Please note I will site 2 article links ahead. You may want to read first. Or during.
Or after. http://goo.gl/npS4v
and http://goo.gl/xfxpo )
A Good Place to Start
Starting the journey (at least for a year) of seeing where
consistent writing and, more importantly, engagement are going to take me is an exciting task that I am embarking on. There is the consistent reminder that has been popping up in
my awareness that it is time to start a new vein in life. The main aspect of
this I’ve just realized revolves around the word engagement. As I’m reading through the twitter field this morning I
come across this story about a new app called Paragraph Shorts. The article byLaura Hazard Owen on paidcontent.org . ‘Paragraphlaunches an aggregated lit mag for the iPad age’.
Basically it’s about an app
that is going to pull stories from some of the most prestigious literary
magazines. It then is able to show you social media information from whichever
author you are reading through.
Honestly, I think it would save a lot of time but then on the other hand
I’m still going to miss randomly coming across an author that I might not have previously read. Paragraph Shorts will for sure expose me to new
authors. Possibly. Probably in fact. But
then I’m also reading yet another thread that has been spun by somebody else. I
have no doubt that I will find something to read through this program but I
think I’ll still want to visit the actual publications.
Up To the Elbows
A large portion of this is merely a response
to me wanting to be able to truly get in there and dig with my fingers and eyes
through the dirt of information for that one story that sparkles for me right
then at that second. Yes I know it’s slightly
a juvenile approach to going about information gathering but this is an important aspect
of my word-of-the-year. By knowing that a field may be abundant in
something considered to be prestigious does that really make that field any more tempting? Shouldn’t I trust my capacity for
discovering the writing that I actually want to read on my own? Or is this also whyamazon doesn’t want us reviewing our own genre?
And There the Canyon
Yeah it’s definitely a tricky area. And that brings me back to this sense of engagement. I scarcely read anything like what I
write. That is why I like reading. Perhaps the most precious sense of where the
industry medium lies in terms of its balance is a gently growing sweet spot
that is bringing author and audience even closer together. We all know algorithms are not (or are they?)
the answer.
One of the most important things is that the growing capacity to truly interact with an audience has
arrived. Because of this the responsibility to provide something worth hearing
isn’t a bad idea. That level of quality
means that you owe it to the ‘greater good?’ to step things up. As both consumer and provider. This might seem daunting but it’s just like
any level of exercise. Keep doing it.
Keep pushing yourself. Keep your chin up.This is how we learn and evolve and how we become engaged.
