Creating multimedia IP

Same story, different format

For the last few months I've been constantly asking myself a question, am I a writer, or am I a storyteller?

Obviously, yes, I am a writer, in that I write things and I publish books and blog posts and an email newsletter. Actually, I don't always write them: as I've mentioned before, I generally dictate them. But that's not what I mean.

What I mean is that more and more these days I find myself wanting to create things that aren’t written media. I want to create podcasts and audio dramas. I want to create comics - (and okay, yes, comics do contain written text, but they’re primarily about the images). I've even been thinking about revisiting my Moviestorm days, and creating some short films.

The tools are widely available and affordable - or free. And, as I discovered a few months ago, it's easy to find collaborators for just about any type of project. There's absolutely nothing stopping me doing this - except the time and the commitment.

I'd love to try adapting my own stories for different media. I'm already working on doing my short stories as an audiobook or a podcast. That's pretty common these days common even for self-publishers.

But I'm also toying with going beyond simply reading them and turning some of my stories into full cast audio dramas. Even if they just had two or three characters, plus some sound effects and music, they’d be a completely different experience. Off the top of my head, at least four or five of the stories in Nothing To See Here would lend themselves to this type of adaptation.

I can think of at least four others that would work superbly as comics. (I even had the page layouts in my mind's eye as I was writing them.) There are a couple that I would love to do as animated videos, and a couple that would work beautifully with still images and music behind the narration, Jackanory style. I can’t draw to save my life, but I’m sure I can find people to work with, or I’m open to experimenting with AI. (Yes, I know that’ll upset some people, but if AI is the only practical solution, so be it.)

I really can't decide whether reworking the same stories over and over into different media shows a lack of creativity. Should I just move on and write something new? Or am I being more creative by finding new ways to tell my stories, and developing my skills as a storyteller? Or maybe I'm just trying to be commercially savvy and build a multimedia brand.

What do you think?