Year in Review: Literary Community

[hrj]

Of 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.

Comments

[lferion]

I would love to see a regular history/research thing that goes to food/clothes/furniture/whatever fun object.

I had fun reading your analysis of the banquets awhile back, and your article about medieval mac-n-cheese (which I have forgotten where I read that, but it was part of 4 different recipes/redactions?)

Hopefully this makes some kind of sense...

[hrj.livejournal.com]

This is actually one of the ideas I've been kicking around. "Research squibs" or some such. I'd probably have to write up a bunch of them at a time, then save to post, since it isn't something I could do entirely off the cuff. But if I stuck to a very short format, that would necessarily limit the work involved.

[klwilliams.livejournal.com]

You have detailed knowledge in esoteric areas that are interesting to the rest of the world: the history of names, Medieval poetry, Wales, how to use Excel beyond a simple spreadsheet. I'd like to see posts on small subsets of these areas.

[green-knight.livejournal.com]

I'd like more information about clothes and costumes because they're mostly 'pretty things' to me: I understand a little how you show off your wealth by using costly materials, adornments, and very fine stitching, for instance, but beyond that, they mean nothing to me. I'd love to hear your thoughts on how fashions develop (and then go over the top until someone else introduces a new thing?), how clothes reflect or shape societies, in other words, how one would _develop_ a fashion for a secondary world other than simply looking at a similar-feeling culture on planet earth and borrowing wholesale.

[hrj.livejournal.com]

This seems to be the consensus!

[hrj.livejournal.com]

That is: the general request for research posts. Clothing alone wouldn't fill the space. (And when it comes to the development of fashion, that's actually much more in abd07's line.

OT: Would a book on Viking textiles be of interest to you?

[patoadam]

Coincidentally, I found this post, which I think may interest you, adjacent to yours.

Re: OT: Would a book on Viking textiles be of interest to you?

[hrj.livejournal.com]

Thanks, yes I saw that. (I got that book in hardcopy when it first came out!)