Around a week ago today, HTML Giant ceased operations. HTML Giant were one of the places I was first exposed to online writing, and they’ve been doing good things for the duration of their operation. Space In Your Head has been started because of groups such as this, and with alt lit ‘dying’, we’ve started to find our place more and more important. Maybe not being defined by alt lit, but moving to be defined by something different. HTML Giant proved that getting in the middle of a circle of writers was the best way to find new talent. And for me, it showed that you really don’t need to wait for anyone to write a book, or get published, to notice talent. There’s writing everywhere, and it’s up to a good group to help tap into that.
I find Space In Your Head in a strange situation right now. With this exodus of alt lit writers and writing circles, what does that mean for contemporary publishing? For years before this, I thought that publishing online was the way forward, but how do you avoid creating any problems? Within any circle, there’s going to be influential people, and there’s going to be abusive people. We’ve been lucky or under the radar enough to avoid having anything like that come up, and I’d like to hope we’ve had a good mix of submissions, and as proper representation as possible. We love art, and we use what gets sent our way.
Seeing HTML Giant be affected by this is sobering. But as I mentioned in a previous blog post is that this isn’t a bad thing. This is only going to motivate me to promote a safe space for everyone, and a place where art and writing can get shared no matter what, where no weeds can thrive.
I want to be the gardener of this online community. I want to pay close attention to any beautiful seeds I am fortunate enough to come in contact with, and I want to make this into something big. I want more and more people from all over the world sharing their experiences through art. Because with mental health, sharing experience is so important. But of course, you need the right conditions. If I could control the weather, I’d want to make this as bright and sunny as possible.
We’ve had a fortunate first two months. Here’s to many more, of the same feeling, to come.