A: Atta Girl, Atta Boy

A:  Most of you are here because you joined the A to Z Blog Challenge.  And it is a challenge to come up with all those blog posts and then visit and comment on as many other blogs as you can.  On top of that, many of us are still working on another part of our jobs as writers, parents and dozens of other professions.  It's a lot.  And what do you get out of it when you're done?

We do things for different reasons.  Some we get paid for.  Some we do out of duty or a sense of obligation.  There are even things we do because they're just fun.  So why would we subject ourselves to this massive commitment of blogging for a month straight and spending hours visiting other bloggers?

If you do this challenge right, you're going to gain followers.  You're going to find a lot of interesting blogs you want to continue to visit long after April is over.  On your travels around the blogosphere over the next month, you're going to learn lots of stuff.  Some is just plain interesting and some will help you in your career.  You may gain some interest in your book if you're a writer.  All those are great things.

But when May rolls around and the challenge is over, you may find the most valuable thing you have is a great sense of accomplishment and the glow of personal pride.  You will have fulfilled a promise you made by signing up for the A to Z and you will be proud of it. As well you should.  There won't be a trophy or a zillion dollar contract.  All you can be sure you'll get is an 'atta girl' or 'atta boy.'  But there will be hundreds of us saying it to you.

Today is the first step in earning the reward of completion of the A to Z Challenge.  Good for you.   Now get out of here and go visit someone else.