Kathleen Barber, Kimberly Belle, Lyn Liao Butler, Molly Harper, Amy Poeppel, and Susie Orman Schnall were generous with their time, sharing details from their personal publishing journeys. Here are some of the themes arising from those writing podcast interviews: 

1. Authenticity

Write the stories you were meant to tell. Kathleen Barber cautions authors about writing to trend. Not only does it come across as inauthentic, but Barber also says it makes work of what could be a joyful writing process, resulting in a book that isn’t as much fun for the reader, as well.

In an early draft of Limelight, one of Amy Poeppel’s characters died, stemming a painful revision. She discovered she doesn’t “write sad.” It’s just not her. Humor is very much a part of her storylines as she creates a feel-good experience for her readers.

What do you do if the story you’re meant to tell is set in an unfamiliar time or place? Susie Orman Schnall says to “read up and around” to build a solid understanding of your genre and its constructs. A romance provides a “happily ever after” or, at least, a “happy for now.” Rom-coms blend love stories with comedy. Scientific fantasies integrate elements of scientific fact within a setting or plotline. Whatever you write, it’s important to grasp the pieces readers expect within that genre. Do your homework before you write in unfamiliar territory.

2. Writer’s Block

At some point in their careers, writers find themselves staring at a blank page, wondering if they’ve come to the end of their journey. In the writing podcast, Molly Harper says not to panic. Instead, get some sleep. Drink some water. Give yourself permission to take a break, with one proviso—set a deadline. Tell yourself, “After two days, I’ll return to my desk and bang out some words.” And stick to it. It’s amazing what a little time away can do to nurture a battered writing soul.

3. Protecting Your Writing Time

For suspense writer Kimberly Belle, “Home is where the laptop is.” That laptop travels with her, whether at home in Georgia or visiting her husband’s homeland in the Netherlands. No matter where she goes, she maintains some semblance of a schedule to meet her deadlines.  She warns writers to remain mindful when common tasks creep up.

When Orman Schnall finds herself deeply entrenched in a manuscript, she eliminates all non-writing events from her calendar. Walking the dog might clear the mind, but if it takes you too far away from your writing world, you may not return.

Distractions aren’t limited to tasks unrelated to writing. All too often, writing is diverted by social media, updating a website, or the creation of a bullet journal to mark off daily word counts—even listening to a writing podcast. Any one of these could be considered important, but if words never land on a page, you’ll find you’ve filled your time with everything but crafting books. Belle keeps the “writers write” rule in the forefront of her mind.

For Liao-Butler, the pandemic presented an opportunity for an unexpected retreat. Somehow, the planets aligned to allow her to spend a few months in Kauai where she conducted research and put a hefty dent in her next book. Belle, too, uses time away to recharge, although the writing continues. A beach trip might mean a usual day’s work becomes abbreviated so she can take a hike or hit the water. Can’t get to Kauai? Ask a friend to use their guest room or secure a hotel room for a few days.

4. Typing, “THE END”

“Isn’t the end,” says Poeppel. Reevaluate those expectations.  After the first draft is complete, it will require multiple revisions before it’s ready for prime time. Be proud of your work, knowing you’re in it for the long haul.

5. The Author’s Tribe

“Find your people,” says Molly Harper. Fellow authors will get you through the ups and downs of drafting, revising, querying, and publishing. Many times, they’ve been in your shoes and can alleviate stress.

Liao Butler encourages authors to rely on their author friendships to talk out their angst among each other. Not only does it make you feel better, but you can avoid dragging those negative experiences into social media.

Schnall has a group of five or six writers who meet via Zoom every Thursday to commiserate about their work. Similar Zoom meetings have become a helpful productivity tool for Barber. Accountability is key among her group of mystery and suspense writers. The platform provides a focused hub where they work, predominantly in silence. A designated interaction time provides a space for interaction to offset the workload in a supportive environment.

Where to find your people? On the writing podcast, Poeppel recommends visiting author websites or reaching out on Twitter.

