Hello, Readers! Clevenger here! And I’m so excited to be back exchanging sides of conversations with Graham and inviting you guys to join us. It’s a really spectacular thing to see feedback (limited though it has been) on our viewpoints.
Now, to the topic at hand. BookTube.
As Graham said, we are at the tail end of Gen X. And in a lot of ways, I’m very limited in the ways that I apply technology to my life. For the vast majority, I treat the Internet in the same way that I do a department store. I go in; I get what I came for; and then I leave. Spending as little time as possible in the process.
So when Graham and I began our project, as he stated, we turned to the web. And like Graham, I discovered there were quite a few resources out there that were available. I signed up for some free newsletters, some courses, and looked for planning tools and a good word editor that could help me move along my path. And because the Internet learns, once I did one search for writing, all of my ads were now tailored to my new interest.
I got an ad for an online course, offered for my favorite price of free, and this introduced me to Shaelin Bishop, and her work with Reedsy. And it was one of my first videos. And, you see, this is where it truly began for me. My one actual vice on the Internet is YouTube.
Once introduced to this video series, both her Reedsy platform and her solo BookTube channel, I started to get more recommendations. The digital writing community, specifically BookTube, was ripe with the fruits of advice, opinions, discussions, and other great content. And the more I watched, the more recommendations I received.
Like Graham, I bounced a bit between Jenna Moreci and Meg LaTorre, found gems like Diane Callahan, and other writing suggestions. Also, like Graham, I found myself either having ideas reinforced by these videos, or stumbling across a nugget of wisdom here and there. So I started to shift my focus from “writing tips” to “trends and reviews.”
Thus came Daniel Greene. Graham introduced me to him and in my own way, I had to “vet” him. Why did his opinion matter? I watched a “rant” review of Terry Goodkind’s “Wizards First Rule.” This was a book that I had read multiple times and found pretty decent, and I asked myself, “Why would he hate it?” So I watched his video. I realized he had valid criticisms. And then, he gave his opinion on surrounding issues. And while I agreed with some, and disagreed with others, I found his “rant” was well constructed and pretty well expressed and structured. He said I didn’t have to agree with him right out of the gate. So now, I was also hooked. What else did he have to offer?
We would watch them and then spend an hour call discussing points and topics that he brought up. He was a good influence on our ideas as we continued to focus them, and we would make little adjustments that brought us back to the “good ole’ days” of Fantasy and Science Fiction writing.
Daniel also brought me a connection to Brandon Sanderson. Now, I was familiar with Sanderson from him finishing out the “Wheel of Time” series after the passing of Robert Jordan. I knew he was a well respected author. But I didn’t realize that Sanderson himself has a tremendous BookTube presence. As of the writing of this post, he is my current BookTube obsession. Between Sanderson and Greene, I spend more time than I should falling into rabbit holes of videos (when we all know I should be writing!)
But all in all, joining the writing community through BookTube and other social media has been a great additional joy to the project. So now, I shall sit back and watch Graham explain the next section of our BookTube series, and will see you next week.
Be kind.
-Clevenger
BOOK TUBE RESOURCES:
Shaelin Bishop: linktr.ee/shaelinbishop
Brandon Sanderson: https://www.brandonsanderson.com/ https://www.youtube.com/c/BrandSanderson/featured
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