"Within the last few years, it's been popular to include the word "man" to indicate that something is man-cific," writes Claire Zulkey in her trademark humor writing style--a flurry of concentrated jokes in her online diary."If a man gets his man-hair done, it's a 'merm.' If he wears short pants, they are man-pris. If a man has a rather big chest, those are man-boobs (which admittedly is more manly though than just regular old boobs, although probably not as desirable.) There used to be such a thing as a 'briefcase' or a 'duffelbag,' but now it's a man-purse."
Instead of using her website as a one-sided writing archive, Claire Zulkey features interviews with great writers like Nick Hornby. More importantly, she lets her readers guide the interviews--an interactive model that more writers should follow.
That's why I picked her for my deceptively simple feature: Five Easy Questions. In the spirit of Jack Nicholson’s mad piano player, I run a serialized set of weekly interviews with writing pioneers—delivering some practical, unexpected advice about web publishing...
Jason Boog:
My favorite thing about your site is the interactivity--your readers send questions, answers, and stories--it's a great little community. How did you build this community? What should a fledgling writer do to build this kind of interactive community?
Claire Zulkey:
I think half of it is deluding yourself that people are actually reading you, right off the bat, and holding yourself accountable to that...
When I began Zulkey.com, I had no idea who was reading it and who was not, but I imagined that there was an audience and I tried to keep up accordingly, which meant posting regularly and on time.
I think giving readers something to depend upon is good--especially in my case, because my system is too old to bring in an RSS feed.
I extra-need to be on the ball about making sure that there is content up by about 10 AM Central Standard Time the latest so that people know it's there and don't need to keep checking.
Want to know how Zulkey finds the fantastic writers featured on her site?
Tune in tomorrow for the next exciting installment of Five Easy Questions for Claire Zulkey...
Well, Jason, I have to admit that you are quick! Thanks for this interview.
Posted by: Khalil A. | June 19, 2006 1:00 PM | Permalink to Comment