The other day, I climbed down from my ivory tower and indulged in some pagan behaviour:
TikTok.
It's perhaps the only social media algorithm I've trained like an obedient dog to serve me mostly videos that make me laugh. All the others are like a dumpster fire, save for maybe Facebook depending on the day.
So you can imagine my reaction when I happened across a young guy in a pink T-shirt, opening the video with:
"Well, I haven't posted a video since my wife died."
He explained how his TikTok account was built by the two of them posting funny skits, and he wasn't sure if he would ever post again after his wife's sudden passing.
But then he said this:
"I know my wife would be shaking her head and telling me to smile. So I am. We’re going to start living again."
‘We’ being him and their baby son.
So what started as an account posting humorous videos has become a journey following a widower and his son as they traverse a world without the woman they loved.
In his own words:
"It's just me and little man now. Figuring it out as we go along."
Let me tell you, there are few 30-second videos that can move people – let alone your disgraced and insufferable daily host.
But by golly, it did.
It also moved my thumb to follow him because, as a father myself to two little boys who cannot imagine losing Lady Laura, I want to see how his journey unfolds. No doubt he will bumble and fumble. Mistakes will be made. Tears shall be shed. Rays of light will be seen, and joy shall be felt again.
And I want to be there to see it all: good times and bad.
That's the weird thing about hardship/adversity/tragedy. As bollocks as they are, they are also incredibly powerful at connecting us on a deeply human level.
If the video opened with, "Hi guys, I'm going to document mine and my son’s life," it wouldn't have gotten nearly the same engagement.
But "Hi guys, I'm documenting mine and my son's life after my wife's sudden passing…"
… Now, that's going to snag us by our throats and get us rooting for you (at least those of us who aren't psychopaths).
That empathy is also what keeps us glued to stories.
If I'm not connected to at least one of the main characters by the end of Book 1, I ain't reading the next one.
Yes, good stories need high stakes.
Sure, the worlds need to feel real and "lived in."
But, for me, the bedrock of every good story boils down to its characters. They need not be perfect; they just need to give me a reason to care and root for them.
Nothing less, nothing more.
Do that, and you shall have my attention.
If you're the same, then I dare say you'll like not only the cast in The Divided Region, but also the world and its stakes.
And oh boy, do those stakes come home to roost in Book 7.
(An update will be coming on that soon.)
To start this epic fantasy adventure, go here:
https://djjwatson.com/books/exiled
DJJW
P.S. For my fellow lowly part-time TikTokers, here's the video: https://vm.tiktok.com/ZN86XwnQ5/