Dear Friends: may I be 137th* to wish you a Happy New Year!
(*Well, it is the 30th of December, and the whole internet culture is making us more and more competitive every day to be first and best with greetings and compliments, so I expect I’m way behind already in my New Year greetings.)
We all know it’s not in my nature to be nice to people, but I really am very grateful for every reader who has ever stopped by my slippery little corner of the internet in 2018.
For me, this year was full of plot twists. I started a new job which ate my life, sucking energy and brainwaves in equal measure. It made it difficult to write at times, and impossible at others to make actual progress on any of the works projects I was trying to keep on the boil. Even still, I came damn close to getting a couple of them published, but as we say in my dear home county of Clare, nearly never bulled a cow, and being nearly published is about as life-affirming as Schrödinger’s cat.
Despite the fact that I’ve been quiet in December, I did really enjoy blogging this year. I regretted not having enough time to visit my favourite blogs, and feel I missed a lot from you this year. But I tried at least to keep up with my own.
Sometimes a big writing project is just too, well, BIG. Blogging comes in lovely bite-size pieces, though. There’s always time for a blog, even when a chapter is too steep a mountain to climb.
(Well, except if it’s December, and you’re distracted by a mince pie. But otherwise, there’s always time for a blog. Honest.)
Not to mention that blogging is social media, which means INSTANT GRATIFICATION WAHEY!!! It’s terrible, really. I might slag it off, but I’m as complicit as anyone when it comes to looking for a reaction to a posting online. You know pretty much immediately who’s reading and whether they like it or not.
Bigger writing projects take forever to go through the sausage machine and spit out results. Blogging tells you right now whether or not it worked. If people like something, you do more of it: if people don’t, you shrug and move on, without too much anguish or time wasted.
My most popular posts this year were all very different from each other, too, which is evidence of how much fun I had spewing wild thoughts online. Of course, they were all satirical or cynical, which as we all know is my raison d’être, and also my reason for being. The Top 5 for 2018 were:
- Honest Blurbs For Honest Writers
- Demotivational Posters for Writers
- Confessions of a Critic: What Makes People Write Nasty Reviews?
- How I Learned To Cure My Anxiety With A Classic Smoky Eye
- A Living Wage For Writers – From A Most UNLIKELY Source
So, what’s coming in 2019?
One thing I did manage to do this year was write a new series for the blog, which I’ll begin to post in January. It’s a blogging skit, told from the point of view of the Bestest, most Amazingest and Humblest Social Influencer of Them All. I tested a few pieces for this earlier in the year, and had enormous fun in the process.
The genesis of the idea came from reading one too many articles about hugely successful bloggers who all seemed to be suffering from crippling anxiety for some reason. I started to wonder why.
I soon realised that if there’s one thing the internet has taught us, it’s that just like Sesame Street said: we really CAN be whoever we want to be… or at least, whoever we say we are. In fact, I’m not even sure there’s a difference any more. Because if the last couple of years have also taught us that facts are what we say they are, then social media is our biggest loudspeaker. And sadly, it appears to be making us sick.
However, I’m never one to let a serious or worrying issue to slip by without making some sort of joke about it. With that in mind, I’ll be posting my guide to being a social influencer, with special focus on the most popular and influential subjects, such as:
- Beauty
- Lifestyle
- Fitness
- Food
- Politics and Social Activism
- Photography
- Home Decor
- Fashion
- Entertainment
- Personal Growth and Transformation
- Wellbeing
- Motoring (obviously)
The whole project has been a revelation to me, as a niche blogger. As I said earlier in the year in an introduction to the tester piece How I Learned To Cure My Anxiety With A Classic Smoky Eye, being Ireland’s 5th most successful niche literary humour blogger focusing on conversations between fictional stereotypes is all very well, but if you’re doing well in one niche, why not cover ALL the niches?
I’m looking forward to introducing the philosophy of the Superblogger to you all in 2019. In the meantime, and before I get into full parody mode, I hope all of you have a healthy, peaceful, joyful and bountiful New Year. It’s been a pleasure doing the giggling with you in the old one.
Happy New Year to you too. 😀
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You’re 152nd welcome, Widdershins 😉
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Oooh… you HAVE been busy blog-plotting in 2018, haven’t you? Looking forward to the fruits of that! Meanwhile, enjoy the last of the old and the first of the new this week, I will be singing along to Jools, as always (Don’t get out much these days), and here’s to the success of actually really getting published in 2019… I can feel it in my water, well, my prosecco, but the less said about that the better really. Happy New Year, and may your golden diamond crusted wellies glow and never get covered in mud! 😘
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I’ll be sitting with pipe and slippers myself this NYE Ali! No excitement and finally enjoying downtime. Here’s to your own endeavours in 2019… can’t wait to see what I’ll be congratulating you on this time next year 😆
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Probably pretty much the same as this year… ie not much! 😆
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You’re not the only one feeling it in their waters you know… 😉
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Better call a doctor… 😁
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😂
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Happy New Year, Tara!!!
Sx
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And many happy returns to you Scarlet 🤩
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Happy new year to you too 💚🎉
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Looking forward to more fun in 2019 Ana!
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Thanks for blogging, Tara. You have a unique style of writing that I enjoy reading. Have a happy New Year!
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Thanks Stanley – much appreciated! Wishing you all the good things in 2019!
