWeird Canandian Facts & Historyhttp://www.cdgallantking.ca/
Melissa AnnBook Reviewshttps://mycreativelyrandomlife.blogspot.co.uk
Roland ClarkAlternative History of Kanatahttps://rolandclarke.com
Nick WilfordSnippets from Black and Whitehttp://nickwilford.blogspot.co.uk/
Laura ClipsonStorytellinghttp://mybafflingbrain.blogspot.co.uk
C R G GalvinLife on a farm in 50's and 60'shttps://earlieryears.blogspot.co.uk
Books before the bloghttps://1001armchairadventures.wordpress.com
David JessonMaterials Science in Fantasy and Sci FIhttps://abackoftheenvelopecalculation.wordpress.com
JodieFairytale Charactershttp://believeinfairystories.blogspot.co.uk
DjinniaAnime Charactershttp://djinniaandtheenglishlanguage.blogspot.co.uk/
Yolanda ReneeAlaskahttp://yolandarenee.blogspot.co.uk/
Anna TanThe Princess and ...http://blog.annatsp.com


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