Authors Kris Interviewed

Kathleen Barber

Kathleen Barber’s first novel, Truth Be Told (originally published as Are You Sleeping), has been adapted as a series for Apple TV+ by Reese Witherspoon’s Hello Sunshine media company. Follow Me is her second novel. www.kathleenbarber.com

Lyn Liao Butler

Lyn Liao Butler is the debut author of The Tiger Mom’s Tale, which comes out July 6th. Born in Taiwan, Lyn has had many careers: concert pianist, professional dancer, business owner, personal trainer, fitness and yoga instructor, purse designer and now author. www.lynliaobutler.com

Kimberly Belle

Kimberly Belle is the USA Today and internationally bestselling author of six novels, including her latest, Stranger in the Lake and The Marriage Lie, a Goodreads Choice Awards semifinalist for Best Mystery & Thriller. Her books have been published in more than a dozen languages and have been optioned for film and television. A graduate of Agnes Scott College, Belle divides her time between Atlanta and Amsterdam. www.kimberlybellebooks.com

Molly Harper

Molly Harper is the author of more than thirty paranormal and contemporary romance titles, including the Half-Moon Hollow series, the Southern Eclectic series, and the Audible exclusive Mystic Bayou series. www.Mollyharper.com

Amy Poeppel

Amy Poeppel’s writing has appeared in the NY Times, The Rumpus, and Working Mother, to name a few. She is also the best-selling author of Small Admissions, Limelight, and Musical Chairs, and she’s written the theatrical version of Small Admissions. www.amypoeppel.com

Susie Orman Schnall

Susie Orman Schnall is the author of four novels, and her writing has appeared in numerous publications including The New York Times, The Huffington Post, Popsugar, Writer’s Digest, and Glamour. www.susieschnall.com

Kris Clink’s relatable characters rely on humor and tenderness to navigate complicated relationships. Set in middle America, her novels are laced with romance, heartbreak, and just enough snarky humor to rock the boat. When not writing, Kris spends her time searching for an open karaoke mike and an understanding audience. Born and raised in the Texas Panhandle, Kris lives in Wichita, Kansas where her great Dane, Sophieanne, runs the house Kris shares with her editor-in-training husband. Full interviews can be found at https://writingtablepodcast.buzzsprout.com/

The post #5onFri: Five Things Overheard at My Writing Table Podcast appeared first on DIY MFA.

A Matter of Authenticity in World-Building

Authors who write Fantasy are constantly reminded what a critical element world-building is in the development of their narratives. Readers need to understand the imaginary world they’ve created – its geography, social hierarchy, cultural morés, politics, economics, justice system, weaponry, values, religious beliefs and practices – and, in some cases, a system of magic. But we must still write with authenticity. Character behavior must align with the rules of this world. As often as not, characters will be thrust into interactions with a second world as part of the narrative conflict – and that second world must be revealed to readers through the eyes of the characters. It’s a lot of responsibility for the author to ensure consistency.

In historical fiction, we have the same need for authenticity. It is our responsibility. We must recreate a world that once existed but that may be substantially different from what readers are living today. In some respects, we have an advantage – there’s documented evidence of what this once-upon-a-time world was like, so we don’t bear the responsibility of making it all up from whole cloth. And we may have another small advantage in the fact that our reading audience may already have some degree of familiarity with the world in which our story is set.

But it’s no less important that we paint that world accurately and that our characters behave in a manner that aligns with the world in which they actually lived.

When Worlds Collide

Both of my prompts are manifestations of the same issue – the question of whether writers should cater to readers who might project their own world onto the story we’ve written.

In the case of my reviewer, it’s quite explicit from the phrase “are paramount in my world” that this is exactly what the reader is doing. But Alfred’s actions took place in his world – the world of the 14th century – not in the reader’s world. The case of the question about smoking during the 1940s represents a writer tempted to omit an important reality of their story’s world just to cater to modern views.

It’s inevitable there will be disharmony – sometimes even strong discord – between the past and the present. Just as medicine has advanced such that we can easily treat or even eradicate diseases that would have been deadly in bygone days, so has human understanding evolved in areas as diverse as criminal justice, societal responsibility, governance, human rights and self-determination, cultural awareness, commerce, education, conflict and weaponry, scientific exploration, physical and mental health, stewardship of our planet . . . just to name a few. Still we must strive for authenticity in our writing.

