How Do You Create Bookish Content? – Let’s Talk Bookish

It’s Friday Monday eek, sorry for posting this late, my friends! I hope you all had a wonderful week.

School is officially finally over for the summer, and it’s still kind of surreal to know that I’m done with the K-12 system for forever. Utterly surreal. I don’t think it’s really going to sink in until August when everyone else starts school again and I don’t.

Of course, it’s not like I’m done with school completely, university is still there, but it’s going to be so much different doing that full-time.

So different.

Anyway, while I’m having my identity/mid-teenage-life crisis, I’ve still got to discuss last week’s LTB topic. As always, Let’s Talk Bookish is a weekly meme, hosted by me and Dani @ Literary Lion, where we discuss certain topics, share our opinions, and spread the love by visiting each other’s posts.

Last week’s topic was courtesy of myself: How Do You Create Bookish Content?

It’s kind of ironic that this topic was for last week because for the past several months, I didn’t really create much bookish content besides LTB discussions, but I’ve spent the past few days drafting and finishing a couple of posts that will be going live in the next few weeks.

Maybe I subconsciously knew it was coming and so I was motivated to actually write posts? Hmm…

In any case, I’m really curious to see everyone’s thoughts on this and to share what my creative process is like.

So without further ado, let’s get started!

First of all, I don’t really follow a schedule for my posts, except when it comes to LTB. I just start drafting posts, usually lose steam and leave them for a few months, and then pick up where I left off some time later and finally publish them.

To be honest, I really do need to get a schedule of posts because it’s the only way for me to make myself feel accountable. If I have a set schedule then it’s almost like a deadline that I have to meet, which would definitely help me blog on a more consistent basis.

The most important thing when I’m creating content is the type of bookish content it’s going to be. My process for writing reviews differs from discussions which also differs from books tags/awards.

I haven’t done that many reviews in recent months, but I did post one earlier last week and I really liked the way I wrote that one. The first part of the process is reading the book and taking notes at important moments or when my feelings change. That is so so important for me because I don’t usually remember my feelings as I was reading, just how I felt at the end of the book. And that isn’t inclusive of the entire reading experience.

So taking notes is the first step with reviews. The next step is writing the actual post. I always start with the intro section with most posts I’m writing because it gives me an idea of what I’m going to say.

It’s kind of like writing an essay where the introduction lays out what will be discussed later (my english teachers would be so proud). It’s also better for me to start with the intro because I do have the habit of not finishing a post when I start it, so the intro acts as a summary for my future self so I can know what I had planned with the post.

After that, I share the stats of the book, then start writing the section of the review that I felt most strongly about, which is usually the characters section followed by the plot. This is where my notes come in handy because it reminds me of how I felt at different points in the book.

Once the draft of that is complete, I do the closing section before I start formatting the post. Basically, making things small or big, or bolding/italicizing text, and proofreading in general. Then comes adding the tags and categories, scheduling the post, and making the featured image.

And that’s how I write my reviews.

For discussions, it’s a lot easier because I just have to think about the topic and ramble about it. Sometimes I know exactly what I want to say on the topic, and other times I just start typing and go wherever my fingers take me. That’s followed with the formatting, adding tags/categories, and the featured image.

Discussions are honestly the easiest post type for me to write because I just have to talk about the topic.

Other post types that I sometimes do are book tags/awards and the reacting to my old writing series. With book tags/awards, it’s again a simpler process because I just have to answer questions, format it, tag others, and move on.

Reacting to my old writing is a little harder because I have to be snipping the parts of the story and then critiquing it. Sometimes it just comes easily because there are so many things I want to complain about. Other times, I just really have nothing to say but I try to find something so it’s not a blank space.

And that’s really most of the types of posts I’ve done in recent…months. cough more like years

Do you tailor your posts based on reader interaction/views, or do you just focus on what you want to talk about?

Just to clarify, when I say interaction, I mean comments. Likes and views always happen but they’re not really good indicators of how engaging your posts are. A thousand people could like the post, but what’s the point if only 10 people had anything to say about it?

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Personally, I tailor my posts based on what’s popular interaction-wise with my readers.

Reviews are the posts that usually get the least interaction while discussions get the most. And it makes sense because reviews are more restricted to whether the person has read the book or even heard of it while discussions are more open ended and allow for everyone to share their own opinions on the topic.

That doesn’t stop me from wanting to do reviews though, because sometimes I really want to share my opinion on the book, especially if I absolutely loved it or hated it. But as evidenced by the few reviews I’ve done in the past year and a half, I don’t make it my priority when I’m posting.

For posts where I just want to talk about something specific: I’ve only done a handful of those, notably my posts on Muslim rep and why I love history. Those were discussions that weren’t a part of LTB, but were topics that I personally wanted to talk about. Being that they are still technically discussions, they did get lots of interaction, so I guess those kinds of posts still fall into both categories.

In the future, I plan to add more variety to the posts I do since I feel like I spend too much time doing LTBs and not enough time trying other types of posts. Who knows, they might actually be more popular with you guys.

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And that’s really all I have to say for today!

Don’t forget to visit Dani’s post, if you haven’t already, to add your LTB to the linkup!

Some questions for you:

• How do you create bookish content?
• Do you tailor your posts based on views/reader interaction, or do you post whatever you feel like? What kind of posts would you like to see me try?
• Are you a planner or a spontaneous poster?
• What’s one blogging/bookish goal you have for this summer?

Share your thoughts in the comments below!