Monday 8 August 2011

FOUR YEAR BLOGOVERSARY


I'm having a funny few weeks. Edna O'Brien wrote a novel called August is a Wicked Month. I could write one called August is a Boring Month. I am at a loss having finished writing my new novel; I feel all crabby and impatient with the world. I have no gigs this month, therefore very little travel, and that makes me narky too. I love getting away - I don't live in the most culturally stimulating place. Which is grand when you are immersed in a project but, when you surface, there is a bit of a lack.

The month is book-ended by nice literary things - my novel You being dramatised on RTÉ Radio One for the first week of August was surreal and lovely. And I am going to a day-long workshop run by two wonderful writers on the last day of the month, but I am not doing much myself as such.

Of course I am still working; I have a short story collection to complete and it is nearly there and the themes in the stories interest me: mothers and sons, the loneliness of men and women, and the consequences of love. And I continue writing my articles for the Indo's Saturday mag too and they are fairly time consuming.

But I miss the urgency of the novel. Yes, 'urgency', a word I would normally only use about the short story. Writing the novel made me happy and sane because it obsessed and possessed me. When I wasn't writing it, I was thinking about it. It kept me busy and committed to the page, and those are two things I shrivel without.

But there are things to celebrate and give hope: I am back reading (and loving) short fiction after a bit of a hiatus; my house is cleaner than it has been in a year (!); and this week - Thursday - sees my four year blogoversary. Four years of rambling away to myself but finding, to my constant surprise, that people tune in. Since Facebook and Twitter have taken over the virtual world, less and less people bother with blogs. Certainly less people comment. But there are still readers and I know this because I meet them out and about, and they can tell me what I've been writing about here. Half the time I feel like I am wittering away to myself.

Blogging has been good to me: it has made me friends, introduced me to new writers, and gotten me gigs. Will I still be blogging in four year's time? Who knows? In the meantime thanks to all of you who read and comment; it helps when I'm having a wicked month to know you are out there, listening in.

17 comments:

Louise said...

Good post Nuala - happy anniversary!

Christodoulos Makris said...

Here's to 4 more years of rambling away...

Kar said...

Happy Anniversary Dear,

The big 4 !

Sorry the month of Lúnasa is a bit blah – wonder is it more to do with your novel ending and you missing the characters, almost like a grieving period maybe.

Hopefully something will happen to lift this dull month, even just the rain stopping would help....

I’ve enjoyed dipping in and out over the last number of years. You tell me things I didn’t know where going on and introduced me to writers I may not have come across. So long may it continue....

Group 8 said...

Cheers, Louise.

Thanks Akis - not sure I have it in me. But who would've thought I'd go on for 4 yrs in the first place?!

Group 8 said...

Well, that's exactly what it is, Kar. Did I not make that clear??!!
I just have to start another novel to get my equilibrium back :)

WiseMóna said...

Happy Blogoversary Nuala.
I know what you mean about it being a bit quiet on the blog scene, and agree Twitter and FB are to 'blame' but I feel that Blogs still have their place.

I do 'read' you but rarely comment -- or am to afraid to comment --incase I make a blunder ..... and will never be able to live it down ;0)

Looking forward to your next novel.

Group 8 said...

Blunder?! How so?! Thanks for reading, Móna. There is definitely a sense of tumbleweed around blogland and though I don't mind FB, Twitter is just odd and unengaging, I find.

We'll blog on!

Mari G said...

Congrats on your 4th anniversary! I read and enjoy your blog too, am a follower but often don't comment. Can I go "off topic" and ask you if Niamh O Connor, author, is your sister...she was on telly tonight & looks so much like you?!

Group 8 said...

Hi Mari, thanks for comenting! No, Niamh is no relation. I googled her to see what she looks like. Can't say I see the resemblance but maybe we were fraternal twins, seperated at birth ;)

Donna OShaughnessy said...

I am two years into blogging and feel I am just starting to make sense. Please don't stop. I promise to visit and comment more. So many with talent like yourself drop away and then here we new writers are, just sitting on our confused bottoms with no one to lead us writing one run on sentence after another and another and another.

Group 8 said...

That's sweet Donna, thank you. I am guilty of neglecting my own blog as much as other people's. I try to run around the blogs I like once a week but busy-ness sometimes gets in the way.
Must comment more!

Jane Shortall said...

Having found your super blog, I feel a 'must do better' spell coming on. It's wonderful, and it's not as if you've nothing else to do? Must go and tidy mine up...

Group 8 said...

Cheers, Jane. Blogging is easy with kids around as it requires zero brain power. As I write my 2 yr old is helpfully plugging and unplugging the printer, showing me her finished drawings (purple scribbles), whacking me with her pencil, coughing and trying to get into my lap.
Better go and amuse her as Barney's Xmas Show on DVD is not cutting the mustard this evening :) Oh, the joys!!

Rachel Fenton said...

BUm, just lost my comment.

Here goes again!

HAPPY BLOGOVERSARY!

Take heart, Móna - my comment buffoonery knows no equal!

I was saying something about blogging being the right thing for me whan my son was born but as I got more time back I have replaced blogging with the actual stuff of writing stories/poem. Twitter isn't for me - too many squabbles - and facebook feels too exposed for me - not to mention time consuming. I'll re-think if I get to the point of having a publication to, um, publicise.

But I love your blog, Nu, and your early kindness kept me keeping on at a time I felt like I was shouting down the plughole. x

Anonymous said...

Inspirational post - I hope to be that engrossed in novel-writing some day!

Also - Juno is two?! Time flies ...

Group 8 said...

Rae - defo better to be writing rather than blogging but it fills the gap when nothing is coming.

I agree re. Twitter and FB.

You have always been a great supporter of me too, Rachel, so big thanks for that. N x

Group 8 said...

Eimear - yes, she's two. It's amazing to us too! Hope life is good with you. Nu x