Throughout history, our moral compasses have pointed north.  But just as the Earth’s own axis of rotation precesses over time, so has moral north shifted through the centuries. What was considered normal at one time in human history might be viewed as ignorant, or perhaps heinous, today. Beheading was once considered a merciful form of execution (compared to the more brutal alternatives), but it wouldn’t be viewed that way today. People who claim to “hear voices” have been with us from time immemorial. In the past, they might have been considered “possessed by the devil,” “hearing the voice of God,” “practicing witchcraft,” or just plain lunatic. Today, we’d be more inclined to investigate a possible diagnosis of schizophrenia or other mental illness. The mechanism by which a baby’s gender is determined wasn’t understood until the early 20th century, which meant all sorts of notions flourished at one time or another and made it easy for men to blame their wives if the couple didn’t produce a male heir (often with horrific results). Today, we know better. And we can show how we know better by providing these details with authenticity.

As writers of historical fiction, we have a responsibility to reflect the world as it actually existed at the time of our narrative. We wouldn’t attempt to cleanse beheading from stories of Tudor England or the French Revolution. We wouldn’t represent Joan of Arc as mentally ill, though who knows if perhaps she was. Nor would we deny that Henry VIII blamed two of his wives for failing to give birth to sons or the anxiety felt by women in general over what they considered their responsibility to deliver an heir.

Likewise, we’d be doing readers a disservice to pretend that smoking wasn’t prevalent in the 1940s – both as a popular form of stress relief and as a social convention. And in my own stories set in the 14th century, pretending that men didn’t seek female companionship outside marriage would be equally dishonest.

But What About the Really Bad Stuff?

What about things like the subjugation or even annihilation of indigenous people by colonizers? What about the African slave trade? What about abuse of workers and child labor during the Industrial Revolution? What about “supremacist” movements of all sorts from the Crusades to the Ku Klux Klan to the “Japanization” of Korea in the first half of the 20th century to the Holocaust? What about torture? What about _______? (fill in the blank). Does writing with authenticity mean leaving these details out?

History is full of atrocities that are in conflict with modern sensibilities. Many of our stories will never come into contact with the worst of the worst. But when a story unfolds against the backdrop of something modern readers may find offensive, what’s a writer to do?

In the next post for this column, we’ll explore some strategies for bridging the discord between the realities of the past and modern sensibilities.

An award-winning author of historical fiction and a freelance editor, Pamela Taylor loves helping others polish their stories almost as much as she enjoys writing her own. She’s a member of the DFW Writers Workshop and the Editorial Freelancers Association and is in her fourth year on the judges panel for the Ink & Insights Writing Contest. She shares her home with two Welsh Corgis who frequently remind her that a dog walk is a great way to get inspiration for that next chapter.

The post The Importance of Authenticity appeared first on DIY MFA.

Deadlines Teach You To Write, Word Limits Teach You To Edit    

At eighteen, I didn’t know any writers – or even any other aspiring writers – so I started by entering every short story competition I could find.  I would mail out what I was certain was the greatest story anybody had ever written, and six months later it would return home, accompanied by a facsimiled list of the infinitely-better stories that had actually won the contest. But I never minded much, as I would have already sent out several new greatest-stories-ever-written. And repeat, again and again, until my name began to feature at the bottom of the facsimiled list, and slowly worked its way up towards the middle.  I never won a single contest, but my prize was ultimately far greater than any $25 Book Token: so many endless hours writing to deadlines and word count taught me what I wanted to say, and how I could begin to say it.

Don’t Believe Everything You Read

In our relentless world, I worry that a new writer starting out today won’t get the same space I had. Instead, they will quickly find themselves on writing Twitter, where everybody seems to flex. They are either so loudly successful or endlessly rejected that after even a few minutes of scrolling it seems clear that there is no point for any of us to even try. 

