Monty’s Scribbles (Sunday Scribblings)

Peckapalooza over at The Confusing Middle runs a weekly prompt called Sunday Scribblings. This weeks’ theme is storytelling. Check out his post and join in the creativity!

Sunday Scribblings #98 – Scribble

I launched Monty’s Scribbles back in the Spring of 2020. I’d just started creative writing in January when we were stuck at home during the beginning of the Covid epidemic in Shanghai before we ever knew it would turn into a world-wide pandemic.

My first attempts at sharing my writing was on Instagram. I only chose that platform because I knew it from my daughter who had a sizable following and thus I was already on it as an observer. It was a total mess trying to post writing on Instagram and I got barely any engagement. I spent more time trying to configure my writing into square images then actually writing.

My next experiment was to try and live into the purpose of Instagram and I started creating visuals to go along with my writing. I’d never drawn before beyond mandatory art classes growing up in school. So I had absolutely no skill, but I had a new iPad that allowed me to create digital images and a lot of time due to Covid so I started to play with it. It’s funny to think that the only reason I ever became an illustrator was to try and gain traction on Instagram.

My engagement level on Instagram never passed miserable so my next experiment was to set up my own website to host my writing and drive traffic via Twitter. For this, I needed a website name. I’d already identified Monty Vern as my nom de plume. It’s a play on “Vermont”, where I grew up and the subject of a lot of my early writing. I decided on Monty’s Scribbles. I felt “scribbles” had an appropriate level of informality to match my unskilled writing and drawing. I was trying to “keep it casual”, but at the same time I pondered the possibility of future publishing so I set up the site as a prospective author’s site. It was actually a lot of fun to create the site and it’s still up and running. Feel free to check it out. It was only this past January when I moved my blog, “Monty’s Blahg”, over to WordPress to improve engagement further.

At this point, I’ve published five books. One of which, Monty’s Very Short Shorts, actually contains many of the very first “scribbles” as it chronicles my journey of learning how to write and draw with an illustrated “very short story” for everyday of 2020.

For me it’s very interesting to go back and read through this “messy diary” and see the progress (and sometimes digression) of skill across the year. It was a wonderful journey and perhaps the most transformational of my adult life as I found a passion that I can indulge in long after the kids have left the house and (hopefully) retirement.

Be well,

Monty

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