Thursday's Links to Writing & Marketing Blog Posts

YOU’RE SUCH A CHARACTER

By: Jael McHenry

As an author, especially one just starting out, you’re often told about the importance of your “brand.” You’re lectured that how you act on social media, what you talk about in interviews, and what you write should all be in keeping with whatever “brand” you choose.

But that can seem artificial or inauthentic. You’re a person, after all. You’re not a corporation.

You’re not a product.

But you are, in a way, a character.

Think about it. The fictional characters we write are supposed to seem as real as people, yet we can’t possibly portray them with all the complexity and breadth as people. You may know what hospital your protagonist was born in and the color of the walls of her second-grade bedroom and the bitter tears she cried when her brother threw her favorite CD out the window of a moving car, never to be seen again, on the road between Casper and Cheyenne – but you’re not going to share these details with your readers, unless they’re relevant to the story. You don’t write a character with no interests or history whatsoever, of course, but sentences laden with exposition bring your fiction grinding to a halt.

And the same is true of us, as authors… 

Read the full article HERE!

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If you missed my writing & marketing tweets and retweets yesterday, here they are again:

1. 52 Ways to Market Your Book & Break Those Visibility Barriers #BookMarketing http://ow.ly/DSXLy
2. 7 Tips for Metadata Magic for Self-Publishers — The Book Designer http://ow.ly/DTyvX
3. I can't figure out the ending. http://ow.ly/DTyBv
4. Murder by 4: What Are the Qualities of a Great Book Narrator? http://ow.ly/DTyFv
5. Starting a Group Blog with Madeline Iva | Romance University http://ow.ly/DTBQm
6. The Secret to Crafting Genuine Characters for Your Novel | Live Write Thrive http://ow.ly/DTBVB
7. What is Past is Prologue - Storyfix.com http://ow.ly/DTBYw
8. The Difficulty Writers Have with Identity | Lauren Sapala http://ow.ly/DTC49
9. 7 Ways Writers Can Use Facebook Rooms by Frances Caballo — The Book Designer http://ow.ly/DTChA
10. Author, Jody Hedlund: A Few Tips for More Complicated POV Issues http://ow.ly/DTCkI
11. A Gentle Guide to Help You Wake Up Earlier - Be More with Less http://ow.ly/DTCqJ
12. Write On Through To The Other Side: When Your Character’s Diagnosis Becomes Your Own | Beyond The Margins http://ow.ly/DTDzQ
13. Writer Unboxed » You’re Such a Character http://ow.ly/DTDCw
14. BookMarketingBuzzBlog: Low Prices, Big Corporations: We All Lose http://ow.ly/DTDEp
15. Marketing Tip: Put Your First Chapter on Your Website - She Writes http://ow.ly/DTDH7
16. The Write Type - Multi-Author Musings: Keeping Up With Social Media http://ow.ly/DTDKT

Happy writing and running, Kathy