New Year New Blog

Happy New Year to all!

I relaunched this blog three months ago for the enjoyment of a) interviewing interesting people doing interesting things, and b) rambling in my usual inimitable manner.

Both things have been as enjoyable as I envisaged. Rambling is what I do best: I write better than I speak and can articulate thoughts in writing that I can’t in my head or speech. Interviewing is an opportunity to speak to people and hear perspectives I otherwise would not. The ‘interview’ was mostly a convenient ruse for me to speak to interesting people with whom I would not otherwise have occasion to.

However, I have spent a disproportionate amount of time on producing the interviews. On top of the interview itself, it requires several hours to transcribe them before editing, adding my own work and posting. Out of my fourteen posts, the three least viewed are interviews, the lowest with 24 views. Compare that to Intelligence at Play, ten times the readership at 238 views, or my ramble on Dogs, Dinosaurs and Lesbians, with 306 views.

Here are some conclusions from 2019 and consequences for 2020.

Longform interviews last long enough to delve deep into subject matter, and are therefore more interesting and entertaining than shorter interviews. Hence why they have made a comeback with the podcast. People can easily listen to several thousand words over an hour or more, but they cannot be arsed with reading those words transcribed on a webpage—and rightly so. I shall therefore be discontinuing the Islander Interviews. Much as I enjoyed the conversations themselves and the thought of sharing them, it was too labour intensive for a labour of love.

(An aside: Guernsey is ripe for its own podcast, and I urge somebody with a radio voice and savvy to grasp the nettle. I’ve a long list of interesting people whose knowledge and personality would be ideal for a longform audio interview, some of whom I’ve interviewed on this blog and elsewhere. But, having heard my recorded voice, I’m not the man to grasp this particular nettle!)

Rambles are my staple, my speciality, and most popular with my modest readership. Thus, verily, ye shall be subject to rambles.

I’ve half-thought-out and half-written rambles aplenty. Here is my plan for them. Instead of giving them time and air to breathe and grow into the baggy, blabby monsters I usually beget behind the typewriter, I will instead endeavour to be short, shrift, concise. The whole ‘less is more’ kind of gig.

The ‘less’ side of the syllogism will be the size and subject, focusing on a single quote or idea in a series of short and sweet pieces. Quick, fun, informative, unique. The ‘more’ side of the syllogism will be the quantity of pieces. I even have a name for this series: 1IQ (which stands for 1 Idea/Question).

But first, a standard ramble to kick off the year is in order: check out my smashing phone story here.

And a Happy New Year to all!

Peace, love and chirp,

Liam