I first learned about literary citizenship earlier this year from the infamous Cathy Day while taking one of her classes, and believe me, she has plenty to say on the subject. I will now direct your attention to Cathy's website called Literary Citizenship, if you had any doubts. I would highly recommend looking at this website and the sources within to truly understand what it means to be a literary citizen.
To me, in order to be a good literary citizen one must be involved and interested in what other writers are doing. This is simple enough using social media such as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, my personal favorite, but it's not enough to simply follow people or like their page. Literary citizenship is about being interested in what other writers are doing, yes, but it is also about being involved. I have never been the kind of person to go out on a limb and attempt to get the attention of another person, be it in real life or online, but being a literary citizen changed all of that for me. When I go to coffee shops, I look at what other people are reading and, if something catches my eye, I approach the person and try to start a dialogue about said book. It is also worth noting that I met one of my best friends because of literary citizenship during a class in which we had to comment on each other's work. On Twitter, I will tweet at someone with no hesitation now because I am a #litcitizen, and although I do not always get a response, the ones that I do get are that much more exciting. It is also worth mentioning that there is a special side to YouTube that has earned the moniker "BookTube" because of its focus on reading and reviewing books. I am not a huge fan of YA and fantasy, even though a lot of the BookTubers are, so a few channels that I have come to like that have similar tastes to my own are MercysBookishMusings and ClimbTheStacks.
Other ways that I like to get involved in the writing world is by engaging with people who are not traditional writers. I enjoy talking to lyricists and musicians because they see stories differently than I do. A musician sees the progression of a story on a sheet of paper, just like writers do, but they see them through music notes instead of words. I find it important to try and understand this concept because I attempt to write with a certain flow to my words. It is also important for me to communicate with people who write web series or television shows because in order to write scene, one must be able to understand scene. For screenwriters, everything is about scene and staging, and I love discussing how their writing processes differ from my own as a predominantly creative nonfiction writer.
In the end, being a literary citizen has made me a better person in general. I am more confident in myself and my abilities because I now have more knowledge in areas that intrigue me. I no longer wonder if people are taking an interest in me because I am content taking an interest in others for the time being. They say good things will come back to you in time, so for now, I wait. Thank you for reading. |