A quick check of Twitter today tells me that it is National Novel Writing Month, that a high-profile agent will accept pitches containing a particular hashtag for the next hour, and that a new writer has sold the high concept manuscript they wrote in their lunch breaks at auction.  Terrific as these successes are for all involved, will reading about such things encourage our own new writer to follow their own muse, and take risks without fear of failure or certainty of reward?  Most good books weren’t written quickly and can’t be pitched in 120 characters, but reading and writing Twitter would quickly convince you otherwise.

A Weirder Flex

An even weirder flex: many writers’ Twitter bios contain the phrase ‘repped by’.  Ostensibly this is to assist the editors desperate to commission the writer, but anyone who needs that information could swiftly google it.  Instead, having an agent seems to have become a bizarre kind of status symbol.  Perhaps it helps reassure the ‘repped’ writer they are a real writer, and of course we could all use a little of that reassurance sometimes.  But having an agent doesn’t make someone a writer any more than not having an agent makes someone not a writer, and I would hate to think that any writer might feel they have to write with the goal of getting an agent rather than of telling the story they want to, in the way they want to.  Moreover, I am sure most agents feel exactly the same way.

The Creative Writing Industrial Complex

This flex of being ‘repped by’ business feels part of a wider trend, where each year the balance between the craft and the business tilts ever more to the business.  Publishers and agencies now even offer creative writing courses, and while their intentions are surely noble, it edges us ever closer to territory where writers feel obliged to write entirely to market and perhaps even pay for the privilege of consideration.  This, in turn, seems likely to contribute to an unfortunate homogenization.  Is it a coincidence that so many novels of the past few years have a title that follows the mathematical formula: ‘The (adjective) (abstract noun) of (intriguingly-unusual-yet-reassuringly-familiar-name)?

The Screenwriting Industrial Complex

Screenwriting has always been the writing discipline most heavily tilted to the business, and there are valid reasons for that.  Nonetheless, a screenwriter starting out today could very quickly squander a small fortune on how-to manuals and development services, none of which would help them nearly as much as simply reading lots of great scripts and putting in the endless hours on their own. A great screenwriter doesn’t flex about the number of how-to books they’ve read.

In my novel, Set My Heart To Five, my android protagonist sets out to become a screenwriter and enrolls in a class that guarantees he will write a screenplay in eight weeks and have scenes performed in front of an industry professional. When he attends the class, he is baffled to discover that his classmates have zero interest in what their teacher has to say, and have signed up simply to meet the industry professional.  That takes place in 2054, but it is only a slightly exaggerated version of the problem I see today: the focus is almost entirely on the business, when it should be almost entirely on the craft.

Your Mileage May Vary, But Be Aware There Aren’t Many Short Cuts

I truly hope that you are the person whose Twitter pitch gets bought for a million dollars. (Sure, I’ll possibly be a touch envious for a passing moment, but mostly I will be thrilled for you, in part because it will show that somebody out there is still betting on books.)  But if you are not that lucky individual – and few are – then you will just have to do it like the rest of us, and in the quarter century since I began sending out my own stories, the only secret I have learned is that there is no secret beyond endless hours spent honing the craft: read books, write words, and edit them, over and over again until they sing.  And if you can keep doing that until what you have is undeniable, everything else will fall into place.  So – for you, and for me – back to work, and let us together stay off twitter, and never mention our agents in our bios. 

Simon Stephenson is originally from Edinburgh in Scotland, but he now lives in Los Angeles. He has also  had stopovers along the way in London and San Francisco. 

Simon’s a writer and screenwriter, and once upon a time in a galaxy far, far away he was a physician. His first book was a memoir called ‘Let Not The Waves Of The Sea’, about the loss of his brother Dominic in the Indian Ocean tsunami in 2004.  It won ‘Best First Book’ at the Scottish Book Awards in 2011. Simon’s novel, Set My Heart To Five was released in summer 2020.

You can follow Simon on Twitter.

The post Tweeting about Writing: A Weird Flex appeared first on DIY MFA.

An author brand boils down to a couple key features: what sets you apart from other authors and, more specifically, what readers love about you. Perhaps most importantly, though, an authentic author brand is more than just a few buzzwords you throw up on your website. 

