A Month of Blogging

Today's post will be simple. I only want to talk about one thing: I managed to blog every day in April, including those days when I was exceptionally busy (doing final assignments, out of the house all day, the ball). It was fun, though. I loved sitting down and writing a post about life, or writing, or comic books, or the terrifying reality that adult life will well and truly start in a matter of weeks.

Fun, right?

It's helped me get a lot of thoughts out, though, in a way that nothing else has. On top of that, it's ensured that   I stuck to my New Year's Resolution to write every day this year.

But just how much did I write this month? Here are the statistics:

Over the past 29 days, I wrote 24402 words, an average of 813 words per post.

My longest post was 1843 words, on April 11th: The Write Life.

My shortest post was a mere 183 words, on April 24th: Shortlisted. I wrote it on my phone on a bus late at night, unsure what to say.

My most viewed post was Aspiring? from April 6th.

My most commented-on post was When I Grow Up from April 2nd.

This month has had the most views overall out of any other month since statistics kicked in in July 2008.

Let's look at those statistics in terms of what they are equivalent to. During the month, I wrote enough words to have written a novella. My longest post consists of more words than the average required to complete NaNoWriMo. People engaged most with posts about dreams and aspirations in writing.

Considering the amount of work I've had to do, the last-chance days with friends, working weekends, still being in college for half the month, and having two poetry nights to attend, I think I did quite well to have written all that I did. If I were to replicate such writing outside of blogging, I could still write a novella per month, or a 75,000 word novella in three. This is without pushing myself to write the NaNoWriMo minimum every day. Doing that would half the amount of time it takes me write something - given the average words per post - which means that, in theory, even with a full-time job, I could still write a few books per year.

That makes the future much less terrifying.

There has always been this fear that full-time employment would reduce the amount of writing I could do to a bare minimum, and not enough to actually pursue it as a career. Given the fact that I still work a lot under pressure from college assignment and Teaching Placement, I think I'll be alright.

And, for the record, as of this post I have written 24900 words in the month, an average of 830 per post. That's pretty cool, right? If you want to check out this month's posts, click on the following link: http://paulcarrollwriter.blogspot.com/p/april-2013-posts.html

Thoughts on Suicide?

Tonight, a man called up a talk show in Ireland. He was standing on a bridge, thinking about jumping off. As things like this are wont to do, it sparked a massive debate on suicide. Here's my take on the situation:

1. If he called the radio station looking for help, he wasn't entirely sure about suicide. He sent out invitations to receive help in his life, and did so through a public medium.

Why? I can't answer that. I can speculate, though, that he wanted to be taken seriously. He wanted someone to listen and not hang up. He wanted to be able to talk about what was going on in his life, but it's possible he couldn't find a way to bring it up around loved ones.

By calling the radio station, he found a way to tell people and to receive the help he needs.

There is nothing wrong with that.

2. He may have been looking for attention, but that doesn't mean our understanding of attention is the same as his. If he felt alone, he needed to reach out to someone who might listen.

Why a talk show? Again, I can't give his answer to that question. However, he may have felt he couldn't do one of the following three things:

(a) Call a helpline. He won't know the person at the other end of the line. It might make him uncomfortable, and he doesn't know what they will say to him.

(b) Tell a loved one. He doesn't know how they will react, if they will take him seriously, or if they will be able to help. Ireland isn't entirely suicide safe. People aren't always comfortable talking about it. He might also struggle to tell his family or friends about anything bothering him.

(c) Make an attempt at suicide. Sometimes, people who are having thoughts of suicide make an attempt in the hopes that someone will find them in time to save them. It doesn't always go according to plan (and not everyone who makes an attempt at suicide wants to be saved.)

Why those three? Because they're three things many people who have thoughts of suicide do when they're looking for help.

Calling a talk show meant calling someone who he was familiar with, but didn't know. It wasn't anonymous, it wasn't a family member, and it wasn't a suicide attempt. However, the risk was still there.

Suicidal thoughts can leave someone in a fragile state of mind, and should not be ignored if someone finds a way to express them.

He was listened to.

3. We can't decide it was:

(a) A prank, or

(b) Selfish.

Equally, we can't judge him for actually reaching out for help. We don't know what he would have done if he hadn't spoken about it on radio.

Some Facts:

- More people die by suicide in the US every year than are murdered.
- There were nearly 500 reported suicides in Ireland in 2010.
- Many suicides are not reported as suicides.

Tonight can teach us many things. Firstly, there are always people who have some compassion for those who experience thoughts of suicide. Secondly, there are support services in place when you need them. Thirdly, suicide is still attached to many stigmas; it is still taboo; Ireland still needs to learn to talk about it openly.

I'm not a doctor or a psychiatrist or a counsellor, but that doesn't mean I don't care.

1Life: www.1life.ie or call 1800 247 100.