🐶 You gotta eat your own dog food.
I made a mistake with the persona template but here's the answer.
I made a mistake
Last week I told you to do something without having done that exact thing myself.
I didn’t put myself in the shoes of my ideal reader and forgot about the empathy I was preaching.
I did similar things: creating a non-fiction ideal reader and a couple of characters.
But I didn't, not strictly speaking, create a fiction reader persona.
Whoops!
I realised this while chatting to Jillian on Twitter, and sharing a few suggestions on how to define her romance reader.
I clicked that what I’d shared last week was potentially way too complicated.
And too time-intensive for fiction, even if works for non-fiction and characters.
Treya is in a hurry to write more, not get bogged down by design thinking side quests! These tools need to help save time and write more fiction!
The current one took too long for fiction
I learnt this on Sunday, when I had only one full hour to write.
The kids were at their grandfather and after doing a few quick chores I had that one beautiful hour.
I wrote a quick list of the things I wanted to do:
Create a cyberpunk fan persona
Continue with my short story
And a handful other things.
All in an hour. I often expect too much from an hour.
I also expected my persona to take me a quick ten minutes.
It didn’t. I got annoyed.
I said out loud, “I don’t want to do this I just want to write!”
Oh…
So I hacked it down and persevered. Because simpler is better.
Now we have a new version for more suited for imagining your fiction readers. And I’ve eaten my own dog food and I can show you how to make an actionable Fiction Reader Persona.
So here’s a quick video with me blabbing about the differences.
I’ll modify the single template into a bundle that includes three focused versions
Fiction Ideal Reader - to get your head in the game and help focus on what your reader is expecting on the page.
Character Sketch - focuses on flaws and arcs and removes the possible product and solutions sections.
Non-Fic Ideal Reader - best for non-fiction readers or people looking for products or solutions.
The Fiction Ideal Reader focuses on:
A one sentence backstory to humanise the person
Their preferred genre
What they love and what they hate
Their trope expectations (using TVtropes.com) 🐇
I used it quickly to capture key expectations so that my stories hit all the key elements of a typical story in their preferred genre. Once I've got the basics down I can sprinkle in my own unique angle to things.
This persona took me 10 minutes once I followed this simplified pattern. And I used it immediately to shape my thinking about a current short story I am working on.
The Voice in the Darkness
Ominous hey? It's about madness, so you know, light reading.
After doing this I learnt:
My endings need to tend toward bittersweet
These worlds highlight class differences starkly, so those sorts of power struggles are crucial e.g. Rich vs Poor or Corporate vs Citizen.
I want to show how current technology can be used in oppressive or isolating ways and how this affects the people in the story.
What do you think about the new version?
Does it sound like a more actionable version?
Also what do you think about video? I'll try an actual Substack video post when I've figured that out. I didn't realise it was it's own post type!
This Week
Things I consumed
I thought CK Green's How to End a Story: 10 Examples of Flash Fiction Endings was a creative way to do a round up and learn something too.
Ever since Psychology 101 at university self-diagnosis has been a bit of a hobby of mine, this week I think I've got ADHD after watching, Avoiding Toxic Productivity Advice for ADHD: Find What Actually Works.
Things I created
A challenge by Bradan caught my eye, and got me to fire off a response within the hour. Something I've realised my ADHD brain seems to relish.
Seems I cannot resist someone throwing down a gauntlet.I hit the coveted 10 Fans mark (at least for me) in less than 24 hours, which I'll share how to use this to your advantage next week.
Last week Hope Springs Eternal, September theme at Microcosm went live, our collaboration with the Dystopian Project. Utopian stories are at us, but dystopian stories should find their way to Jann's pub. Start here.
I've pivoted ever so slightly
I realised that I was putting a massive amount of hours to get one of these posts done, and although I'm getting some good feedback (thanks guys!) I needed to rethink it so it's more sustainable and more fun.
So I made some simple changes, but because we're all writers and this is a writing project I thought I'd share what and why.
Slogan
Before: Design Thinking for Storytellers
After: One storyteller's journey to redesign fiction.
This rephrasing captures the shift from "Expert Educating” to "Person Learning and Sharing.” This reduces the pressure to get it perfect a ton. And as a recovering perfectionist this is necessary for me to have fun and keep doing this.
I hated boring lecturers and I don't want to be that either.
So I'll try more personal, lighter and tighter posts going forward.
Until next week, happy writing!
🐇 Don’t get lost in TVtropes.org it's an internet rabbit hole of note.