Hopefully your eyes don’t hurt too much after rolling them when you came upon my latest site because yes, it’s true: Ryebone has launched another site. If nothing else, it’s what I do. And you’re at the latest iteration.
The Chronicles of Ryebone has been suffering for quite a while, which is probably a good indicator of my state of mind over the past few years: I simply could not write. It’s not for trying either; over at Letterboxd, I tried my hand at some short reviews, and even some longer ones, but nothing really felt good. There are numerous document files on my computer with half-written articles and my trash bin became full of my own failures. I kept asking myself two things: first, does anyone care? Second, why am I so bad?
Does anyone care? They may not, but that’s never been the point. I’ve spent a lot of time reading and watching great essays and reviews on movies and other favourite pop culture, and I never felt like my voice could be heard in the environment. I’m bad too, because in reading this high quality content from others, I really began to doubt my own abilities. Nobody wants read some half-hearted, poorly written reviews of old movies; at least, not when there’s so much else available out there.
Then I remembered: it doesn’t matter. From the beginning, I never did these sites for anyone. I never really wanted recognition, or fame. I did it for myself; it’s why I kept coming back. The writing can feel forced at times, but that feeling when sentences and paragraphs flow so easily is unparalleled and addictive, like chasing the next high.
And here we are, at The Reel Film Chronicles. Over the past few months I’ve been rolling ideas around in my head, including branding, and focus. I’ve given this advice to others in the past as I know it’s been a limiting factor on my own site for years: stay focused. People don’t really go to personal blogs anymore – we have social media for that. They follow content. When the platform is specific, be that movies, video games, books, or what have you, it has to be focused. The catch-all site I’ve run in the past is too daunting. And it has to be reflected in the name; the design of everything.
I want to keep it simple: you’re going to find movie-related things here. The Chronicles of Ryebone lives on, but will stay neglected, although I hope that the interest in writing here will spill over into non-movie related pieces. The Twitter account is going as well, and for some time, things will be simple.
I’m pretty happy with this so far. Let’s keep it going.