Choose your Socials
Life's too short to do stuff you don't want to.
WRITING:
At a writers’ event I attended last year, one of the panels was on online presence and the use of social media for authors. Naturally, the subject of TikTok raised its head, as reputedly the best platform for promoting books at the time, and people asked how necessary it was to be on there, given the anecdotal evidence that publishers will look at your follower count before looking at your book. One of the writers gave an answer that I’ve stuck by ever since and that is:
You should only engage with the social media that you feel comfortable with.
If you’re not comfortable recording video content, don’t join TikTok. True, you may be missing out on an audience, but if you don’t want to do it, don’t do it. Life’s too short. And, chances are, if you’re that reluctant, you’re unlikely to produce good engaging content anyway.
I have a TikTok account, but I’m happy to say that I haven’t used it since that day.
Of course, this applies to whatever your personal online bêtes noire is - Facebook, Instagram, Myspace, Friends Reunited… I mention this because I’ve slowly been retreating from the toxic binfire that Twitter1 has become. I’ve taken the app off my phone and the shortcut from my desktop. I still have my accounts (one for me, one for Ray2), but my usage is practically nil. And since Threads is now finally taking off, I’ve bitten the bullet and set the self-pub fella up with his own Instagram and Threads accounts. It feels like a good time, too, with the pace picking up on Ray Adams VI.
Not only am I picking up speed, but so is the plot. An unexpected appearance has just derailed Lukasz and co.’s latest job and from here on in it’s only going to get messier… With a week off work next week, I expect that wordcount to jump even higher, and I’ll also be able to report back on how I got on with my booked writing space at the Writer’s Centre.
I’ve also this week been offering my services as a Beta reader for my friend Silvano. Having very much enjoyed his book Elena’s Memory when I reviewed it for reedsy.com, I jumped at the chance for an early look at the follow-up. And it didn’t disappoint. I won’t say more than that, but it was a joy to be back in that world revisiting some of the same characters in a new, intriguing and twisty plot. I really enjoy Silvano’s writing and he’s one of life’s good guys. Being able to do a little to help him with his work is one of the greater perks of being a writer online.
I have enjoyed:
BBC3’s Female-led sitcoms - I’ve enthused before about the scathing wrongness of award-winning Such Brave Girls and the deadpan idiocy of Things You Should Have Done. We can now add Daddy Issues and We Might Regret This to the list. In the former, Aimee Lou Wood plays a young woman who falls pregnant just as her flatmate moves out, and who has to let her hapless father (a brilliant comic turn from David Morrissey) move in to pay the rent. In the latter, Kyla Harris plays a tetraplegic artist artist who moves to London and in with her much older lover (the always watchable Darren Boyd). As well as starring women, both are the work of female creators (in the case of We Might Regret This, the same woman) and both demonstrate that women are more than capable of writing fierce, hysterical comedy. Joyful.
David Morrissey and Aimee Lou Wood in Daddy Issues Cubitos - I’d played this once before with my niece, but we had a chance to introduce it to my wife last weekend, and it was a hit. Roll your dice to not only advance your cute animal along the racetrack but also to try and win the opportunity to buy better dice, which will help you race faster. It’s a lovely dynamic, with an impressive amount of inbuilt variety, and a very cute aesthetic. Great fun.
Mmm, cheese… Friday Night Dinner - Finished our revisit of this household fave. Bittersweet to think that the great Paul Ritter is no longer with us, but we can rejoice that we have this delight to remember him by.
Dinner Interrupted Joyland - Took the missus to Yarm this week, so took advantage of the opportunity to visit the greatest theme park on Earth. The Snails broke down while we were there, alas, but we did get to go on Horace Cole’s historic Tyrolean Tubs, the last remaining Virginia Reel roller coaster on Earth.
I won’t lie, I was quite unwell shortly afterwards. I don’t do spinny things.
Greyskin (Deixis Press) and Playtime’s Over (Propolis) are both available direct from their respective publishers, as well as from all the usual places, online and off. You can also support my work by buying Ray Adams’ self-published books, or by simply buying me a coffee.
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Hey, Elon, live with it. Nobody over 14 thinks putting an ‘X’ in things makes it looks more cool.
Ray Adams, my self-publishing alter-ego. Look, a factual footnote! Not just a sarky aside!