When you’re being authentic,and being true to yourself, you’re being 100% honest with yourself and your readers. An authentic author isn’t trying to be someone they’re not. Instead, they’re embracing the qualities that make them unique and, well, human! 

But how can you show your readers that you’re a human being instead of a faceless business? Read on for some tips!

1. Set Boundaries 

Before I go further, I do think it’s important to note that you should absolutely set boundaries for what you share online as part of your author branding strategy. Before setting up an author website, social media accounts, and even before sending out your first newsletter, it’s always a good idea to sit down and have an honest conversation with yourself about what you feel comfortable sharing with your readers. 

Some authors feel comfortable sharing more personal moments with their readers — weddings, births, graduations, and other important life milestones. Other authors may want to keep their private lives private — and that is completely okay! However, it’s important to determine exactly how much you’ll share before you begin the process of platform and brand building. 

2. Talk About What Matters To You (Besides Writing!)

Once you have a good handle on what you will and won’t share with your readers, take some time to think about what really matters to you — not just as a writer, but as a person. What are the things you’re passionate about? The things that jolt you awake in the middle of the night? The things that make you want to do a happy dance? The things that make you angry? All these things are important to consider, as they’re what set you apart from everyone else.

As writers, the actual process of writing can sometimes be something we’re very passionate about, however, it’s important to consider that discussions on the craft of writing might not always translate well into your particular author branding strategy. 

For example, although I am personally fascinated by the oxford comma debate, readers of my romance novella might not be. So, this particular “passion” of mine might not be the best thing to share in newsletters or on social media. However, there are other things that matter to me outside of the writing world that I can share in order to show that I’m a unique human being: my love of cats, cooking, an appreciation for anything wine-related…the list goes on!

Ultimately, the goal of building an authentic author brand is to create something that is human. In other words, you are not just a faceless business trying to sell a product. Rather, you are a human being with different qualities and interests that set you apart from everyone else. Embrace your unique qualities and allow them to shine through.

3. Avoid the Sleazy Sales Approach

To me, the sleazy sales approach to building an author brand can mean any one of these things:

• Sending tons of private messages to strangers on social media with the intention of getting them to buy your book
• Spamming your mailing list with constant “reminders” to buy your latest book
• Spamming your social media followers with constant links and “reminders” to buy your latest book

You don’t always have to be peddling your book on social media, or through monthly newsletter blasts, in order to establish a strong author brand. As a matter of fact, you really shouldn’t be doing these things, at all! 

As an author, I do think it’s natural to want your book to do well and to get it into as many hands as possible. That being said, when you use aggressive sales tactics such as the ones mentioned above, you’re doing a better job of driving potential readers away rather than encouraging them to buy your books. But why? 

Simply put, when you’re in this kind of salesy mindset, you’re not really thinking about readers as people. Instead, you’re thinking about them only in terms of what they can give you (book sales). And I don’t know about you, but I really don’t like it when I’m only thought of in terms of how much money I can help another person make. 

Instead, I tend to buy books from authors who have shown me that they are more than a business selling a product. In other words, I’m drawn to the authors I feel a connection with, the authors who not only express appreciation for their readers, but who also work to build real relationships with their readers. 

Back to you, writers! As you continue to work on building your author brand, consider the following questions: What sets you apart as a writer and, more importantly, what are the qualities and passions that make you different? After all, you’re more than a business! You’re an author and you’ve got a unique story to tell. 

Manuela Williams is a Reno-based writer. She is the author of Ghost In Girl Costume, which won the 2017 Hard To Swallow Chapbook Contest, and her second poetry chapbook, Witch, was published by dancing girl press & studio in 2019. She also writes romance under a pen name. When she’s not writing, Manuela is busy drinking coffee and spending time with her blind Pomeranian, Redford. You can connect with her on LinkedIn and Pinterest.

The post How to Build an Authentic Author Brand appeared first on DIY MFA.

Today we’ll be doing something a little bit different on the show. Usually DIY MFA Radio features interviews with authors and publishing industry professionals, but let’s face it: there’s more to life than writing. In fact, if we want to find success in our careers as writers, we have to think about things beyond the nitty-gritty of writing craft and publishing information.

