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Newsletter idea – Part of a story each week
Hey all… working out an idea.
So, I never know what to write in newsletters. My thought would be that each Monday, I would send out a newsletter that is a story created using my ShadowMyths decks. So, for next Monday, I could send out:
Story: Love Spell
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It was a clear day as James was fishing at his favorite bog. He loved days like this. No work. No worries. Just him, his fishing gear and the hopes to catch some good food for dinner. Martha, his wife, would be waiting for him at home and, as usual, would complain that none of the chores were done. That’s okay. He worked hard and he deserved some relaxation time. She’s complained in the past. She’ll complain in the future. He wasn’t too worried about it.As his mind aimlessly wandered, he felt the tug on his line. It’s a big one! He thought as he was reeling it in. The fish was fighting harder and harder but James knew what he was doing and, soon, pulled the fish upon the shore and studied his catch. Strange. The eyes feel almost human. As the fish was gasping for air, he heard “help me… please… help… “ What was this? Fish can’t talk! He must have imagined it. “Help… please… help…” the fish said again.
“You can talk? Is this some sort of prank?” James said as he looked around but saw no one. He finally understood that the fish was really talking to him.
“Please help me. “ said the fish. “Yes. I can talk. I made a mistake when I was younger. I fell in love with a woman who didn’t want me. I tried and tried to get her to love me but she never did. Overcome with despair, I went to a wizard and he put a spell on her to make her fall in love with me. As payment, he said that, after 10 years, I had to give up everything and return to him. I didn’t know why. After thinking about it, I took the deal. I was in love. I was wrong. I shouldn’t have done the deal. After a month, I couldn’t deal with the guilt and let her return to the sea. For 10 years, she kept coming back to the shore and begging to stay with me. Most of the time, I hid from her or cast her out again. Sometimes I was weak and took her in but a moment of clarity always brought me back to what I had done. She wasn’t in love with me. This was the work of the spell. Eventually, I returned to the wizard. He transformed me into the way that you see me now.”
As I looked at the fish, I gave my apologies but said that I could not help him and didn’t want to get involved. I returned him to the sea. As I returned home to Martha, I walked into the house. “Hey Martha! Martha! Remember that guy you told me about years ago?“
—————-Then I could also write a longer story every other month and post a part of that on the Monday of each week. So, for January, it has 4 separate small short stories like this and in Feb, I would have a longer story where I split it into 4 parts. Then March, I would go back to the short format again.
This way, at the end of the year, I could also create/sell a book with the images and the stories in them.
Is this a good idea?
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3 Replies
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It’s definitely funny. Not sure if I’d go weekly with it unless you’re 100% sure you can keep the pace, but once a month? Absolutely.
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Yeah, I’d suggest backlogging at least a couple weeks worth of an idea like this, just in case you can’t keep up every week so you don’t end up “lying” to your readers.
I’m currently playing with the idea of writing and releasing “between the scenes” shorts for my mailing list, of events that my characters experience or go through but that aren’t necessarily imperative to the plot as a whole.
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If you can keep up the pace, go for it (but stockpile a bit first like Katika said). Otherwise I find having a template of sorts helpful for email content creation.
I use:
A status update on any WIP
One thing I did this week
What I’m reading/watching on TV/listening to
2 book recommendations.My emails aren’t long. I don’t want to bore people or, importantly, make it too much of a chore to do. Seems to work so far and the weeks that I end with a catchy question, I usually get a dozen or so replies 🙂
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