Categories: uncategorized
Date: 01 November 2006 10:38:50
I'm a member of an American Christian Writer's Group. It's at turns fascinating, frustrating, confusing and delightful. I'm glad to be a part of it as a community and occasionally (not that often though) I find it a very encouraging place with some of the comments pointing towards my writing being very kind and generous.
We've just been having a debate about branding and it's been good fun. As often is the case I put a counter argument (it was very brand centric the basis for the debate and, personally, I'm sad that that is the way the market has gone). A good number of replies in someone posted that the uproar was not understandable and people putting a contrary view ... well, it was something of a sideways put down. I thought for a while on this reply and, since it does sum up a lot about my hopes for the future in terms of the work I do outside of the paid work I do, I thought I'd post it here.
What uproar? This has been a splendid conversation, point and counterpoint made respectfully and, pretty much the consensus seems to be that branding in some shape or form is important (although I guess it has veered away from the original question which is what it isn't but so far the tangent has been focused and no bad thing).
From my side of things branding the person is probably more the way I would wish to move (in a literary rather than heated sense :) ) yet it also implies certain problems, most notably with the inherent move into consumability and typecasting. To me they are the more negative sides of branding: I'm primarily seen as being a youthworker (part of the brand, my own fault, but a hook nonetheless) so people often see me as writing for or about teens. Not a problem (although the fact that the market disagrees is something of a disappointment but there you go). Yet after book 3 the next projects in the pipeline are a fiction/non-fiction book which looks at the distance between teen and adult understanding - still linked, that's fine; a graphic novel for adults which examines the depths to which light can still penetrate darkness, less linked, although adults will be wary of the medium, and following that a fiction work which looks at the end of the world through the eyes of an elderly man who has come to despise God and man...
(there's a 250 word limit to posts so insert an ad break here. We now return you to the thought in play:)
Due to the Writer/doodleryouthworker brand people expect me to just be a youthworker to not have a life outside of my job (and it can feel like it sometimes no matter now necessary the reverse) and to write from a fixed point. Personally I see writing more as doodling. Ideas come to mind and I flesh them out, some doodles stay on the pad others spring to life on the lined page.
Personally I don't want a preconception of content but for people to read for the ride. I do follow some authors, as I follow some game creators, and enjoy it the most when they jam, when they start to do things that they want and you can see their heart and smile. I do realise that this is counter to the typecast and consumerability of the brand... but in the end I'm doodling things that come from the heart of what I want to say, and those feelings, while a part of me, are not always respectful of a marketing statement.
One of my favourite characters in life is Stephen Fry. He's an actor/comedian/writer/game show host/radio presenter and master of the spoken word whether his own or ones borrowed. He is a treasure (although sadly not a Christian one, that would be the most wonderful thing).
Personally I would love to be moveable between genres and styles, to work in words and images according to need and point. That's something I have to earn, I understand that, but that's where I hope to get to one day.
And that's that for the post. what I didn't add, pertinent yet probably inflammitory, was that one other memory sprung to mind. I'd been TRICKED into going to a demonstration of water colour painting but the now manageress of the Guildford Art Centre (one of my very favouritest places to be). Anyway I went, it was... long... and the style not to my taste. The artist spent the time knocking out pictures of boats on water and showing us how to paint the rigging and the ripples and all that. I was using watercolours myself at the time but in a much more teenage, all over the place manner. I found the suggestions and the manufactured look not too interesting. At the end the artist asked for questions and I asked what it was he painted when he wanted to get away from the boats, what did he paint for fun. He looked at me pretty confused and said he only painted boats to sell. Which sort of kind of (I'm going to patent the letters soko in some way) summed up branding for me.
That said, since so far I've had less than limited success in many ways I dare say that others will have the last laugh, but I can dream...