Ready for a New Month?

The last post for the month of January. Not only the last post, but The Ultimate Blog Challenge completed, too. I started late, but ended today with 31 posts in total.

A Look Back

I started with the hope that I could get close to the end before I had to drop out for whatever reason. I wasn't dooming myself to fail based on the idea that I couldn't achieve it, but keeping myself open to the possibility that things happen. I might not finish through no fault of my own. I'd already started a week behind, too. Seemed slightly impossible, but I love personal challenges.

Themes made the whole process less stressful. Instead of overwhelming myself with 31 blog posts, I broke it down into manageable segments. That idea was based on an email from one of the founders, or a video she had; I can't remember. It was good advice. I only had to come up with five or six posts for each theme since I used the first day to introduce the theme.

Let's see, we had a theme about me, which only lasted a few days since I started middle of the second week. It was with the hope that readers would get to know me and return. Or it might have scared some people away from the blog! Always a chance of people running quickly from my blog as if their hair was on fire. My brand of quirky is not always for everyone. In the grand scheme of things, I have to be okay with that fact.

Second week was flash fiction. I really enjoyed that. The point of the flash fiction challenge was to rid myself of the fear of people reading my work. I can check that off as mission accomplished. I wrote a story yesterday that brought many reactions from people. Nothing negative, but comments that made me realize that the ending was more subtle than I'd intended.

Next Stop: published book!

Third week was random trivia that I pick up while working. Week four was a mixture based on a poll on the blog. Overall, I'm extremely happy with the posts I shared.

Parts I Enjoyed

I liked connecting with people every day. It felt like people were engaged, making comments and coming back regularly. It's a great feeling. The posts weren't tossed-together poo like I thought they would be when the month began. It stretched me as a writer and a blogger, which makes it an amazing experience.

Not so Enjoyable Parts

It's a ton of work to blog every day. I didn't always feel like it, and I had to adjust my schedule to accommodate the posting, and return comments on this blog as well as commenting on other blogs for the challenge.

Lessons Learned?

• I AM able to blog more often than I did in the months previously.
• The theme of my blog and my voice became more focused.
• After blogging seven days a week, a three-day blogging commitment doesn't seem so hard.
• Using a theme and planning ahead make all the difference.
• It's not as scary to put myself out there.

That's it. That's all for January!

Going forward, I'm going to blog three days a week. In reality, I'll try to blog more often, but Monday, Wednesday and Friday are the days I can commit to each week. Some weeks, I'll have a theme, or a guest post, book review, or whatever.

I'll keep it entertaining! If I don't, I'll provide tomatoes for people to throw at my blog.