Days are flying by, faster all the time (I know it’s my aged perception, and time has not changed in reality). It's hard to believe that I used to post multiple times per day, when now I barely manage twice per week, but I flung out posts like a maniac for years on WordPress. I didn’t have much to say, but I responded to prompts in a compulsive way. I felt that slacking off would let down my readers, who were all doing the same thing, and then we engaged in a frenzy of liking each other's stuff before posting again and again. What's your favorite color? Describe your ideal breakfast. Where did you go on vacation when you were a child? WHO CARES?! I did get a few decent poems out of that mess though.
For a while, I participated in music related prompts on Bluesky, and now I'm utterly bored with everything on that app due to the proliferation of politics on every feed. I have decided that memes are the emptiest form of communication, a way to be at the party but not in the party (that’s a line from Mamma Mia 2). You don't have to take responsibility for the content of a meme, since you didn't write it, but it keeps you in the loop of views. Does it accurately reflect your view? Then why not take a minute or 10 to write out your own opinion in your own words? No, that's too onerous, plus it would take time away from reposting 20 more memes.
There's a reason I gravitate to Facebook when I crave interaction. Sure, there are a lot of memes there too, but friends sometimes post photos from their real lives and give mini updates once in a while. I would rather hear from someone I know about a book or movie or recipe than read reviews from randos on Goodreads or scroll through repetitive memes on Bluesky. It is an entirely different thing when someone in my FB book club posts a meme about books because we engage in the comments; it’s not a contest to accumulate likes. Social media seems to be much less social as people try to build a brand in the hope of monetizing their “content.”
Of course, if I had become "successful" on the internet and could now monetize my own words, I would be championing all this instead of dissing it. These grapes are very sour.
This week I’ve been hosting a prompt on Bluesky, which consists of giving one key word per day for peeps to create a 7-syllable sentence. It's kind of fun to see the variety of responses. But I am utterly sick of politics, and most of my main feeds are political. The poetry and zoo feeds aren't super active, so I get bored quickly there.
As far as Substack, I am giving it a chance ~ trying to ignore the main feed in favor of the accounts I follow and poetry generally. (The main feed is 99% political just like Bluesky.) I think there are good writers there, and I need to have patience to fill my feed with those who enjoy sharing their writing for free (or some of it) as opposed to writers who only post links to purchase. Nothing wrong with trying to sell your books! There are literally hundreds of clever pitches every week that pass through my various feeds though, and my TBR pile is enormous already.
Speaking of... I read The King of the Castle by Victoria Holt and gave it only 3 stars. It was a standalone (not part of the Daughters of England series), and I couldn't relate to the MC Dallas or her love interest Lothair. His actions often felt stuck in for dramatic effect and made no sense. For example, it turned out he really loved his daughter, so why then was he so verbally cruel to her? It seems that Holt wrote him this way in order to make Dallas feel all conflicted about him, but to me that would be enough of a red flag to kill any romantic interest. Since Dallas' attraction flourished despite Lothair’s nastiness, I began to dislike her as well. That all said, the story was solid with an intriguing mystery, told straight up first person without gimmicks except for a few passages from Lothair’s dead wife's diary. It's nice to relax into a well written past tense narrative without being bombarded with constant nah nah I have a secret but won't tell you, plus podcasts and other annoyances that contemporary writers use to pad their wordcounts. Also, the ubiquitous use of present tense irritates me so much!
Here's the thing I love about Victoria Holt's writing: she begins by introducing a woman or girl MC in first person (always past tense), and this MC tells us that there is a problem. She describes what let up to this issue, and we know what she knows within the first chapter. She doesn't tease us by alluding to the "big thing" that won't be revealed until much later, which in my opinion is poor writing but seems to be the way of every new book on the shelf. Holt creates suspense by carrying us along with the MC as she discovers and solves the mystery without keeping secrets from us. If we are in the MC's head, then we should know what she knows. Writing 101!
Otoh, I awarded five stars to Things We Do in the Dark by Jennifer Hillier, even though she does tease us with secrets (and uses present tense) because when it's done well, I am more than fine with it. Good stories can overcome broken rules, iff they are excellent! I highly recommend this book: it’s a deliciously addictive psychological suspense novel with several compelling characters.
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Inky continues to be the cutest sweetest cuddliest most loving cat ever (or at least since Gatsby, RIP), and I am beyond happy that we chose each other.
There are definitely good writers on Substack, with the caveat that most of the stuff I read there is political (generally about Israel/antisemitism or socio-political stuff rather than party political, but still not what you are looking for, as I understand it). It is a place for people who want to write at length, including some professional writers who want to write things that are too long, controversial or just too unusual to get accepted elsewhere. I follow a number of professional journalists and academics. But there are people who are trying to monetise quickly, which I don't think works. I've got a couple of paid subscribers, which will hopefully bring me in a few hundred pounds extra per year, but nothing life-changing. I think the people who make serious money there mostly already had a readership elsewhere in a more conventional setting which they've brought over.
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