Interview with TTT Chief Curator: Joel Thottan
Written on February 1st , 2020 by {"login"=>"jcbitshyd", "email"=>"journal@hyderabad.bits-pilani.ac.in", "display_name"=>"Journal Club, BPHC", "first_name"=>"", "last_name"=>""}This year, during BPHC's annual literary fest, Verba Maximus 2020, Terribly Tiny Tales (TTT) held their flagship workshop on campus. After the workshop, we, at Journal Club had an opportunity to interview Joel Thottan, the Chief Curator of TTT wherein he talked about his experiences as the Chief Curator and his thoughts about writing and teaching.
Q: What was your inspiration behind joining Terribly Tiny Tales?
J: I used to follow the page and I’ve been a huge fan ever since it started, back in 2013. I aspired to join the page back then. I would say that my primary inspiration was the fact that the idea that you could tell powerful moving stories in under 140 characters amazed me.
Q: What kind of work do you do as the Chief Curator at TTT?
J: Since I’m working on the app, we have a timely submission that comes in daily. We also had a section called TTT PICKS which involved showcasing content from the community that was submitted on the app. I also make sure that when it comes to the community, it’s constantly fueled with writing prompts that keep them constantly engaged so that they can keep writing and keep creating. There’s also other aspects about the app I work on such as defining the tone of voice of the app, defining what will your prompt messages look like, what will pop up message on the app look like, and it's fun because when you do it from scratch so you sort of create a person out of the app.
Q: You’ve worked as a digital strategist and a content writer for prominent brands. How difficult was it to acclimatize yourself and your writing to suit the needs of the company?
J: Writing for advertising was different from the work I do at TTT, because in advertising there was obviously one brand whose social media I was handling and was advertising. For example, if we were working with Dove, we weren’t going to tell you about a bar of soap in the tale, we would talk about real beauty. If we were talking about Standard Chartered, we wouldn’t say ” Hey! Here’s a card, buy it!” We would want to talk about the joy of gifting.
However, when it came to TTT, it wasn’t really about putting out ads, per se. It was more of taking the core identity and essence of the brand and converting it into a storytelling mechanism. Initially, it was a bit tricky, but coming to TTT taught me a very different way of looking at storytelling and adapting to it.
Q: After conducting numerous workshops, do you think micro-fiction is getting momentum among the people, especially the youth?
J: I think it wasn’t a stronghold, a couple of years back at least, when everyone was picking it up. But it's always nice when you go to a workshop and you see enthusiastic people who have come to learn. Attention spans are dwindling massively these days. I, myself am a terrible book reader. For me, it's very tough to sit and spend time with the book; I would rather watch a show or a movie or listen to a podcast. I think micro-fiction gives you that sort of leeway, where you're able to define that gap between not being able to devote so much attention span to something and still take something meaningful from it. So it is very interesting to see that there is still so much that you can do in the micro-fiction space and so much to explore.
Q: Have you developed or discovered any new talents after joining Terribly Tiny Tales?
J: Yeah definitely, we were fortunate enough to come across some great writers across the internet, some of whom have joined us full time in the office (Megha Rao was one of them). Yash, another guy at my office, also joined us that way. These are writers we met online or through workshops and their submissions. It’s always nice to find a promising voice because you can help them grow and reach a larger audience, which is rewarding in a way.
Q: You also have some experience in teaching at St. Andrews college and other colleges in Mumbai. How was your experience in that field?
J: It was fun. I always wanted to teach. When I was sitting on the opposite end, which was as a student, I wanted to teach people. But when you stand in front of a class, only then you empathise with your professor and realise what they had to go through. But I think I was fortunate enough to be called by my alma mater, St. Andrew’s College. One of the things that I wanted to do was to at least make the syllabus more interesting than it already is, because, to be very honest, it is not that relevant these days. And you realize that when you go out in the industry, there are so many things that college doesn’t teach you, so I think one of the primary goals was to give relevant examples from current times that could be used in teaching, as well as to try and integrate most of that in every lecture that I took, so that the students were up to date with what was happening in the world. I've always liked teaching, which is why I conduct workshops. It's nice to see someone eager to learn something and go ahead, because maybe back in the day, this was not the case. You always wanted a teacher from whom you can learn and take something back. So I always try to find that bridge between teaching and making it fun.
Q: Is there any story you’ve written, that’s particularly your favourite?
J: For me at least, when I write and it's always quite a surprise when I tell people, I’m quite detached from the stories I write. Once its written, I’m done with it. I don’t tend to go back to a story or go back to particular characters. I kind of move on in life, usually because the characters are either sad or they end up dead. But I think there is this one story that has stayed with me for quite a while – its titled ‘mannequin’ and I wrote it in 2016. It’s a rhyming poem which saw the light after a long period of writers' block. It’s not a piece which I am particularly proud of but I remember it as something which comes back to me. There’s also one story – ‘The lucky watch company ‘ which I also showcase in most of my workshops because it’s one of the happier stories I have written -without anyone dying in it and it’s nice to showcase it as it doesn’t make the reader feel sad after reading it.
Q: In your TED talk- Seeking Firsts, you talked about your passion for film-making. Are you still pursuing this?
J: I want to pursue it. In our office we constantly get told to write some sort of film briefs. So even though it's not like proper short film making, I do get to write video scripts, write scripts that actors read out and it’s a lot of fun. This is the only way that I’m in touch with that format. But I do want to write more short films and my end goal is to have a show on Netflix someday. That’s something I want to work towards, to write towards. I am currently working on some things and hopefully I’ll come up with something amazing someday.
Q: What’s the inspiration behind TTT’s award-winning short films?
J: I don’t think I’m the best person to answer this question. But I think that the directors we work with, and the stories we have picked ,especially Prachi, Anu and Sharanya who look primarily into the producing end of talkies do an amazing job in picking a story that’s impactful and is relevant to our times and they also cast the right people, which helps. It's a skill to spot a good story and to decide to produce it. Fortunately enough we have done that in the right space so far and I’m glad we have gotten the reward of our work as well.
Q: What's your thought process behind the IGTV videos, and how much of an impact do you think they have on the viewers?
J:I'll talk about the formats I’m associated with – ‘TTT spotlight’ which is a spoken word piece which we have adapted for IGTV and another is ‘BRB’ which was another show that I created exclusively for IGTV. One thing about IGTV is that it's tough to shoot vertically. Unlike shooting in a wider frame, here the actors need to sit closer together. They lose all sense of personal space and end up shoving their hands into each other’s while trying to talk. We are happy with what we have created so far and it's amazing to see our hard work paying off – for example ‘BRB’ was recently given a platform on Snapchat. We are always striving to see how we can adapt different stories for IGTV and I definitely think that the vertical format is gaining momentum. Given the fact that TikTok videos are doing so well, well, you know that vertical videos are thriving.
Q: Are there any new works in progress?
J: We have the third book coming out in mid-February near Valentine’s Day. Its titled ‘with love’ and is a compilation of around 50/ 60 love letters. And they are not just the mushy type. We have tried to tackle a whole spectrum of love across the novel. It’s something that we have worked hard on as its quite a difficult genre to pick from. We had to read around 1000 love letters and choose which ones should feature in the book. It’s been an interesting procedure and we hope that we can hit a hattrick with our third book and that it does just as well as our first two books. We are also in the middle of a few other projects but I’m afraid I can't talk about them right now. We are doing some interesting stuff with big platforms and hopefully we can disclose them soon.
Q: Terribly Tiny Tales has been the refuge of thousands of aspiring writers trying to find a place for their words and thoughts. What tips do you have for aspiring micro-fiction writers?
J: What I always tell everyone is, to not replicate someone you read. It’s very easy to fall prey to something of that sort – where you end up mimicking someone because you admire them so much. I would say try to find your voice. Because once you do that you’ll be able to stand out. So you should keep practicing to develop your own voice and you’ll do just fine.