I don’t know, maybe I mentioned this on here before. Maybe I talked about it on Instagram. There was a week when my writing involved two particular characters: one a movie director, one a musician. Both young, very early in their creative careers.
Note: When I Instagram about music I do hashtag #musicislife (same with #writingislife if I talk about my writing or about other authors).
So my fictional aspiring director found himself in France. And that week, I was followed on Instagram by a movie director who was working in France, but I NEVER hashtagged #directingislife or #directingfilminfrance or #filmislife, so I don’t know how the heck that happened, because really, even if Sinister Facebook is always listening, I’m not sure how a conversation I might have been having with someone while my phone was in the room would have gotten to a stranger in France. Please don’t explain their data mining algorithms to me; it will just set off a wave of paranoia in my brain.
I followed the director back on Instagram because I was interested in his work and in seeing photos of France, but he has since disappeared from Instagram.
Meanwhile, my young fictional musician was dreaming of the guitar he wanted. Now I knew exactly the guitar I’d be giving him, but he didn’t know yet. Same week as the director incident, a musician on Instagram began following me, and at least that one made sense. He was about to release his debut album (genre: “Americana” per iTunes, “folk” per google, and to me, strong country influence) and I do use that #musicislife hashtag which he possibly searches as he seeks an audience. Or, you know, Instagram could be as insidious as their mothership Facebook and suggested me to him along with nine thousand other users who hashtagged #musicislife while the application was simultaneously reading my manuscript and listening to me talk to the novel’s beta readers. I DO NOT WANT TO KNOW.
I will ALWAYS be interested in a singer/songwriter trying to break out if it’s a genre I listen to or have ever listened to. So I scrolled through his feed, saw our shared respect for Tom Petty, and followed him back. Then, on one of his Instagram stories, he shared a photo of a guitar he’d just bought and FOR FUCK’S SAKE, it was VERY similar to the guitar I’d be giving my fictional musician before too many more pages were written. I was provoked into asking him if he knew the year, I think, or some other specific question, and he told me only that it was custom-made (but I know it’s old).
So sometimes, all you artists in every field, self-promotion works. I bought the album and I like following him on Instagram. He and his family make me happy in this weird world. I’m grateful my fictional musician is in a different genre so the actual living musician won’t think I’m stealing his life. In my defense, the one in my head has been there since I was around 13, and I’m pretty sure that was long before Justin Tipton was born. But who’s counting.
From my iTunes library:
Stolen from Justin Tipton’s Instagram account because I WILL steal your photos off the Internet even if I don’t steal your life for a character:
Also, that is NOT the guitar in my novel. I’m not giving y’all all the details for free.
He’s justintiptonmusic on Instagram. He’s on Facebook, too, I think but as you know, I avoid that snake pit. After all, I have nothing to sell. Yet. And I’m kind of sensitive to Facebook’s role in selling out our democracy.