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!
I feel the same about many different questions. It’s good if one of the questions doesn’t really speak to me, so I can focus on one of the other ones, but often I specifically do not want to focus on all of them because it feels as if it’s getting out of hand and the post will have no actual structure. As someone who hosts discussion memes, I also think about this because I know if I ask five questions in one prompt that some people will just answer all of them one after another, instead of choosing one or two to focus on.
Briana | Pages Unbound recently posted…These Old Shades by Georgette Heyer
I guess it’s a matter of hitting a sweet spot: enough questions to prompt thoroughly thinking it through, without risking it being more like an interview or something!
Great post! I didn’t find it boring because I rather enjoy seeing how people go about doing things like preparing posts and creating content for their blogs. It’s interesting to hear! As a mega pantser, I practically do everything at the last minute as well, so I resonate with what you’ve written. From a creator’s perspective, if I could I would keep making weekly posts because I do love having something to post every week, but sadly, it gets harder to come up with new and interesting topics that haven’t been done before or that feel fresh, especially with a meme that’s been going for years. But maybe one day we’ll get back to that modality. Thanks for joining this month’s LTB!
Glad it was interesting/useful!
Definitely understand how difficult it is to come up with post themes! I’m just super bad at keeping track of anything that isn’t on a weekly basis — I don’t have very good time-sense these days, haha.
I have stopped with discussion posts because I have a hard time writing them, and when I used to do them I vastly preferred it when I was working with a prompt. Nowadays I limit my opinions on topics in comment sections like this, so much easier when I’m just sharing my comments on short form!
I’m finding it useful at the moment to re-expand my horizons after a couple of years of just posting reviews and minimally interacting with the world due to overwhelm. It’s been nice to get more traffic and “meet” more people!