Rabbit holes and echo chambers - by Lu Hersey

 So about social media. With the birth of threads, which many of us (including me) have flocked to as an alternative to twitter (although of course we're all still on twitter, just in case), I couldn't help wondering. What on earth are we all doing? And why? We could be usefully getting on with life, writing our books, reading other people's books, doing something constructive - but no. We're busy creating content for yet another social media platform. Or possibly creating the same content to spread thinly over several platforms. Whatever. But who do you think reads all this stuff anyway, and is there any point? 

I've come to the conclusion that the people who interact with me on any of these platforms are probably mostly other writers, friends, or people with shared interests & hobbies, who (if they're honest), don't really give much of a stuff about my books, but quite enjoy the odd picture of a badger. 

And it works both ways. I'm always much more interested in seeing pictures of your dog/cat/tortoise/Aunty Violet doing something silly, than hearing about your latest German/Polish/Outer Mongolian book deal. (This doesn't apply to new books you've written, or books you've enjoyed reading by other writers of course - that's always interesting!) And as for word counts - really? If you've written 5000 words today, please don't tell me about it. I'll only end up hating you (especially if I've only managed a couple of sentences). Most of us would far rather see a picture of your breakfast, and we're probably not overly interested in that... 

Anyway, since we're talking about spreading yourself thinly, around the time threads was born, I decided to start up my own Patreon account. Possibly even less popular than any other social media platform, Patreon works on the principle that people PAY you to read what you post on it. STOP LAUGHING! Yes, I know. Why on earth would they bother? 

As it happens, I'm making most of the content in Writing the Magic (my Patreon account), free to view. But I'm really grateful to the very lovely six people who actually pay me $1 a month (ok, I couldn't get the £ symbol to work on the site) to read about folklore, magic, herblore, weatherlore and anything else I think might interest them every week, throughout the year. I only cover things I'm genuinely interested in, so it doesn't matter if only a handful of people appreciate it. Some of you probably knit or do yoga. I get very enthusiastic about wart charmers.

There's a method behind this apparent madness. I'm hoping to create a seasonal magic and folklore almanac - a kind of non-fiction miscellany. Basically it's somewhere to put all the research behind my fiction writing, that may, or may not, be useful to other creatives. An archive of potentially useful information. Or, depending on which way you look at it, just another time-wasting rabbit hole...

Lu Hersey

Threads: luwrites

Patreon: Writing the Magic

twitter: @LuWrites

Instagram: luwrites