Edit: it is now alive with real content and everything!
On the heels of the idea of “I am tired, but I must write” comes a damn sticky idea that refuses to let me sleep. Dammit, I need sleep this week!
For the past few weeks I’ve been trying to noodle on how I might meaningfully use Instagram to build up the Mostly Lies platform. There are some challenges:
- IG is a visual channel. 95%+ of my creative capital is in words.
- If I take the time to nurture an IG account to the point where promotion traffic is significant, would that energy have been better spent on my core skill of making/producing words?
I’d thought I’d found the balance before: use IG to deliver very short stories (800-1,000 words), likely in the horror genre. The new(ish) 10-photo slide option makes this a doable thing, and using IG posts to display text heavy content is not uncommon.
This is still actually an option, but requires a whole new set of production skills. Aside from writing the tiny stories (crossposting to r/nosleep and possibly platforms like Medium are potential ways to justify this further), I’d have to chop up and format for IG, design cover and endslates (and the cover AKA first picture needs to be quality), load the stuff onto a phone or system, publish. Not to mention hashtag hooplah, descriptions, captivating blurbs…
Not an insane amount of work, but it would take a long long time to build anything up, even if I was cooking them once a week. And it may take away from core fiction.
I still like this idea, and may yet find the capacity to execute it. But the real sticky idea that won’t let me sleep is the account @writewritenow.
All it does, at least in its infantile stage, is post pictures of the sentence “Write. Write Now.”
The presentation of these words can be simple or wildly creative, but the point is to encourage writers to stop browsing IG and write. There’s some tongue in cheek and fun in the double entendre, and it might not work most of the time but it will work more than 0% of the time. And that’s the real magic: it’s doing a simple, wonderful service while simultaneously celebrating the art, with opportunity to showcase other artists/writers/creatives without being overly promote-y. I can visualize a simple merch line (coffee mugs, notebooks) that offer the same motivational utility.
Best of all, it would take a fraction of the effort to maintain and to build. I could probably create 50+ posts to fill 2 months worth of activity in a single dedicated Saturday. The sheer simplicity of both the idea and execution is what makes this so attractive and impossible to sleep with it begging to at least be set up (workin’ on it!)
The business hook back to my own platform? Simple: mostlylies.com/writewritenow will be the bio link; a quick little subsection of this site that presents the ins and outs of the concept, lets people know how to get involved, etc. If some fraction of the traffic also explores the titles here and likes what they see, then great! Community service in exchange for a few new readers feels like a good deal for everyone!