Navigating the Social Media minefield as a Speculative Fiction author

It’s a complicated time to be an author trying to build your platform on social media. It’s a weird time to be a human, much less one that spends large chunks of their days creating imaginary realms for their readers to enjoy.  The various online spaces feel like they’re filled with people weighing your every word to determine if you fit into their box, or some other. Those who they find agreeable are loved, accepted, and promoted. Those they deem to exist in the other box are ignored, ridiculed, and discouraged. We need to build a platform to connect with readers, but the these days it feels like trying to clear a minefield in a TIE fighter.

The disagreements don’t even have to be about deep political viewpoints. Something as simple as a sports team allegiance can lose you followers. Some of the worst online battles happen between different parts of the same fandom particularly in the speculative fiction space. Whether its SciFi versus Fantasy, or Original Trilogy versus Sequel Trilogy, the intensity of the rhetoric would make even the politicians blush.

I’m an ambitious writer. I want my stories to have a wide appeal. I don’t want to post anything that might alienate someone from giving my books a chance. So how do we navigate these treacherous minefiled?

I’ve found the key is discernment and empathy. Empathy is your superpower as a writer. Designing a great antagonist is the hidden key to unlocking this superpower.

“Fiction gives us empathy: it puts us in the mind of other people, gives us the gifts of seeing the world through their eyes. Fiction is a lie that tells us true things, over and over.” Hugo, Nebula, and Bram Stoker award-winning author Neil Gaiman.

Develop empathy with people by making them great antagonists

Antagonists are critical to your story. They need to be every bit as fleshed out, multi-dimension and real as your protagonist. They need to have complex personalities, and deep motives. Sometimes what drives your antagonist is a good good quality taken too far. It morphs into something darker. Someone with a strong work ethic becomes a workaholic. Love turns to jealousy. High self esteem becomes conceitedness.

Ask the same sort of questions about the people you struggle to have empathy for that you ask of your antagonist. Who are they? What life experiences have shaped them into the person they are today? What are they listening to, or reading that is forming their core belief system.

You don’t have to agree with their positions or their actions. They may be wrong, completely wrong, but you can still have empathy and show them kindness.

Is this a hill to die on?

One of the defining phrases of my twenty-five-year marriage has been ‘a hill to die on’. This is a military phrase which refers to capturing or holding the high ground, usually a hill. As Obi-wan showed us, holding the high ground gives you a military advantage. But not all hills have equal strategic value. Some hills are the key to victory and must be held no matter the price. Others aren’t worth the cost in men, or ammunition. It’s not a ‘hill to die on’.

Here’s a lifehack for you. If you don’t argue with people, they assume you agree with them. This isn’t to say you must agree with anyone. We all have deeply held beliefs and convictions. But what’s required is for you to do a cost-benefit analysis.

A biting quip or a brilliant reply to an argument may feel good in the moment, but you probably haven’t changed anyone’s mind, and you might have lost a future reader. No matter how clever or persuasive our arguments, we are unlikely to change anyone’s mind in a quick, online interaction. Real change only happens in the context of deep relationships. You may have instead earned yourself a long time enemy.

As hard as it is to do, simply not replying is often the best answer. I recently had a tweet get far more engagement than I thought it would. Many responses were supportive, but some of them were not kind. There was an emotional sting that will now form into a callous to develop that thick skin so critical to success as a modern writer. Rather than get into an argument, I simply ignored them.

Best social media advice still holds true

The core advice, communicated to me by writing coach Janeen Ippolito still stands. Have one social media platform that you are consistently posting to and interacting with people. I’m better at Twitter than IG so that’s where I do most of my interactions. Be at least findable on every other major social media platform, if only to funnel traffic back to the ones you find most comfortable with using.

I hope as we move into the new year, there’s less of trying to make every issue a binary choice, and forcing people into one of two boxes, mostly so we can dismiss or denigrate those people not in our box.

Ted Atchley is a freelance writer and professional computer programmer. Whether it’s words or code, he’s always writing. Ted’s love for speculative fiction started early on with Lewis’ Chronicles of Narnia, and the Star Wars movies. This led to reading Marvel comics and eventually losing himself in Asimov’s Apprentice Adept and the world of Krynn (Dragonlance Chronicles). 

After blogging on his own for several years, Blizzard Watch (blizzardwatch.com) hired Ted to be a regular columnist in 2016. When the site dropped many of its columns two years later, they retained Ted as a staff writer. 

He lives in beautiful Charleston, SC with his wife and children. When not writing, you’ll find him spending time with his family, and cheering on his beloved Carolina Panthers. He’s currently revising his work-in-progress portal fantasy novel before preparing to query. 

• Twitter: @tedatchley3
• Twitter: @honorshammer (gaming / Blizzard Watch)