Well, I did it, on not one, but two blogs. When I started I didn’t think I’d be able to keep the fiction side of it up. I started the story of Xavier and Jupiter with the intention to make it a single short story – using just the letter A. That leads me to the first and possibly the most important thing I learned.

Someone once asked me what I wanted to do with my writing. She asked, “Do you want to be a writer of fiction? A journalist? A blogger? What do you want?” as though I had to choose just one. So I did. I said the first thing that came to my mind – I want to be a novelist. Until April 2nd I didn’t know why; I’ve only fully realized in the last 24 hours, that it’s simply what I do. Once I get a character in my head, I can’t let go. It’s why I have such a hard time with short stories – because there is always so much further I can take these people who live in my imagination than I can possibly write in, say 1,000 words. I think it’s also why, when I do write short fiction, it’s usually under 500 words. I just can’t get into it without writing a novel. And I would so much rather be writing a novel!

I probably had more fun writing what ended up being a fair sized novella completely off the top of my head every day until I hit about the letter “T” than I’ve had since NaNoWriMo. I love the challenge not knowing what will happen next until I write it.

Which brings me to the next thing I learned doing A-Z – that I find it infinitely easier to write every day when I have a prompt, even if that prompt is simply a letter of the alphabet and a theme. I shouldn’t be writing this post until May 5th when there is, by the way, a link party over at the A-Z Challenge site. But I had nothing else to write today.

The third thing the Challenge gave me, which wasn’t as much of a learning experience as it is simply a fringe benefit, is all the wonderful new blogs I found, and intend to keep following. *waves to the other A-Z’ers* I must also use this post to thank so many of my friends for coming on this journey with me. It was great, wasn’t it? I’m looking forward to all your follow-up posts!

The question, I guess, is what do I do with the things I’ve learned? I may compile my A-Z novella, polish it, and publish it. It might be a good way to get my name out there before I publish Dagmaru. I’d be happy to have any thoughts on this from those who have read it. I also know now that I need to concentrate on my novels.

As for not knowing what to write on my blog, I may seek out more prompts. If anyone has any good suggestions I’d love to hear them.

A-Z was a wonderful experience. It’s helped me to grow as a blogger and a writer. I can’t wait to do it again next year!