Nicola Vincent-Abnett

Nicola Vincent-Abnett
"Savant" for Solaris, Wild's End, Further Associates of Sherlock Holms, more Wild's End

Monday 24 February 2014

Two Whole Years

I realised today that I began this blog a little over two years ago.
A shot of me looking terribly serious

Of course, if I’d been on the ball I would have celebrated my blog-iversary on the actual date, but I didn’t, so here I am, a little overdue, rather surprised that it’s been two years, thrilled that some of you are still here with me, and amazed that so many people take an interest in my random thoughts and ramblings on a fairly regular basis.

I’m not going to claim to be any kind of global phenomenon... heaven forfend... but I’ve had little stats spikes in Cyprus and the Ukraine among other places, and I appear to be read pretty regularly throughout much of the English speaking World. Recently, the French have been fairly avid dippers into this little site, and chunks of Asia also glow on my map from time to time. I have no earthly clue why.

I have been surprised and delighted by total strangers approaching me in places as far afield as Canada, Sweden and Ireland to tell me that they enjoy reading my blog. It is always a real pleasure for me. I have also been overwhelmed by the amount of support I have had on the social networks with shares on FaceBook and retweets on Twitter, sometimes from some extremely illustrious types. 

I have no idea what I have done to deserve it, but I thank you all. 

I am also immensely grateful to those who offer comments and support on the blog, and to those who take part in debates. I cannot say I’m not sometimes baffled by the positions that people adopt, but I’m all for ‘live and let live’, and anyone who’s disagreeing with me, particularly on subjects that I consider to be pretty clearcut, is at least taking time to think about what I’m trying to say... Or, you know, not.

Today’s blog is my 512th, which averages out at 1 blog every 1.467 days. Not quite the one a day I was aiming for when I began, but not a bad output on the whole. I’m estimating that’s between 350k and 450k words, too, so about 5 novels worth in 2 years, which is frankly frightening. I could learn a lesson from blog writing... I could learn to write novels more efficiently and with a whole lot less effort. Come to think of it, I’m pretty sure I’ve written 4.5 novels in that time, so not altogether bad going on that front either.

The novel that got this blog started. The novel you have all read about, Naming Names, is still yet to be published, but is undergoing more rewrites, so, you never know.

I have talked on a range of subjects in this blog, beyond writing, from the very personal to the topical, from the snarky to the sentimental, and at the time of writing each blog, I meant every word that I wrote. I cannot, however, promise that I still mean all of those words today, although, if thoroughly questioned I’m sure I can still find good reasons why I thought what I thought and also talk you through the reasons why I have since changed my mind... should you ever wish to ask those questions.

I have also learned a very great deal about blogging.

For example, I will probably never use the word ‘knickers’ in a blog title again or the words ‘fifty shades of grey’ in the labels. That combination accounts for a not particularly interesting or insightful blog being my most read effort. Go figure.

I also learned that timing and Twitter and someone making a bogus connection can cause a media stir about a blog that has absolutely nothing to do with anything. Again... Go figure.

This is the World we live in, people.

Very recently I learned that it’s a good idea to have search engines recognise that your blog exists. I haven’t worked out how to do this yet, but I’m looking into it. For some bloggers I suppose it’s critical that their blogs reach a wide audience, but since I’ve always said I won’t monetise this site and since I put my thoughts into the ether with no expectation that anyone will ever read them, I guess I’m not one of those bloggers. I might just let those little spider things do their work and hope that one day my blog will magically be recognised by search engines everywhere. It could happen... right?

In the meantime, for those of you who care, and I have no points of comparison for these numbers apart from the husband’s blog, and, trust me, there is no comparison... After two years, I am within spitting distance of 200K hits.

Again, thank you for visiting.


See you all tomorrow with the story of a yellow balloon.

2 comments:

  1. Nick - we definitely love your work in Ukraine :) Especially your family collaborations :)

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  2. Congratulations Nicola on your blogivesary – five novels worth is certainly a lot of words. Despite your serious look in the photo it's clear your thriving on it

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