Hi Reader,
Something has been nagging at me this week.
A couple days ago, I sent you an email to say: you need to know what Google already knows about story.
Google knows story is wildly powerful. Google knows the stories we tell about, say, technology impact how we engage with technology. The impacts that our stories have are so powerful that Google is investing in Hollywood in an effort to influence the narrative.
And my takeaway for writers, then, is: Remember your stories are powerful. Remember they matter. And keep telling them. Keep writing. Keep revising. Keep going.
That email hit a nerve. I got a lot of lovely responses from writers who agreed or needed the reminder.
But around the time I was hitting send, something started nagging at me. The devil’s advocate part of my brain stood up and started interrogating.
Why wouldn’t we believe this?
Why would we forget?
Why would we think Google has the upper hand and the words we put on the page don’t matter?
My internal devil’s advocate had one answer, loud and clear:
Reach.
Google is investing millions of dollars in Hollywood. If Google invests in films, they’ll be shown in theaters around the world. If Google invests in microdramas on the internet, the algorithms will promote them to every person scrolling on their phone.
The sheer scale of that reach is hard to fathom.
It’s certainly hard to imagine competing with in any meaningful way.
Especially when you, the writer with a dream, have been toiling alone on your story for years. When your story has been read by an audience of your writing group, or your mom, or no one at all.
It’s in that headspace—
—the David of our reach versus the Goliath of Google’s—
—that I watched John Green’s most recent Vlogbrothers video.
The video title is . . . Make Your Art.
Yes, the period is part of the title. It’s an imperative statement, an emphatic directive.
The video is a eulogy for John’s friend Michael Taliadoros. Mikey T was a radio and TV commentator for AFC Wimbledon, a third-tier English football club.
Here’s an excerpt of what John said:
We often think that for an artist to be successful, they need to reach millions of people. I don't know exactly how many people listen to AFC Wimbledon radio broadcasts, but I suspect it's in the hundreds. It's certainly not in the millions.
And yet, Mikey T was a hugely successful broadcaster because in spite of his small audience, he connected people more deeply to the game. He connected people more deeply to the football club they loved. And in doing so, he connected people to each other across time and space.
It's for me a reminder of what art is and what art can be. I don't care if your art is hand knitted sweaters or YouTube videos or home-cooked meals or soccer commentary or Tumblr fanfiction or whatever it is.
I only care that you make it and that you share it despite the costs of doing so.
I want you to think of what you put into the world as art, as an attempt to refashion the raw materials of Earth into something better and more interesting than it needs to be.
AFC Wimbledon is not, by any means, the biggest club in the league. They’re in the third tier of English football, their budget is minuscule, and almost every year, they risk relegation. Their fan base is not huge.
Mikey T’s reach, therefore, was orders of magnitude smaller than Google’s.
But AFC Wimbledon fans are passionate. They care deeply about their club, and from what I’ve seen in the way John Green talks about them, they care about each other, too.
Mikey T’s impact on the people who heard him was immeasurable.
Can you imagine John Green eulogizing Google?
Google’s reach is much larger than yours. It is now, and it probably always will be. More people will recognize Google’s name than yours. More people will watch Google-funded movies than read your books.
But impact is what makes reach matter.
A meaningless piece of AI slop could reach a million people and make no impact.
But a truly excellent, well-told story has the potential to influence every person who encounters it.
The Goliath that is Google already has reach. And yet they still need storytellers to make impact.
Without impact, reach is meaningless.
But with impact, even the smallest reach infinitely matters.
Here’s John again:
And I know there's a cost to making and sharing art. I know it makes you vulnerable because art is an expression of your deepest self. It is inherently scary to share it.
But in doing so, you can reach people, even if you don't reach millions of people, who really need to hear from you, as I have really needed to hear from Mikey T every Saturday for the last 15 years.
So keep going, David. Keep writing. Keep telling your stories. Hold on to your conviction that they matter. Keep sharing them with the world.
Because even if your reach is small, there is a specific person, somewhere in the world, who desperately needs the exact story you’re telling.
And that is invaluable. Immeasurable. It’s the way we change the world.
Happy editing,
Alice
P.S. I'm in the business of making stories that matter. If you'd like support in your story, hit reply with "impact" and let's talk.