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Happy New Year to you too, Tara! Best wishes, success with publishing and all that. And keep on with the blog, I do enjoy your views on life! 🎄🍾🎉
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I will, Marina! Thanks so much for reading. It makes it all worth it 😀
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Hubble bubble
Tara’s trouble
She has filled her blog
With words and phrases
That leave we sages
Mouths open, all agog.
Happy everything, m’dear. Looking forward to your take on life in 2019.
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And that’s why you’re my favourite, Geoff!! Your poetry has LAYERS. It’s a pleasure doing banter with you. Also looking forward to seeing what 2019 brings to you and your unique outlook on the universe!
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Geoff… is… your… favorite?!? Your FAVORITE? I mean, come on, his comments are hilarious and brilliantly written but were you ever lost in the city with Geoff? Did you ever go to the pub? Did you share a meal? And don’t you love how I milk our humble couple of hours together for dramatic effect?
In the best spirit of 2018, I was going to leave a great comment, no, the greatest comment (many people have said I write the best comments), but now I’m not, and I’m seriously considering building a very tall wall (many people have said I build the best and tallest walls) around your house.
So there.
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Yeah, Nick, I admit that was a bit harsh. It’s the fault of the internet, you see. It brings out the superlative in everyone. I mean, look at your last paragraph. It’s trying to trump everything that comes before it, but there’s only so much of that you can do without getting orange in the face, y’know?
Of course, you are my favourite, as is Geoff, a new puppy I met recently, and anything left in the house that has sugar in it. Between ourselves, though, you know you have the edge, Nick. Anyone who offers to build me a wall is automatically and spectacularly No. 1. Do you know the price of a wall around here these days??
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I accept your apology but you’re being terribly naive, my dear. *I’m* not paying for the wall! I’ll have your neighbors do it. A few nights of deafening noise and, perhaps, some nice screaming every now and then should do the trick, wouldn’t you say?
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All I know is I’m not buying it. True fact. The factiest fact you’ll hear this year…
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I look forward to meeting all your anxious-blogger personas in 2019! Thanks for the laughs. And for your fabulous Christmas guest post on our blog!
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Not as anxiously as they’re looking forward to your approval, Anne. They’re VERY anxious that you love them and throw shallow compliments their way. And thank you for hosting me again this year – I had a ball!!
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Happy New Year, Tara! Thanks for all the giggles and insights 🙂
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You’re most welcome – but thank you most of all for your fantastic support 😬😆😊
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I’ve thoroughly enjoyed your scribblings through the past year – here’s to 2019 and more skew-eyed views of writing and blogging. 🙂
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AND THE BANTS, Nick… never forget the bants!! Really enjoyed your comments throughout the year and looking forward to more of them in 2019!
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I shall endeavour to produce some knockabout wit that can go toe-to-toe with your posts, but you set a high banter bar! 🙂
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It’s the only bar that’s hard to reach, Nick. Especially after I’ve had a few.
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Ba-dum-tish! Let the 2019 bantering begin! 😀
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Happy New Year Tara…thanks for keeping going and for sharing your witty insights into your view on the world. They are like you a joy . From your fellow” nearly never bulled a cow …” neighbour ! Heres to a bright new published year!! Love Carol xx
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Thanks so much Carol… and thanks for reading! I was going to make a joke about cow-bulling in 2018 and no matter what way I put it I disgusted myself, so I’ll spare us both that one ;P
We’re due a catch-up methinks but in the meantime…Here’s to us both having things to celebrate in 2019!
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Having one book published is not a panacea. Pray I get the second in the trilogy finished in 2019 before I lose heart.
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Never thought it was so myself, Alicia. Good luck with your writing this year!
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Merci – and mercy.
I will, you know. Stubborn like that. It’s just taking longer than I have any natural-born patience for.
May your writing blossom and prosper in 2019 the way you want.
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Every part of me is already excited about those new blog posts (in a non-creepy way). Have a great year!
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Thank you kindly Bjørn! Here’s hoping – and many happy returns 😀
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I’m sure I’m so far down on the list I barely register, but HAPPY NEW YEAR TO MY FAVORITE BLOGGER. You make me laugh regularly, and that, right there, is the greatest gift. Well, maybe not the “greatest” — I got a pair of flannel pants that seriously rock — but ALMOST the greatest. ❤
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Thank you Lorraine – and thanks so much for all the supporting and sharing you’ve done throughout the old year!
And, #justsayin’, but pics of the flannel pants, or they didn’t happen. Even without seeing them I’m jealous 😉
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You’re so welcome…. and I don’t see ANY way at all to leave a photo of my flannel pants, so you’ll just have to take my word for it. They ARE envy-worthy. 🙂
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This is just another way to punish people for not using Instagram enough, Lorraine! I’ll have to use my imagination 😉
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Ah… Instagram… that’s right. OK… you’ll see!!!!
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Promises promises! 😂
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I think I’m probably backing up a lot of what you’ve said by only getting to this now!!! Here’s to 2019 being quieter but in my case more productive!!!
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There’s two of us in it obviously 😉 … yes indeed – high fiving you in that sentiment!! Hopefully we can reconvene in short order with our productiveness in evidence!
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A check-in at the end of Feb;) ( Am doing this anyway as too often I leave everything to the latter half of the year!)
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Ok that’s a deal! We’ll police each other! 😆
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