#AtoZChallenge - Reflections

It was my sixth year participating, and I was very happy with my theme (1968). As in past years, I've tried to ensure I can cover the tougher letters (Q, X, Z) before I settle on my theme.But 1968 wasn't my first choice. I had a few other ideas, and maybe I'll use them for future challenges. Or, I might choose 1969 as next year's theme!Typically, I start planning right after the holidays. I set up an Excel spreadsheet and fill in the blanks under each letter with as many ideas as I can come up with. This way, I try to have some variation each day. 1968 was dominated by troubling news, it seemed, so I decided to add a song at the end of the post, for balance. I used the Billboard Year-End Hot 100 Singles and worked my way up to #1, making sure I had a decent video for each song.I gained a few new followers through the challenge, and discovered a dozen or more blogs, which I added to my own follow list. While I was disappointed that more folks didn't 'like' or leave a comment on my daily posts, that part was out of my control. I tried to keep my posts short (under 300 words), knowing that people wanted to visit multiple blogs during April.I'll be back next year, God willing.