For better for worse I decided to participate in the Blogging from A to Z Challenge 2016 and it has been a real challenge. You can see my posts over at my CurryAus blog.
It has just dawned on me why I am finding it such an onerous task. Actually my mate Fran alluded to this in her challenge post today.
I chose to write about individuals from my surname study and each entry required quite a bit of Troveing. It has taken me hours to research and put together each post. While it has helped me progress my Surname Study it hasn't helped my mental state. Next year if I participate I will prepare my posts well in advance and at a leisurely pace and I will select a topic that doesn't require too much research.
To date I have scheduled posts to the letter S and hope to work on T today but, as I have just been notified that my L post is a wordless wonder, I must go and find where Lilian is hiding.
Meanwhile the poor old GeniAus blog is resting in the wings.
It has just dawned on me why I am finding it such an onerous task. Actually my mate Fran alluded to this in her challenge post today.
I chose to write about individuals from my surname study and each entry required quite a bit of Troveing. It has taken me hours to research and put together each post. While it has helped me progress my Surname Study it hasn't helped my mental state. Next year if I participate I will prepare my posts well in advance and at a leisurely pace and I will select a topic that doesn't require too much research.
To date I have scheduled posts to the letter S and hope to work on T today but, as I have just been notified that my L post is a wordless wonder, I must go and find where Lilian is hiding.
Meanwhile the poor old GeniAus blog is resting in the wings.
Jill, Yes I am totally feeling this too. I planned to be get ready early and then mucked around changing my theme and wasted all the time pre April playing with different colours and fonts. It is about half way through and I cannot even remember if I told you this before - that's how I am going!!! I agree, next time, an easy theme and get posts ready before April. No picking a theme of names when you do not have someone in your tree for every letter. No adding a second theme of showing different family history help, skills or research methods! Nothing that required a numbers of hours searching first. Something that requires little sourcing and manipulation of blocks of text to make images.
ReplyDeleteNow that I got that off my chest I will stop taking the negative pills. Part of me is enjoying the satisfaction of meeting the challenge. I am glad I am doing this. I have found some interesting pieces of info and received 2 lots of old photos from readers.
Keep up the good work at your end. Fran
PS I am trying to find a person starting with U that will also have something to do with ANZAC day for Monday 25th post. "Taking on the impossible"
We'll get there in the end Fran and be wiser for next time.
ReplyDeletePhew! Glad it is a weekend. My posts are day to day at the moment so I am hoping to get a few done over the weekend to make it easier next week!
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading your post, Jill and can sympathize - as I imagine could many A-Z bloggers. Every year, I say I will stick to the recommended short posts - and I never do. I seem to find it impossible to stick to one topic per letter, but cover a number. I did get ahead this year, by planning in advance, but now we are half way, I am only just keeping pace. Yes, I have been stressed out with each year's challenge, but do I stop doing it? NO. I have found that a lot of the stress can come, not just from the research and writing elements, but trying to keep up with reading and commenting on other contributions. This year I identified, at the preview stage, blogs to follow and added them to my Reading List. The new Facebook page " We are Genealogy Bloggers" has also helped a great deal in this respect. The result is I have come across a number of new bloggers with very interesting posts. The downside, perhaps, is that am not widening my reading into other areas of interest, but focused on family history. Keep going and I look forward to reading more about your Curry's. When I first saw you CurryAus blog title,my immediate thought was "Mm.....Intriguing - what are the links between Australia and Indian food? I now know better!
ReplyDeleteI hate it when my wonderfully simple ideas turn convoluted and requiring research to find this or that ---- and then I find whatever and all bets are off.
ReplyDeleteEnjoyed your post.
Now the challenge is nearly done we can relax. By next year we will have forgotten about the pain.
DeleteNow the challenge is nearly done we can relax. By next year we will have forgotten about the pain.
Delete