Let’s Talk Bookish is a monthly bookish discussion meme created by Rukky @ Eternity Books and co-hosted by Aria @ Book Nook Bits and Dini @ Dinipandareads! It’s recently moved to a lower-frequency posting schedule which you can check out here.

July’s prompts are all about this kind of discussion post:

How do you prepare your posts when you’re writing a discussion post—do you have an outline or do you usually start writing in advance and work on it slowly over time? Do you prefer to have many prompts (like LTB), or do you prefer one question that you can take in whichever direction you prefer (like Fantasy with Friends by Unbound Pages)? Do you think weekly discussions are better, or quarterly discussions (like Literary Inbox by 24yabookblog)?

I don’t really have a system for working on these posts: I read the prompt and see what pops into my head to answer the question. I usually write it in one sitting, though lately I keep finding myself sneaking back to add in just a little detail or an extra thought, haha. Sometimes I write the post in advance, and sometimes it’s more last-minute — it really depends on how busy I’ve been.

I don’t have strong feelings about the number of questions, to be honest; sometimes having a lot helps prompt me to think through a topic thoroughly, while other times it’s hard to answer any of them at length and the resulting post feels a bit choppy and unfocused. It’s mostly down to the type of questions asked, I suppose, and how many thoughts they prompt in me!

As for frequency, I like the predictability of having a weekly schedule, since I plan my posts mostly on that kind of time frame, trying to avoid having more than two posts (one discussion, one review) on any given day in order to avoid spamming up people’s inboxes and give them a chance to reply to me. Having a weekly schedule means I can plan ahead and do the same pattern of posts every week. That said, having some longer-term stuff that can pop in more “at random” (as monthly/quarterly prompts tend to feel to me) isn’t bad, I’m just more likely to forget to join in.

I’m not sure this answer is very interesting, unfortunately, but I guess it’s of use for people who plan discussion posts or might want to in future!