Book Club Dropouts

Issue #53: This is your brain on reels 🚬

There’s something hilariously tragic about pouring your soul into a personal 5,000-word magnum opus written straight from the depths of your soul in an era when most of the world is hypnotized by 12-second videos.

I love writing (obviously). The problem is that most people don’t love reading.

Sure, plenty of people claim to love cozying up with a good book. But when it comes to actually sitting still long enough to scale that towering wall of text otherwise known as the prologue — oops, there’s that bottomless dopamine slot machine, right back in your hand again!

And just to make sure you’re still with me so far:

TL;DR: BIG PARAGRAPH SCARY… ME WANT CHONKY CAT VIDEO…

But hey, no judgment, I’m absolutely talking about myself here, too.

Anyway, after launching my first Side Quest Summer project last week, I did some reflecting — what went right, what didn’t, what I’d do differently. And to be honest, things went incredibly smoothly — except for the part where I once again learned that ‘If you build it, they will come’ is a complete and utter lie.

For the rare few who hang out with me on the nerdy corner of the internet known as Substack Notes, my constant progress updates probably felt like I was beating a dead horse. But outside of that bubble? 🦗 🦗 🦗

So for my next project, I’ve decided to go where the people are (don’t worry, I’m not making an OnlyFans account). Hypnotic doom-scroll vortex aside, Instagram is where the eyeballs are, and having launched a half-dozen side projects that looked great on paper but never gained much momentum, I have to admit it: Marketing is always my downfall.

So this time, I’m trying something different — and here it is, hot off the press:

✨ Project #2: Cinematic Storytelling 🎬 🍿 ✨

…which is just a fancier way of saying that I want people to actually see what I’m building so I’m going to experiment with making reels.

Start Date: Right now lol
End Date: July 20 (one week)
The Goal: Post three behind-the-scenes / build-in-public style reels

No Oscars will be won, and they will likely be a little cringe. Whatever.

In a *~signs from the universe~* kind of way (forgive me, I’m still in Bali 🪬🔮🧘🏼‍♀️), I keep stumbling across what I can only describe as people doing cool shit on the internet and documenting it as they go:

Note: #2 and #3 are fantastic, but they’re in Spanish. Though I bet you’ll still get the gist.

1. Bowling Alley Dude — His deadpan delivery gets old, but it’s a sweet project.

2. Veneno House — A gutsy twenty-something gal used her life savings to turn an abandoned warehouse into a gastro-cultural hub in Valencia which opened in April (coincidentally, two blocks from where I was just living).

3. Can Balam — Earlier this year, three guys bought a dilapidated hotel in Puerto Escondido and are now winging the renovation of it with zero experience.

4. Becoming Intrepid by

   Camilo Moreno-Salamanca
   — It’s an essay (eeeek, more words!!) but it’s reeeally good: He tells the story of confronting the dread of filming himself in order to shoot his dream job shot.

The common thread here is raw storytelling. In fact, these accounts are part of what inspired me to do Side Quest Summer in the first place. Hey, at least my late-night scrolling habit is occasionally motivational!

Okay, less typing, more video editing — let’s see what happens.

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🌟 Side Quest Directory

A constantly evolving directory of all of the projects I’m building in public as part of Side Quest Summer.

View the Directory ➝

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*I’d be remiss to not shamelessly plug my Book Club Dropout tote bag by naming the title of this post as such

**And here is your chonky cat video, as promised: