'Social Fiction' Brings Characters to Life via Facebook and Twitter

A former Nickelodeon Animation storyboard artist and a Facebook employee have teamed up to create a new form of entertainment: social fiction.
Illustrator Steve Lowtwait and writer Michael Smith are telling a fictional story through social media that's centered around a protagonist called "Hawk Funn." They have set up real social profiles on Facebook and Twitter for fictional characters in the story, and they post about the characters' lives just like real people would. If you follow Hawk on Facebook and on Twitter, you can track the plot and learn about his life as a suburban dad in Colorado and his fear of the indoors.

This social fiction story gives anyone a chance to interact with the plot and characters in real time.
"When someone interacts and comments, the characters will comment back," Lowtwait told Mashable, adding that he and Smith — a California-based Facebook employee — are currently writing the characters' posts.

Instead of yelling at the television screen when your favorite TV character makes a silly mistake, you can post your feedback directly to a social fiction character. But Boulder, Colo.-based Lowtwait says even if people are screaming at Hawk to do something, some of the story drama will remain intact.
"In some sense, drama is when the characters do things you don't want them to do or you see them doing things that hurt other characters or themselves," said Lowtwait, who used to illustrate for Nickelodeon's Hey Arnold! TV show and movie.
Hawk Funn is the first project in Lowtwait and Smith's push to encourage social fiction. That's why they're trying to raise $116,000 on Kickstarter to turn this project into a viable business. With 22 days left to go in the Kickstarter campaign, backers had pledged about $3,750, as of Tuesday afternoon. Backers can vote to shape the direction of the story, receive authentic production drawings and be characters in the story.
Lowtwait said they'd eventually like to hire a social media manager to portray characters online: "That's going to involve somebody who's part community manager, part writer and being mindful of what you can say in the story while you're talking to the audience without giving anything away, but also being able to be the characters."

Social Fiction: A New Industry?

The idea for Hawk Funn was inspired by a marketing concept Lowtwait was working on for another project. He told Mashable that marketing for social fiction is innately viral, since it is told on the Internet and through social media.
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Social fiction kind of spans the entire Internet

Social fiction kind of spans the entire Internet: It's got to have the websites and other social accounts that support the story, blending fiction and reality to create a whole world. And I think there's possibility for an industry to grow up around storytelling like that," he said. In addition to online presences for the characters, the team has created a website for Hawk's fictional business in the story. Lowtwait said they even made a Twitter account for a fictional magazine that is critical of Hawk's product in the story.
A Facebook spokesperson told in a statement that fictional pages like this do not violate the social network's rules: "As long as the Page accurately reflects [that] the content doesn’t mislead users about the voice, it’s in compliance with terms."
But since reading social media is free, how would social fiction make money to sustain itself? Lowtwait said this approach brings opportunity for brands to sponsor and tell stories about their products. In a purely hypothetical example, he said Nike could produce a story about someone who starts running and people could follow that character. The story wouldn't necessarily be an explicit ad, but could incorporate products and tell more about the active lifestyle Nike might want to promote.
Further down the line, Lowtwait said they could offshoot merchandise, characters could be franchised and fictional products from the story could even be manufactured.

Analog to Digital

When Lowtwait worked for Nickelodeon, he said the prep work for his illustrations were all hand-drawn on paper — despite the final output being digital. For his illustrations on Facebook in this new social fiction story, he is using an iPad.
"The development of it is, in a way, a lot like animation ... you have to create characters and design them," he said.
Lowtwait added he is using Facebook's Timeline dimensions as a guide for his illustrations.
Experience the story yourself by following Hawk, his wife, kids and best friend on social media.
What do you think about the future of social fiction? Share your thoughts in the comments