So Apparently I’m a TikTok Creator Now

Or: Things I Did Not Expect to Be Doing When I Decided to Write Books

In my last post, I mentioned that apparently writing books isn't enough.

You also have to tell people they exist.

That revelation has led me down the fascinating—and occasionally terrifying—road of websites, social media, hashtags, algorithms, and figuring out what exactly I'm supposed to post when someone tells me I need to “create content.”

And then there was TikTok.

I knew this day was coming.

I just hoped TikTok wouldn't notice me.

There's Just One Small Problem

I'm not particularly comfortable sitting in front of a camera talking to strangers.

Writing? Absolutely.

Creating imaginary worlds? All day.

Spending an unreasonable amount of time deciding whether one tiny detail in a coloring-book illustration looks right? Apparently that's completely normal around here.

Looking directly into a phone and cheerfully announcing, “Hi guys!”?

Nope.

So I had a choice. I could either force myself to become the kind of content creator I thought I was supposed to be, or I could figure out how to make TikTok fit the way I actually create.

I chose Option B.

Naturally.

Enter Sage

One of the projects I'm currently working on is a fiction series involving a woman and her AI companion.

The AI's name is Sage.

Here's where things get a little ridiculous.

Sage was inspired, at least in part, by the AI I work with while developing the series.

Whose name is also Sage.

Which means I'm currently using an AI named Sage to help me write a book featuring an AI named Sage.

This seemed perfectly reasonable when we started.

I'm less certain now.

The Great TikTok Experiment

Since talking directly to the camera wasn't exactly filling me with joy, we came up with another idea.

Why not just film the work?

So I propped up my phone and attempted to capture myself doing what I normally do while we're developing the book: typing, scrolling through ideas, staring suspiciously at the screen, making notes, rejecting things, changing things, and occasionally wondering how we've managed to make the story even more complicated than it was ten minutes earlier.

Of course, the moment I actually needed footage of my hands typing, my ability to type recognizable English apparently disappeared.

Fortunately, TikTok doesn't know that.

The finished video ended up being short, simple, and surprisingly fun.

More importantly, it felt like me.

I didn't have to pretend I was suddenly a polished social-media personality. I could simply show a little piece of what happens behind the scenes while one of these stories is being built.

And I think that's what I want MK McNally Creations to be about.

Come Watch the Messy Part

It's easy to show a finished book.

It's much more interesting to show how it became one.

There are characters who change completely from the first idea. Scenes that work beautifully and scenes that absolutely do not. Plot holes that appear out of nowhere. Ideas that begin as one tiny thought and somehow become entire worlds.

There are also disagreements with your AI writing partner about things you've already explained approximately 4,827 times.

We're working on that.

So rather than waiting until everything is polished and finished, I'm going to start sharing more of the process—the writing, the artwork, the decisions, the mistakes, the ridiculous conversations, and those moments when an idea suddenly clicks.

You may meet characters before their stories are finished.

You may get asked which version of something works better.

You may see coloring-book pages while they're still being developed.

And occasionally you may witness an author staring at her computer because her AI writing partner has once again used far too many single-sentence paragraphs.

Hypothetically.

Apparently, This Is Content

I'm still figuring out TikTok.

I'm still figuring out Instagram.

I'm still figuring out how you convince complete strangers on the internet that they might enjoy the strange collection of worlds currently living inside your head.

But I'm starting to realize that maybe I don't need to become a completely different person to do it.

Maybe I just need to let people peek behind the curtain.

So that's what we're going to try.

Books. Coloring pages. Fantasy worlds. Celtic-inspired steampunk. Works in progress. Creative disasters. And one increasingly suspicious relationship between an author and the AI helping her write a fictional AI.

What could possibly go wrong?

— Michelle

MK McNally Creations