The things we do for love

You know I love something if I'm going to TikTok about it

Dear Writer,

So… watching TikTok is part of my job now.

Part of my new business plan is making videos on YouTube and TikTok, and I’m just about to ramp up that part of things, so now… I have to do research.

By watching TikTok and YouTube.

I’m not gonna lie. Could be worse.

For YouTube, I’ve already done a lot of this research because I’ve been watching culture critic creators for years. My partner Ian is one of my favorites, of course; some men-liking people fall for looks or charm; I fall for good work. Looks and charm are just a bonus.

I especially love his recent review of the movie “Her,” which I ruined for him when we were still just friends hanging out and he was like, “Oh, you’re important to me, I want to show you my favorite movie that means the world to me,” and I responded, “He fucking owns her. That’s not a relationship; it’s sex slavery.” I felt really bad that I’d kind of ruined one of his favorite films but it’s not like I can ever, ever shut up when I have an opinion. I loved that his response was to think about it for a few years and then deliver this amazing piece that actually makes me like the movie more.

I also really enjoy The Costume Codex by my friend Sara Ezzat, who makes an observation in almost every video that surprises and enlightens me; I disagree a lot with Lindsay Ellis, but I respect her work; T1J is another favorite who is particularly good at making me see and understand clearly some things I didn’t see before.

I’m always looking for new culture critics to follow, so if you know of anyone great, please share in the comments.

On the TikTok side of things, I’ve been following #WriterTok to try to get a sense of what’s out there. A lot of what’s out there are people dancing and doing music memes and… yeah.

I’m not gonna do that.

I know that some of those memes go viral or whatever, but that’s not my goal. I don’t want the most followers; I want the most followers that need my content. So I’m really looking to learn from people who, like me, use their TikToks to really talk about writing.

One of my favorites is Mary Robinette Kowal. She shoots her TikToks while walking in the woods, an idea which I am really thinking about stealing adapting for my channel. One particular entry that I loved was when she talked about ask vs. guess culture and how that can be a good source of conflict for characters.

@maryrobinettekowalAsk vs. Guess culture. This is a small difference in manner that can create huge conflicts between characters. And people! #booktok #writertok #characterdevelopment #askvsguess

Tiktok failed to load.

Enable 3rd party cookies or use another browser

I also really like Michael Bjork, who is the person whose advice I agree with the most often. He does 3-4 videos a week, and that’s what I’m going to shoot for. What I like about Michael is how clear his advice is, and how solid. I love this one on morally ambiguous characters.

@michael.bjorkMorally ambiguous heroes. #writingtips #writertok #booktok #villains

Tiktok failed to load.

Enable 3rd party cookies or use another browser

But in addition to giving great writing advice, I kind of want to talk to the whole writer. When writing teachers talk to writers, it’s so often about DO THIS, DO THAT, BUTT IN CHAIR HANDS ON KEYBOARD, BE A BESTSELLER GO GO GO and I want my channel to be a mixture of solid advice and an acknowledgement of what it’s like to be a person who writes, addressing things like outcome-oriented thinking and how to deal with having fans and reading shitty reviews.

Who are your favorite writer/book TikTokkers? Share in the comments!

So I’m still cogitating, but just about ready to start putting up videos every week. YouTube videos will be less frequent, and more in-depth analysis. I’m gonna start with Raiders of the Lost Ark so… wish me luck. It’s never fun to tell people that their favorite movie is also really complicated in a lot of difficult ways.

Hopefully the internet will respond the way Ian did. That’s a reasonable expectation, right? :)

Everything,

L

---

Paid tier members participate in our community around the Saturday activities. Those activities include, but are not limited to:

• The Dear Writer Book Group, where we choose a book and over the course of a month read through it and discuss;

• Excerpts from my writing when I’m working on something;

• Scene critiques and feedback from me for anyone who’s willing to submit their piece (2500 words or less) for me to review in the group;

• Discussions of movies, TV seasons and other stories as we decide we want to discuss them.

If you’re interested in being part of that community, you can subscribe at any time.