Mosaics and micro-stories: A new storytelling project for 2018

Happy Monday, friends!

If we’re connected on Instagram, then you might know that I kicked off a new storytelling project there last week — something different from anything I’ve done before.

It all began just a couple of weeks ago, when José and I were brainstorming ways for me to change things up on Instagram and share my stories in a fresh way. He showed me a few photography accounts (such as @finfilm) who play with how they crop their photos, alternating between vertical and horizontal images, and thus shaping how the full collection of photos appears in their profile:

While I loved the effect, I wasn’t quite sure how to adapt such an idea to my own stories, especially when I wanted to keep sharing sketches and illustrations. But then, as I was supposed to be falling asleep one night, inspiration suddenly struck. And the question inspiration brought me was this:

What if I turned my Instagram profile into a kind of online journal?

What if — I kept asking myself — I widened my focus and began to think not only of creating each individual post, but of how I could transform my overall grid into its own creation?

In the quiet darkness of my room that night, I could vividly picture how it would all look: There could be sketches and photos taking up two, three, or sometimes even four tiles in my grid. I could weave in hand-lettering, too, and draw arrows connecting one tile to another — each tile becoming another piece in a larger puzzle or mosaic you could only see in full in my profile.

Best of all, I loved how such an online journal could be purposed for telling stories. I thought of choosing a new story to share each week, from a different place around the world — or sometimes just from one of the many weekend adventures José and I have taken around Uruguay.

I’ve never been happier for a new idea to keep me from falling asleep!

It’s been nearly two weeks since the idea arrived for these weekly, illustrated “micro-stories” (as I’ve come to lovingly think of them, since the text shared in each story will only be about 200 words) — and I can honestly say my excitement for them has only continued to grow.

While the individual posts will be made up of favorite photos, sketches, quotes, and excerpts from my notebooks and journals, what I’m even more excited about is how they’ll connect together in my full Instagram gallery, forming an online scrapbook full of beloved places and stories. My hope is that the complete gallery will be as fun and inspiring to look at as the individual posts themselves, and that each story will transport you to another beautiful corner of our globe.

At the end of each week, I’ll also bring all the mosaic-pieces together and share the full story here on the blog and in my newsletter — not only for those of you not on Instagram to read and enjoy, but as a way of creating a more lasting record of the stories I share throughout the year.

First up last week was a micro-story from the shores of Lake Atitlán in Guatemala, and I hope it sends some of the sweet breezes and beautiful peace I found there your way.