Like many introverts, I’ve been camera-shy most of my life. This was especially true when I was younger. As a result, pitifully few photos of my youthful hotness exist. Too bad, because I had amazing hair back then (think Carrie Bradshaw’s curls on Sex & the City).
However, in my 40s, “my give-a-damn’s busted” (as my husband would say). I care tons less about what people think of me, on camera or off. In addition, I’ve been wanting for ages to learn how to edit videos.
So when one of my online writer buddies organized an Instagram reels challenge, I signed up. The goal: create 1 reel every day for a month. Thankfully, that month was February, which meant, even in a leap year, fewer than average days on which to screw up.
I installed CapCut (a free video editing app), played around with it, and created 29 videos last month. Most of them had to do with writing, but I occasionally went rogue and talked about books I’d read, my kids, or whatever. I tried to make them funny, because funny reels are my favorite kind to watch. The nice thing about reels is that they’re short—as short as people’s social media memories. So even if you produce something subpar, no biggie, it’s over in 30 seconds and people have already forgotten it anyway.
Folks, I loved it. It was tons of fun to dip my toes into a creative medium other than writing. To any writer horrified at the idea of making videos, never say never. If my shy Luddite ass can do it, you can too.
Writing by Jen Mierisch 
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