Happy half-Birthday to AbsolutelyLucy!

Life has just been so crazy lately that I almost missed the six-month anniversary of my blog! I couldn’t let such a milestone go by without posting about it because in just six months I have gone from complete newbie to a full-fledged blogger and I couldn’t be happier about it.

My first post was published at the start of September 2013 – just a short piece to ease myself in, little did I know that it would lead to me posting four or five times each week and increasing both my daily and monthly views by nine times over the course of six months. I was soon addicted to blogging and couldn’t resist posting several times a week on a whole variety of topics including theatre, food, travel, literature, live music, festivals, university, relationships and countless other topics.

Reaction and joining the blogging community

I’m happy to say that I have had nothing but fantastic reactions to my posts, with regular insightful and thought-provoking comments being left by readers and plenty of discussion on Twitter. I’ve become a part of the blogging community by taking part in regular #lblogger and #fblchat Twitter chats, giving me the help and support I need to make decisions about my blog. I now have several fabulous blogger friends who I regularly chat with, despite them living across the country and internationally – people I would never have met or become friends with if it wasn’t for my blog.

Social media

I’ve learnt all about using social media to my advantage and as a tool to make friends and connections with the right people. I’ve more than doubled my Twitter following, created a Facebook page for my blog which also has over 130 followers and boosted my Tumblr following to more than 400! I’m so happy with these figures and it means that word is spreading about my writing. It has also given me the opportunity to be contacted directly by those I have blogged about, such as the guys at RAM Records, a member of Basement Jaxx, singer Ry X, the cast of From Here To Eternity, so that they can thank me personally for my words.

Awards

One thing I am absolutely thrilled to pieces about is the fact that within six months I have been awarded not just one, but three awards! One award I was actually nominated for twice in the same week! The first was the Versatile Blogger Award and this nomination came from a blogger who I had been avidly reading since starting out myself. The second nomination – The Lighthouse Award was for bringing light to a dark world. It came at a particularly dark time in my life from a blogger I had never met or spoken to before, and this really helped to show me that what I was doing was worthwhile. The Liebster Award is one that again, by bloggers I had never met or spoken to before, I was nominated for out of the blue – this time twice in one week! All three were such lovely recognition and all came from fantastic bloggers, which made me even prouder that they had thought of me when passing the torch.

Further writing

As a result of all this, and of my other work at This Festival Feeling, I have been asked to write two profiles – one about my course and distance learning journalism and another about what I have been up to since graduating. I have also been interviewed as editor of This Festival Feeling about the effect of social media on the festival experience. All of this extra writing has given me a great chance to further expose my blog to new readers which is only a good thing!

Following

Now I’m not one to look at figures as a mark of success and I definitely prefer a couple of followers who comment regularly and get involved with my posts, to hundreds of views. But, it is incredibly gratifying to know quite how many people are viewing my blog each day, and to see how much this figure has grown over recent months. I’m incredibly grateful to the people who do comment and get involved, but also to the wonderful people who have shared my blog with their friends. I’m so pleased that I started Absolutely Lucy because it really has become such a big part of my life, as have those who read it.

Future

So here’s to the next six months, let’s hope they are as productive! I am really excited for the future of Absolutely Lucy because the success of the last six months has really helped to open doors for me in terms of branching out to cover new topics, working with other bloggers and with businesses. But as ever, I’m still keeping my feet firmly on the ground and will be blogging about the things that inspire, interest and irritate me. If you have any requests or any suggestions for Absolutely Lucy, topics to cover or shows to review – please do leave me a comment below.

 

 

Life of a journalist and its varied tales…

This week has been a particularly extreme example of how very varied a career in journalism can be. Of course, for those who choose a speciality such as sport, law or feature work, the writing can seem repetitive over time, but the bonus of being thrown in the deep end without formal training and working in a short-staffed office is that you really get a chance to experience as many different writing styles as there are out there.

I am a great example of such a case and despite working on a paper that covers a relatively small part of Norfolk, there is a remarkable amount of very exciting news that needs covering! This week alone I have interviewed the star of West End musical – Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story ahead of its showing at the local theatre as part of the 25th anniversary tour and was given a backstage tour by Glen Joseph himself. I then wrote a piece about drug and alcohol abuse figures which involved me talking to action teams, the hospital, police, support groups and Norfolk County Council. I also interviewed a woman about her father’s Jobseeker’s Allowance being cut off and spoke to the Department of Work and Pensions and spoke to a woman who was celebrating her 103rd birthday.

I interviewed a published writer about his book, the tale of his father’s travels and the secret life he led during World War II followed by his work spying on the Russians during the Cold War.I also wrote about Bus Awards, flood alerts, power cuts, schools, charity work and local bands and theatre productions.

All that and more is what I have been working on in the space of one week – just think of all the amazing stories you could be working on at a national paper! If that doesn’t interest more people in journalism then perhaps the fact that in my second job, as editor of This Festival Feeling, I had the opportunity to interview Charlie Hedges, the youngest breakfast DJ in the UK, from KISS FM will interest people in the potential for a writing career and where it might take you.