One of the things that can make a huge impact on our careers is learning how to present ourselves in a professional way, and communicate who we are right from the moment someone meets us for the first time. This is why I am so delighted to welcome Kathleen Audet to the show today.

Kathleen is a brilliant image consultant and is president and owner of Your Authentic Image. She is also a good friend and someone who has helped me turn my own mindset about clothing and image upside down (in a good way). Today we’ll be talking about two different ways that image plays into our lives as writers. On one hand, we’ll discuss how to use components of image to make your characters come to life through description and detail.

But more importantly, Kathleen and I tackle some of those tougher questions about appearance. As writers, it’s easy to fall into the habit of wearing our PJs and bunny slippers work while we hid in our creative caves. But as you’ll learn in this episode, how we present ourselves on the outside is often a reflection of what’s going on inside. By changing our external appearance in small, subtle ways, we can actually start to shift some of those deep-set attitudes we have about ourselves and the world around us.

Listen in via the play-bar below or hop over to iTunes or Stitcher Radio and get the episode on your mobile device. Trust me, this is a juicy one and you won’t want to miss it!

In this episode Kathleen and I discuss:

• Why what we wear is important. Even if we’re just hiding in our writing cave, and no one else sees us that day, what we wear matters.
• The work you do around choosing words that encapsulate your essence. Kathleen has a special exercise to help you choose those words, and we also talk about what to do with those words once we have them.
  
• Using paint chips to represent different characters. Interestingly enough when you put characters of opposite sides of the color wheel in same scene, that’s usually when tension and conflict happens.

We also talk about how to apply these concepts to your characters on the page. We discuss how to design your characters visually and which details you can include to make them come to life. These details are:

• Clothing, including accessories.
• Grooming, including body hygiene, hair, skin, nail care, and makeup.
• Body language, including figure/body type, posture, eye contact, facial expressions, gestures, manners and etiquette.
• Semiotics and how clothing functions as a system of signs.

Plus, Kathleen shares her #1 tip for writers.

About Kathleen

Kathleen Audet is president and owner of Your Authentic Image. For more than 20 years she has been studying color, design and image management. Kathleen’s degrees in education and English form the foundation for her insatiable curiosity about people and ability to teach women on a deeply profound level. Having trained on both coasts of the United States, Kathleen’s image and style evaluations are thorough and comprehensive.

Kathleen received image consultant training from the Conselle Institute of Image Management. She is a member of Association of Image Consultants International. She lives northern Nevada and works with clients locally and around the world through her virtual coaching programs.

Create Your Signature Style

Shrink Your Closet, Expand Your Wardrobe

Whether you’re a business owner, executive, working mom, stay at home mom, retired­ and­ loving ­it, reinventing yourself professionally or personally, actively downsizing, or simply long to enjoy getting dressed in the morning… a few things are certain:

• You communicate volumes non­verbally every time you leave the house –­ whether you have 8 pieces of clothing, 80, or more, dressing in outfits you love will help you show up as the real YOU.
• Research has shown that holding onto “stuff” ties you down ­– placing unnecessary constraints on getting dressed in the morning ­ when dressing should be an easy, joy-­filled experience.
• “Decision Fatigue” is a real thing ­– facing a full closet yet having “nothing to wear” forces a less than ideal decision ­ stealing bandwidth instead of starting your day in the best possible frame of mind.

This course is a compassionately-lead, six-week virtual program that supports you to pare down and love up your wardrobe in a way that feels abundant, fulfilling, and freeing. To learn more or get info about when the course opens, head over to: www.yourauthenticimage.com/sign-up-here

Link to Episode 142

(Right-click to download.)

If you liked this episode…

Head over to iTunes or Stitcher Radio to leave a review, and subscribe so you’ll be first to know when new episodes are available. Also, if you know anyone who might enjoy this podcast, please share!

Until next week, keep writing and keep being awesome!

The post Episode 142: Discover Your Authentic Image — Interview with Kathleen Audet appeared first on DIY MFA.

