15.05.2009 bis 21.03.2010
When I got the idea for @NicolesStory, I didn’t have a clue that the story itself as well as the story surrounding it would take the turn they eventually did. I only had this idea about a story centering on the Twitter platform. Even before I started writing, I wondered what magazine would even think of publishing it.
I couldn’t think of a single one… except for Twitter itself. Because although there wasn’t any money in it, there would surely be some feedback.
But would it possibly work in German? Were there enough Twitterers in Germany who would embrace this new form of literature? And because I often read the tweets of my husband, who only writes in English, I realized that the tone in the English tweeting community was quite different. Therefore I decided to give it a try and write @NicolesStory in English.
Dear God, I thought. My English isn’t good enough. But I had always wanted to read, write, and talk in English. Maybe this was the possibility to kick my own behind. And thus I kicked. Every day, a whole month long, and with the help of my husband who proof-read my tweets.
But there wasn’t much feedback. Only my Twitter followers – always the same people (a big thanks to @grizzybz, @MrsSnaff, @carocade, and @NilsAJohnson) – asked, challenged, suffered with my protagonist and led the story on a completely different path than that which I had originally planned. And that was okay, for it was the reason I had so much fun. The number of followers increased, most of them read the story, but my interactive contributors stayed the same. But then, who needs a huge audience when he has a small group of constant readers?
I didn’t write the story in a single run, but only a few tweets per day to allow myself to respond to the interactive input of my followers. Also, I wanted to really read my own story and to be inspired by each new day. A completed story could have never taken the transformation it finally did.
Adding to that, only time could tell that my story’s protagonist is called Nick – and thus must be a man, for “N. Rensmann’s story” is his story, and he’s writing it himself. I am only helping him a bit under the pen name of @NicolesStory.
But then I had to come to an end. I needed some time off – and my followers likewise. For reading on Twitter is more difficult, the connections are complicated to follow, and a complex description of places is nearly impossible. It’s important to keep the readers, to encourage them, to make them wanting you to go on. That means I needed a daily cliffhanger – and that was far from easy.
But all the time since I left off a few weeks ago, I knew that I had to go on with the story, to give Nick and myself a new challenge.
When @carocade asked me if my website was also available in an English version, I realized that I had never thought of that! And as I have never come around to translate my website to English, I thought I should at least write this little explanation to tell the people who is writing @NicolesStory in the first place and who gives them their daily reading matter.
And in addition to this text, my C.V. is now also available in English language.
Thanks a lot for participating, sharing the excitement, for new ideas and all these little interactive conversations!
For those of you who want to jump on board at this later date, Nicole’s story can now be read altogether in chronological order. The site will be updated every few weeks or so, but on @NicolesStory you will continually be able to read the daily plot.
Sincerely, Nicole Rensmann
Read now: Nicoles Story in chronological order / Nicole’s Story in chronologischer Reihenfolge
