🤖 Use Gmail to tell you what to write next

How to set up a filter to collect your best stories. Then focus on reader comments.

Catching Butterflies by Picasso (and Midjourney)

TL;DR

1. How to automate knowing which ideas to pursue (steps below)

2. An example story with comments and possible next steps

---

How to sift through all the data

I've talked before about using reader data to know what to write next. To write what you find interesting but also what your readers enjoy the most.

To help you filter the signal from the noise of your multitude of ideas.

You could watch your stats or monitor your engagement. You could tally comments and claps. You could track highlights to see which lines work best. You could diligently track all of that into a Notion database.

But there's a quicker and easier way. It takes just 5 mins to set up.

Step 1: Turn on these Medium Settings

You need these notifications settings turned on.

It's the top one that matters for this check yours here.

Step 2: Set up your Gmail filter

Do this:

1. Paste this in to your search field

   subject:("has 10 fans") Your story has 10 fans

2. Click the "Settings” button then click "Create Filter”

3. Then check the boxes for:

   1. Skip inbox (for less noise and to prevent accidentally deleting any)

   2. Apply Label (e.g. Fan Favourites)

   3. Apply to matching conversations (to catch any previous stories)

4. Then click Create Filter to save it.

That's it now go write your 100 Stories

• Your most popular stories will trigger a 10 Fan notification.

• These will now collect in your Gmail under your label.

• When you're ready to write a longer story you can review the collection.

• Then look out for comments where people ask you what happens next, generally talk about the quality of the story or directly ask you for more.

That's your audience telling you what they like. It's our job to listen.

Ok, so now you have your popular stories collected, what next?

---

How to take expand on a flash fiction story

The example story is my recent Metaversal Kraken of the Heart, a response to Bradan's Monday Mashup #3, a fun challenge with multiple constraints.

Writing the story

The story itself in an example of a stream of consciousness idea dump.

A creative flow moment where the story appears and I just need to get out of the way. As a pantser this is the most fun writing I can have.

The Story behind the Story

This story, is a culmination of broad reading and many ideas coalesces into a piece of flash fiction.

My ideal reader, enjoys new technology. As a cyberpunk fan, power dynamics are also important. So I created a therapist who has to help guide a very powerful man using the Metaverse.

It also allowed me to include all the weird constraints in a dreamlike setting where anything goes.

It passed the 10 Fans Test

This story hit the 10 Fans mark very quickly for one of my stories so it piqued my interest.

So I looked at the comments:

Vivid imagery.

What a surreal ride!

Wow! That was a wild read.

And then this is the best comment on that story.

Also because FJC is a cyberpunk writer and reader. So if he thinks it's a great read he represents my target market.

Comments are better than any other metric

Claps are easy. Views are rubbish. Reads are misleading.

But comments take time and active interaction, and what they say matters.

Any version of the following is a sign to invest:

1. "What happens next?!”

2. "I want to know more!”

3. "I love X” where X is dialogue, character, or setting.

Look for emotive language and specifics.

For specifics, try and work out, if you don't know already, why the particular element sings in your story.

A story that inspires emotion is what I believe we're all looking to create.

So what now?

How do you take a short short story and make it something more?

A piece of flash fiction like this is a moment in time. A pivotal moment.

But those moments can be given more context and more emotional weight.

By investing more in the characters, the setting or the core idea.

The readers above loved how surreal the story was, the idea of using technology to heal trauma, the power dynamics at play and the wild pace.

I'll focus on the therapist in this story

Because I believe she could grow the most.

From a hesitant but competent therapist to someone actively shaping the mind of a powerful politician. My wife is a therapist so it could be fun to draw on her debriefings (with all ethical considerations included) in this wildly different world.

I'll develop her journey using Libbie Hawker's Story Core, this is my most memorable and favourite takeaway. It's deceptively simple.

“The Story Core: Every compelling story has the following five elements:

1. A character

2. The character wants something

3. But something prevents him from getting what he wants easily

4. So he struggles against that force

5. And either succeeds or fails”

I'll apply this concept to each character

1. The Therapist - who will grow and abuse her power for good

2. Her Partner - who will encourage but also manipulate the therapist

3. The President - who will fight be change in the end

I'll do this to give them all a character arc, showing this will deepen and extend the moment in the flash fiction piece into a serial or short story.

Also creating a triangular relationship with her husband encouraging her to take on this patient for his own biased and rebellious reasons for additional tension.

As for the setting and back story

1. I'll drop this story into my developing Escape Town world

2. As a side quest for my main character showing the consequences of protecting a judge from being silenced permanently.

3. This plants the seed for another story down the line that's in a connected world.

In that way the original 10 Fan story would become a chapter or part within a short story or serial.

Data to ignore

For testing of story ideas I ignore my earnings or views. I can't control those results and nor can I really act on them. That's easily depressing for me so I avoid it.

But what I do keep an eye on is Average Read time, as a check.

• If it's a rough match for my story then it means people actually read it.

• If I write a 5 min story but my average read time is 1-2 mins but I got 10 Fans, people are being nice but don't care about the actual story.

I hope this helps you get better insights fast and know how you could one of your 100 stories further and make it a bigger deeper story now that you know people like the idea.

Until next week, happy writing!
Zane

---

Quick question before you go?

---