It’s the week before Christmas, and I wanted to do something a little bit different from the interviews we’ve had these many weeks.

This week’s topic is something I’ve been wanting to talk about for a while and then I received a question via email from one of our listeners and I decided it was time to dive in.

Shout-out to Kayla for sharing a great question. I’ll paraphrase it here, but it essentially came in three parts:

• How do I know if my writing is good?
• Is there a certain amount of “literary-ness” I need to include in my writing for it to be good?
• What are the people who judge my writing (editors, agents, critics, etc.) looking for?

In the past I have wondered the same thing. What did the readers want me to say? What am I supposed to write? And what if people don’t like what I have to say?

Having a strong, authentic voice boils down to who you are. Remember, too, that you are not alone in wondering about this. At some point every writer asks themselves:

1. Is my work any good?
2. What do people want from me?

This question isn’t about getting published. It’s about being true to yourself.

Who are you as a writer?

Is your author identity being authentic to who you are? You may hear a lot of advice from writing gurus telling you to “craft your authentic voice” as a way to promote your work, to better connect with people who will want to buy your book.

Authenticity is not a marketing strategy. It’s about being who you are.

Authenticity at it’s heart is being vulnerable, being honest with your readers. And it’s scary! Every time I share anything remotely vulnerable with you all on the podcast or in my newsletter, I’m afraid that you will like me less for doing so. But it’s never a marketing strategy for me. Vulnerability, authenticity, it’s who I really am. And it should be who you really are, too. It’s not a schtick.

Should I put on a persona as my author voice?

So should you put on a persona as you develop your author voice? Well, I have answers for both sides of this question. Mainly, don’t try to fake your voice. You’ll end up sounding phony, and that will come across to your readers.

• Who are you? What does your natural voice sound like? That is the voice that will sparkle. Share that voice.

• What happens if you “put on” a voice and it’s actually successful? Are you prepared to stick with this voice forever? What if your agent or editor loves that persona that you’ve created? What if your readers love it? Are you going to leave them in the lurch?

• If you decide to drop this not-you voice, are you prepared to face the consequences? Suppose you “put on” a voice for a while, then you decide to flip the switch. Your readers might feel like you’ve pulled bait-and-switch on them and many might ditch you then and there. More importantly you will have to work hard to earn back the trust of those readers who decide to stick with you through the switch.

When you try to be someone you’re not, when you’re not being true to your voice and your own goals, it will come back later to haunt you. You’ll have to ‘fess up eventually.

So how do you “craft” your author brand then?

I think this quote from Judy Garland sums it up best:

Judy Garland

The best version of yourself, that’s what I call your author identity, your author brand. The person you put on the page is still you, but a more focused, more coherent, less wacky and hairbrained version of you. Your author identity is like a laser beam. A laser is focused light, and your author brand is focused, crafted, still you but the strongest version of you.

Crafting the narrative of your author identity

Can an “author identity” be truly authentic? The way you present yourself online will, of course, alway have some manner of crafting and shaping. The goal is to be as naturally you as possible.

Oscar Wilde

As a writer, if you try to write in a voice that isn’t really your own, you’re going to become exhausted. But in being authentic, you can’t just let your voice and your focus be scattershot. You have to find your voice and your focus, and give your readers the best version of yourself.

This is the true gift you give your readers. You don’t need to share all of you and you don’t need to to change who your are. You definitely don’t need to show your readers the hot mess that happens behind-the-scenes (unless you want to). Instead, give your readers the superstar version of you. Not the cheap knockoff, manicured version. The original heart-and-soul you.

Have a wonderful holiday season. We’ll see you soon!

Resources:

Chuck Wendig’s post that I referred to in the podcast episode. This more recent post–Go Big, Go Weird, Go You–is also right on point.

Link to Episode 74

(Right-click to download.)

If you liked this episode…

Head over to iTunes, leave a review, and subscribe so you’ll be first to know when new episodes are available. Also, if you know anyone who might enjoy this podcast, please share!

Until next week, keep writing and keep being awesome.

The post Episode 74: Identity, Authenticity, and How to be True to Your Voice appeared first on DIY MFA.