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Year in Review: Literary Community
Dec. 30th, 2015 07:25 amOf course, one of the reasons for doing "year end roundup" posts this week is because readership is way down due to the holidays. (According to LJ stats, readership has been way down for the entire second half of December.) So the second part of this post is probably going to be pointless.
Why have I been doing a "literary community" theme in regular rotation? Largely because when I looked at the things I was spending my time on, it seemed to be something I could spend a fair amount of time talking about. So I've talked about my experiences at conventions this year. I've talked about social media and how I use the various venues for different purposes. I've talked about how I use social media to develop new friendships. (Or at least, to develop new connections that have a chance of growing into friendships. I don't tend to use "friend" casually or quickly. It can usually be years before someone moves from "acquaintance" to "person I feel comfortable initiating interactions with" to "person who sees me as a three-dimensional autonomous human being" to "friend".)
I've talked about the various types of online forums I frequent, whether interactive (such as blog communities like Making Light or File 770) or one-way consumption, such as podcasts and magazines. I've talked about my own participation: why I blog and how I see my audience (or what I hope me audience to be), how I see myself as part of the various online communities and forums I participate in. Becoming a published author inevitably changes that relationship. I'm rarely not aware of the fact that I'm always an advertisement for my art, whether in terms of sending a message "hey, I write interesting things -- check them out" or whether in terms of policing my public face (don't be a Debbie Downer, delete that tweet before sending; carefully soften your criticism of that book, you never know whose close friends will send rabid attack dogs to your Amazon reviews; be careful about expressing nuanced opinions on controversial topics, people will already have concluded what they think you must have said even before you post).
And while I doubt I've exhausted all the possibilities for talking about literary community, I feel like I'm on the edge of repeating myself, or simply doing minor updates of things I've already posted on. So here's the second part of today's post:
I like doing the rotating blog topics. It works very well for me. I think it helps keep me focused on "content" rather than on simply blathering randomly. And while most of my rotating topics are going to continue (LHMP, Alpennia, reviews, and of course the ever popular Random Thursday), I'd like to swap in a new theme in place of this one.
So what would my readers be interested in seeing me blog about on a weekly basis? I'm looking for a theme that's broad enough not to be exhausted quickly, but specific enough to provide regular inspiration. It should be something that doesn't (necessarily) require extensive preparation (although it could involve a mix of off-the-cuff and prepared content). And it should be of potential interest to a general readership (with the understanding that highly specific or technical topics can be of general interest, if properly spun).
Think of this as a bigger and more general brainstorming for Random Thursday topics.
Why have I been doing a "literary community" theme in regular rotation? Largely because when I looked at the things I was spending my time on, it seemed to be something I could spend a fair amount of time talking about. So I've talked about my experiences at conventions this year. I've talked about social media and how I use the various venues for different purposes. I've talked about how I use social media to develop new friendships. (Or at least, to develop new connections that have a chance of growing into friendships. I don't tend to use "friend" casually or quickly. It can usually be years before someone moves from "acquaintance" to "person I feel comfortable initiating interactions with" to "person who sees me as a three-dimensional autonomous human being" to "friend".)
I've talked about the various types of online forums I frequent, whether interactive (such as blog communities like Making Light or File 770) or one-way consumption, such as podcasts and magazines. I've talked about my own participation: why I blog and how I see my audience (or what I hope me audience to be), how I see myself as part of the various online communities and forums I participate in. Becoming a published author inevitably changes that relationship. I'm rarely not aware of the fact that I'm always an advertisement for my art, whether in terms of sending a message "hey, I write interesting things -- check them out" or whether in terms of policing my public face (don't be a Debbie Downer, delete that tweet before sending; carefully soften your criticism of that book, you never know whose close friends will send rabid attack dogs to your Amazon reviews; be careful about expressing nuanced opinions on controversial topics, people will already have concluded what they think you must have said even before you post).
And while I doubt I've exhausted all the possibilities for talking about literary community, I feel like I'm on the edge of repeating myself, or simply doing minor updates of things I've already posted on. So here's the second part of today's post:
I like doing the rotating blog topics. It works very well for me. I think it helps keep me focused on "content" rather than on simply blathering randomly. And while most of my rotating topics are going to continue (LHMP, Alpennia, reviews, and of course the ever popular Random Thursday), I'd like to swap in a new theme in place of this one.
So what would my readers be interested in seeing me blog about on a weekly basis? I'm looking for a theme that's broad enough not to be exhausted quickly, but specific enough to provide regular inspiration. It should be something that doesn't (necessarily) require extensive preparation (although it could involve a mix of off-the-cuff and prepared content). And it should be of potential interest to a general readership (with the understanding that highly specific or technical topics can be of general interest, if properly spun).
Think of this as a bigger and more general brainstorming for Random Thursday topics.
