For those who are familiar with the world of literacy, the Storial brand certainly sounds familiar.
This digital platform provides space for anyone to publish writing for free. We only need to create an account by registering on the storial.co website, then we can freely upload our works. Apart from that, we can also read hundreds of stories that have been uploaded from various genres. Some stories are labeled premium, which means we need to pay to read them. We can read the rest for free.
In 2015, Aulia Halimatussadiah and her two colleagues built Storial with the hope of being able to bridge writers and readers online.
Read a minimum of 1 book per day
Aulia Halimatussadiah, who is familiarly called Lia, has enjoyed reading since she was four years old. Lia first became acquainted with comics in Bobo magazine. It didn't stop there, Lia then learned to make her own comics. At that time, Lia diligently wrote manga, a comic term popularized in Japan. It seems that the stories that Lia writes are often too long, to the point where they can't be accommodated by the boxes which also contain the pictures in the comic. Finally, Lia gave up making comics and just focused on writing.
During middle and high school, Lia actively wrote poetry and short stories and then sent them to the mass media. However, because she always received rejection, Lia finally just made it a hobby. Lia's interest in technology, as well as support from several friends from abroad, encouraged Lia to create her own website and publish her poetry independently there.
When she graduated from college and started working, Lia won a creative writing scholarship from Gagas Media and succeeded in publishing her first novel entitled Look! I'm On Fire, which later became a best seller. Lia continues to deepen the knowledge gained from Gagas Media regarding techniques for designing plots and developing characters, until now Lia has published more than 30 book titles.
Lia admits that she never runs out of ideas or experiences writer's block. Often, Lia actually has difficulty filtering the ideas floating around in her head. Lia believes that this happened because Lia read diligently. In a day, Lia reads at least one book title. The books Lia chooses are tailored to her needs.
Currently, Lia is writing a book about spirituality, so Lia has a list of titles of 30 books to use as references. Lia not only reads books that are literal, but also non-literal, where she is used to reading situations, circumstances and human facial expressions. That's why, for Lia, she never runs out of ideas.
When asked which book was her favorite, Lia admitted that she couldn't name them one by one, because there were too many. However, several names were championed by Lia. Fernando Pessoa, a Portuguese writer and Orhan Pamuk, from Türkiye, are among the writers Lia considers champions.
Reading regularly can help us avoid writer's block.
Technology as a Gateway to Doing Business
When she published poetry on a website that Lia created herself in middle school, Lia realized that technology could solve everyday human problems. It was proven that he had found a solution to publish his own work via digital platforms. Lia then began to explain the problems that writers generally face. One of the challenges is finding readers. From there, Lia took the initiative to create Storial, so that writers could easily meet their readers online.
Another advantage of Storial is that authors can upload books by chapter. Lia believes that writers often feel overwhelmed when they have to finish their book first before sending the manuscript. As a result, their manuscripts are never finished and they often abandon their work midway. Lia hopes that Storial can also be a solution to this problem. By uploading articles per chapter, writers can automatically be motivated to immediately continue writing because there are readers waiting for them.
By positioning herself as an entrepreneur, of course Lia also sees the writing produced by each writer as a business product. Lia wants the writers who are members of Storial to also be able to reap profits from their work. So, for every article that has successfully passed curation, the editorial team will label it as premium, that is, paid writing. Now, the income of writers at Storial is quite diverse. Starting from hundreds of millions to hundreds of thousands, depending on the extent to which the author can build engagement with readers.
The writers who have achieved this success are not only domiciled in Jakarta, but throughout Indonesia. Lia thinks that if the minimum wage in the area is around 1.5 million to 2 million, the income they get in Storial could be five to ten times that. This success, plus the testimonials she received from writers and readers, is seen by Lia as her own success because she has made technology her gateway to driving a business.
Lia's success in using technology in the field of literacy raises another question, namely future technology trends. According to Lia, although currently people are focusing on artificial intelligence, what is more important is the ability to adapt to become more flexible. For example, the current pandemic has made everything uncertain. Only those who can adapt well can survive. The latest technological trends should be used to facilitate medical matters; such as ordering hospital rooms, medicine and other necessities through the application.
Responding to the pandemic, Lia took the initiative to create a table of love through her social media. That's the term Lia chose where someone can list what they have and need on an Ms.Excel sheet in Google Drive and it can be accessed by anyone. So that human needs and resources can meet to provide benefits to each other. "I do everything I can," Lia added.
“ Technology can solve everyday human problems.” - Aulia Halimatussadiah
Balance Is The Key To Many Things
Apart from building Storial, Lia is also the founder and co-managing of Girls In Tech Indonesia, a global non-profit organization in Indonesia that encourages women to master the field of technology. Lia wants to break the stigma that technology is only for men, which describes male technology experts who are used to not sleeping for days, smoking, and only wearing sarongs.
Lia shows that women can also run businesses with the help of technology, while still getting manicures and pedicures. The basic thing that needs to be done is to provide women with access, facilities, then let them explore on their own.
Founded internationally in America, Lia brings Girls In Tech Indonesia to several regions, such as Makassar, Bandung and Bali, even though her office is located in Jakarta.
To be able to recognize talent in the field of technology, Lia advises not to extinguish the curiosity that burns within you. Curiosity should be able to lead us to find solutions. In the process, we will discover what interests us and we can hone it. The balance of logic and taste is also important. Lia believes that intuition, plus balance has brought her to this point, where with her logic she is able to complete everything in a structured manner, but also not abandon the aesthetic value of every touch.
Lia recommends that another thing that needs to be balanced is energy. We are blessed with abundant energy and we should know where and how to channel it, including to complete daily work. Sometimes, when she is too tired from working, Lia likes to sit looking at nature or cooking. Or as simple as watching a light film before bed. It helps him to stay fresh, physically and mentally.
When asked how Lia would prefer to be seen by the public, whether as a writer, businessman or technology expert, Lia answered that she wanted to be known as someone who loves life. Maybe with love, everything will continue to feel alive.
How about you? Have you found something that makes you love life? Find other inspiring stories here.