Today's EarWorm:
Today's Date: January 30, 2017
First and foremost I must apologize for language but there isn't really many ways of saying some of what I have to say guys. There isn't enough OOMPH in them.
My my, has it come to the end of the month? Yes, yes it has. While you're reading this, I am most likely at my doctors, talking to her and doing my thing. That is, as long as you're reading this the day that it goes up.
To move away from my doctors appointment, let's talk about the image that a writer projects and how they can differentiate from what a reader may think they are.
Okay, say you find a writer who writes the creepiest, spookiest, mind bending horror that you've ever seen. Your first thought, most likely, will be of a person who is Gothic. They must wear all black, forsake the sun, and live in a world of darkness and horror. They're sarcastic and have the driest, darkest humor in the world and hate everyone who doesn't share their thoughts and opinions.
Right?
Wrong.
They don't?
Not to toot my own horn, but no. Okay, yes, I'm Gothic, but I can't really do the whole Gothic look since my skin hates daily makeup. But I try whenever I can really. I am actually a very nice person. Yes, I can have biting humor but that comes more from the way that I was raised and the fact that I have a bunch of male cousins who hated the fact that I could insult them in all sorts of ways without them realizing that I was.
I have so many cousins. Like...2 first cousins are girls okay? I had to learn how to smack down egos after all. But my family is also full of sarcastic, and you'll have to excuse my language here, assholes, so it's also a kind of learned behavior.
But outside of family and close friends, I'm really rather nice. Or I can fake nice if I don't like them for whatever reason. It's called "Social Politeness" and "Manners".
See what I mean about me having a sarcastic streak running through me?
But truthfully, thinking something of a writer is kind of a stereotyping.
Another example: a fantasy writer. Your first thought is D and D, Magic the Gathering, and a house filled with fairies, dragons, and wizards in books, statues, and clothes.
A mystery writer tends to be someone who is forever reading case files and talking to cops about how their jobs work.
A sci-fi writer must be a massive geek writing in their basement rooms while their mom's make them dinner, right?!
Nope. All of that is wrong. On so many levels.
I actually don't just write either blood filled horror stories, or mind-fucks that can leave you shuddering for days (and I have done that before), but I also write Dystopia Post- and Pre-Apocaylptic, Erotica, Paranormal Romance, and, for shits and giggles, mystery with a splash of romance.
I'm not a one-trick pony and most writers aren't. Not fully. Yes, they stick mostly to their chosen genre, but other genre's slink into their stories or occasionally
So how do writers work against stereotyping?
We network. We socialize. We utilize all of the possible platforms available to us. At least when we have time and we're not slaving away for your enjoyment.
Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, Snapchat, Youtube...the list goes on and on and on! We have so many options of interacting with our fans in a fast way outside of e-mails, blogs and websites.
But we also go to writing conventions, various other kinds of conventions where our writings would be welcomed (genre conventions like YaoiCon for those who write homosexual based stories, Sci-fi and horror conventions, and others). It's a matter of what we write and what we do.
What we, as writers, do have to project is an image of professionalism. Our writing, our novels, our works are our business after all. We have to be professional. We have to have a certain attitude that we show to the rest of the world, especially if we're just starting out and don't have many readers.
After all, honey draws more than vinegar. And I'm not talking bees.
But if a writer has a shit attitude, then it's going to come out in a variety of ways. A tweet that shouldn't have been tweeted. A facebook rant that is just the wrong idea to put up. A bad timed social hissy fit.
In this day and age? This follows a person around and for a writer, who needs to be able to interact with their readers on, at the very least, a polite level, it hurts their business, new or old.
Cause really? No one wants to deal with a writer who is an asshole of the highest caliber okay?
I know I certainly don't, and I have dropped writers like a fresh out of the oven and still in the aluminum foil hot potato for their bad attitudes. There are somethings that I can forgive. Liking a bad candidate for the current political season, liking a horrible book, having a bad opinion, that's all fine.
The moment you treat a fellow human being like shit? Or you do some mud-slinging? We have issues. And I'm less likely to read you.
Doing anything that's just wrong? And I ditch you without saying goodbye. Your books are gone from all of my platforms. Your twitter/facebook/whathaveyou are unfollowed/unliked and blocked. Your name becomes a fuzzy memory for the rest of my life: It's there, but only enough to remember that no, I don't want to spend my good money on your stuff.
And that's the same thing with a lot of readers.
So a writer needs to project a face of being polite and, if at all possible, and of being well educated. Especially in this day and age.
Because it's the writers who see the way things are and we're the ones to offer an escape to those who need it by offering worlds in their chosen genres.
So, writers, Image is everything to your readers. And remember that your opinions are just that: yours. Don't fall into the "my opinion is right and you should all agree with me" kind of image. That will just be screwing yourself after all.
Readers, you can disagree with a writers opinions. That's fine. And if you don't agree with them but you still enjoy their reading, feel free to stop following them on social media but keep up with their writers facebook pages (which are usually free of anything but writing related things, or at least I hope so) and their websites.
Just remember: Image. Is. Everything. To both the writer and to the reader.
No comments:
Post a Comment