Years ago, when Blackberries were new, my husband hacked one to make what he called a snacktop.
He added a small folding stand and roll-up keyboard. It was tiny, but he could write at coffee shops and libraries without carrying a laptop computer, which what was - at the time - like carrying around a concrete block. The idea of the snacktop was pretty awesome, even if in practice it was clunky and definitely weird. It was doing what our phones would ultimately do. Let us take snack sized devices and do snack sized things with them.
This came to mind because yesterday I heard from a librarian about a term people are using in the library world called...snacking. Not in the sense of eating a humungous moderate number of those chocolate balls from Lindt. The blue ones. No. But in the sense of snack-sized bits of reading. People are reading while they wait in line for things, while they take a short ride on the bus or sit outside a dressing room waiting for someone to try on jeans. (That one could be a big snack, actually.)
This certainly has big implications for libraries, publishers, and of course writers. Or does it?
The thing that caught my attention - besides the fact that now reader's phones are truly snacktops! - was the idea that writers might write to this. Might write something or somehow differently knowing that things might be consumed in small bites.
I think of this in a positive way, mostly, not in a way where new technology might steal the soul of something I write, but as a challenge that could result in some new forms or inspiration. Then I wonder, don't we already have this kind of brief material all around us, rudely injecting us with 5-minute spasms of wonder, fear, anger, advice, joy and unease all day long?
Are status updates and blog posts serving this craving? Or do you think many people are snacking on (gasp!) poetry? It's already short, right? (I'm smiling thinking of my friend Dale, a poet, who is amazed at how many words I can write. At least I have volume going for me.)
All this led me down the path to knitting, of course, because most things do. As a writer of knitting books, essays and designs, and a person whose brain won't shut off, I started immediately thinking about how knitting lends itself to snacking.
Thing is, I don't have a snacktop. I have a plain, dumb phone that my neighbor gave me in a ziploc baggie when my other one broke.
So I don't know.
Are you all snacking?
What an interesting concept! I'm not sure - I don't snack in reading - but I don't have an e-reader. I could see myself doing it. I think right now, I'm snacking on junk food - quick info, but I think if I'm more mindful I could do much better.
Posted by: Jennifer | January 30, 2013 at 10:51
One of the first things that comes to my mind, now, when a bit of writing occurs to me, is: is this a facebook/twitter -sized thing, or a blog-sized thing?
The interaction, the immediate feedback, is more striking to me though than the bite size. For good and ill, I've come to expect an immediate response from writing something, and I know that pulls me towards writing certain kinds of things, and away from others. I worry about it some.
Posted by: Dale Favier | January 30, 2013 at 12:05
Well, yes! Definitely! In many ways, and like Dale I think of thoughts as
1. "micro-flash" nonfiction, for Twitter -- and that's part of the whole concept behind #cnftweet and #storythief (where we're actually *printing* these bite-sized stories)
2. someone longer, but meant for Facebook, meant to spark discussion or engagement or just a lot of "likes" and maybe "shares" (I'm very motivated by likes)
3. the blog, which I've come to think of as more "flash nonfiction" as I've read and participated more in flash nonfiction as a form. The book I've been reading this week, the Rose Metal Press guide to flash nonfiction, has me all wrapped up in that exercise.
I am very much writing purposely in snack-sized portions, though it's not all I want to write, by any means. I still love its elegance and immediacy and the very fluid, powerful, mysterious quality of good flash non-fiction. something has to always be left unsaid, and that's the most amazing part of all (as someone, mind you, who often tries to say everything over and over again).
Sadly, it's not faster to write in snack-sized bits. I've been working on a piece about my ride to school two days ago for the whole two days. Hopefuly by the time you click on cafemama... it will be done... (wait. wait to click.)
Posted by: sarah gilbert | January 30, 2013 at 12:41
"I've been working on a piece about my ride to school two days ago for the whole two days." Sarah, you crack me up. Also, you make me realize time and again that I'm lucky to have you as an inspiring friend and that I know very little about social media. :J I'm not sure how to even follow some of these things let alone contribute to them. One of these days....
Posted by: larissa | January 30, 2013 at 12:52
There has been some trend of extremely short fiction (50 words or less) contests, and of course 6-word fiction that shows up on Twitter now and then.
I'm a bit of a knitting snacker too - the most tasty one I've got going now is this simple design: http://woolandbricks.tumblr.com/post/39744560873/paw-warmers
Love the little hearts kind of hidden on those.
Posted by: Heidi | February 03, 2013 at 00:26