Now that the A to Z challenge is done, I can actually think about other things. I threw this blog together so that I had somewhere to post stories for this. Also it got me a blog setup to by a writing presence. So that’s two for one right there. That there is a net win for me. If anyone had been wondering why the website looked a bit… under done, that’s why. I thew it together two days before April started.

As for the actual challenge. I found it to be a fun challenge. It got me writing again for this year. I can make a whole other post about the first three months of this year. I needed to be writing again. I need to continue with my main story. Another win! I tried to have as many short stories planned out as possible before going into April. I had about 8 done before hand. The rest where all done about the night before I needed to post them.

The last week was especially hard. I was so close to being done and I had to fight off the ‘I’ve done enough and it’s good.’ No. I wanted to complete it. I am glad I stuck it through Z. Seriously, I almost didn’t write Z. I could skip one right? No. I would have felt cheated the rest of the year probably.

Previous years on the main website hosting this challenge, they had a giant list. This year, they tried having everyone make a comment to a daily post. I guess this worked, I’m not sure since I had no comparison of previous years to go off of. I found it a little dis-connected for me. I was busy writing a short story and then posting it and then crashing for sleep, I didn’t have much time actually scrolling through 200 comments looking for something that looked interesting to click on. While some people made comments that explained more or less what their posts were about, others just left a link. I did not click on many links or look at many other blogs during April. Only a handful of strangers came by my website via the website or Facebook. None from Tumblr or twitter. So maybe the comment thing wasn’t working out or I didn’t make my comments interesting enough. Or cause no one knows me. I am an unknown.

I wasn’t expecting each story to come out to be around 1000 words each. Especially when the main website says recommended of 300 – 500 words per post. Well, I never do anything half way or easy apparently.

My theme of characters working in a mall has been milling around in my head for almost two years now. I had written Lost Child during a summer challenge with my writing group back home. I had tried putting Avera, Kyle and Vicky into different settings over the course of the next two years but it never felt right. Putting them back into MacSweeny’s though, that felt right. Fun fact: MacSweeny’s didn’t have a name until my friend Nicky started rambling off words at me. She gets to claim credit for ‘MacSweeny’s’. Which was probably a day or two before I had to start posting them. It’s funny how over the course of a month, what showed up, stayed and added to the plots. They weren’t planned to all that connected, but plot happens. Now I have more ideas for these three and I may write one continuous story with them. Unless it doesn’t feel right. Then we’ll stick with shorts.

Speaking of, the next step with these suckers to edit and clean them up and put them in an ebook and test the waters of self-publishing with them. How does that sound? Sounds like a plan to me.