A few tips from the chief agente provocatrice to help you get started
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Remember it’s a postcard, not a missive. Limit your message to 300 or fewer words and your mission to 100 or fewer.
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Keep the message and the mission related. For example, if your message is about how a self defense class empowered you, the mission might be to learn one practical self-defense move. Extra points for providing a super short video instruction of the move.
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Use a moment from your life to illustrate your message in order to engage your reader in a story.
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Imagine that you’re talking with a girlfriend – keep it natural, sis.
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Make your missions fun, free (or cheap), and achievable.
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If you’ve been recording your yoga practice or your daily sketches on Instagram, use those visuals to add a personal touch. This is about encouraging beginners and beginner mind, so don’t worry about glamming yourself up. The more “ordinary” you appear, the more approachable you’ll be. (Don’t worry. We all know your “ordinary” is just another disguise.)
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Don’t let your shabby spelling or your punctuation phobia prevent you from sharing your ideas. We’ll take time to proofread and smooth out the rough spots.
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If you’d like to gently plug an independent female artist, writer, or entrepreneur in your postcard, go for it. But avoid being sales pitchy.
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Don’t worry about the actual postcard. That’ll be handled in-house, but I welcome suggestions regarding the postcard locale. Give your hometown a shout out, or if you just wanna get outta town, tell me your dream destination!
Don't limit yourself to heady life lessons...
Whether you’re an artist or an activist, a kung fu master or a street magician, there’s a girl out there who’d like to know more about the very thing you know A LOT about. Agents of Eris have a diverse array of talents and know-how, and they use that (paired with solidarity) to make big things happen. If what you’ve learned has benefited you – even if it seems trivial to you – it will benefit someone else. So share it already!
Don't be modest...
You may think that you don’t have anything special to share, but I suspect you’re wrong. You may think that you’re still too sad to advise someone else on how to be happy, but isn’t it the struggle that makes us smarter? Agents of Eris are a lot of things, but modest isn’t one of them. If you’re going to light the way for someone else, you can’t be afraid to shine. (Or at least you’ve got to face your fear long enough to offer others a glimmer of your awesome.)
Read a few Innocent Postcards before you begin...
If you’re not sure how to get started, take some time to read the blog. That’ll help you get a feel for the style, tone, and subject-matter of the Innocent Postcards.