Things have been pretty busy of late. In a good way. I made a small resolution at the start of January to ‘write more’. That was it. No big promises to myself about targets and goals and other impossible achievements to be had.
I searched writing groups and found a local group which met weekly in the town’s library. I went that week and brought baby; I just didn’t want to leave her behind. The leader of the group was so baby friendly in our email exchanges it almost felt rude NOT to bring the little spud. But, we got a few quare looks and I knew after the two hour class that I was looking for something a bit different. More literary perhaps.
I found the wonderful site that is herfamily.ie on a sponsored post in Facebook in early January. I immediately wanted to air some writing there and dutifully stalked them until they allowed me some space. My first post co-incided with my first day back at work after maternity leave, so it was a busy time trying to get everything written and edited while organising the back to work scheme. You can read the first guest post of that week here.
Ahead of the posts I decided I would set up my dot com website, which I had bought the domain for when I started blogging back in 2013. The other half is pretty handy on tech stuff and he recommend wix.com as a web building site. Every night for two weeks when herself was tucked into her cot, I worked on it, transferring all my posts from wordpress and trying to capture an image that I was happy with. It can be difficult to put yourself out there; who are you, how do you want to look, what are you saying? But, I was happy with the outcome and a little proud that I built a website all by myself. (Okay so it wasn’t that difficult, but still!)
I got a great reaction from my blog posts on herfamily.ie. It made me want to write more, to do something even bigger. And one day an idea popped into my head. It was more a setting, than an idea, but it interested me greatly and I knew I could take it and run with it and write my book. I have always wanted to write a book. I even had a pen name when I was little, because, you know, I was going to become that famous!
I took out as many books as I could from the library to begin my research for the novel and from reading these, my story began to develop. One night I sat down and wrote out the synopsis for the book and I’m now developing the characters. Before this, I could never see how you structured a book. I thought you sat down and just wrote. And I had tried this, but of course always ran into difficulties. In this way I feel like I have a plan, that I know where the story is going and and the steps I need to take to get there. I’m following the snowflake method, but using it in my own way.
My final piece of writing excitement has been the discovery of a very active and inclusive bloggers group called Irish Parenting Bloggers. I could not believe my eyes when I read they were holding parenting blog awards in April! So I signed up straight away, have joined the private Facebook group and am currently reading through all the members blogs so that I can nominate my favourite blogs in the upcoming awards. There’s some fantastic writing out there and reading some of it has often been the highlight of my day.
I am only about halfway through the blogger list, but so far, I have picked out the following articles as my favourites; I just love the humour, how they move me or their sassiness, style and writing talent.
At the Clothesline – An open letter to Persil about my eyeball injury
Fat Deb Slim – Losing a dog, a pain unknown
Beating Myself Into a Dress – I guess that’s what it was
Nominations are now open for the awards and close on the 1st April. The awards themselves take place on 25 April in Trublin – I guess it will be a bit like a giant writing mammyfest! If you would like to nominate me for an award you can do so using the nomination form. You will have to click through the categories. I would be interested in the best personal blog or best writer category (hint hint). But don’t worry I can still nominate myself! And after the past two months of writing bliss, I bloody just might.
December Girl is now available on Audio. Visit Amazon or Audible or click on the cover below to download.
