Hostage of Dolour

Author Platform – The Writer’s Image

If we think of the designer of surfboards; if we envision a surfer, a thrash metal drummer, an Irish dancer or a sculptor working entirely in farm manure, we have formed for us an image of those participants in these various artistic endeavours.  They may not, in their daily life always accurately reflect that image, and likewise, those of us who view them maybe have certain inaccurate expectations or perhaps preconceptions of the type of person they are, nonetheless, through their endeavours they are generating in all of us a certain image.  As a writer, our words create an image of us.  Some writers are acutely aware of what their image is.  For others, we don’t always appreciate that image.  Are you aware of your own writing persona as it applies beyond your actual writing?  I’d like to exhort you to take a moment and think of the basis on which you’d like to engage people while you set about building your platform.  Of course they know you as a writer, you’ve made that clear, but who are you in relation to your writing?  If you write sultry vampyric horror, do you espouse those values or can you at least fit in well in that real world scene? You get the idea, I’m sure.  So what’s your writer’s image?

Consistency

I think having a consistent image when creating our writer’s platform is crucial.  You may well fit with the preconceptions arising from your style of writing [are you as macabre as your horror shorts suggest?] or perhaps you take pleasure in destroying that stereotype [perhaps you yourself are macabre in a way that your romantic period heroine could never apprehend!]  Nonetheless, deciding upon the image that you present to your audience and then acting consistently within the parameters of that image will engender trust among those that are eager to step up to your platform and engage with you and your writing.

My Own Example?

My own novel “Into Kotaom” concerns life after God, theism versus atheism, doctrine and indoctrination.  My platform, although not always explicitly touting these notions, does make use of certain imagery [rosaries for example] on online avatars:

David Faylin rosary avatar

I might utilise key slogans from my novel “God is dead; Man is god” that any potential reader will be aware of exactly what I’m writing about.  I’m aware of key figures in the area of atheism in particular, Richard Dawkins perhaps being the most outspoken, and would use their existing relationships [friends on online spaces perhaps, participants on their forums, commenters on blogs dealing with the subject matter] and use that as a potential “ice-breaker” if you will to suggest my own wares.  I guess that can seem in some ways cynical, yet I’d not see this as any kind of spam tactic since the approaches are very specifically targetted, I’m as personal and personable as I can be, and I’m more than accepting of people’s choice to hit the “ignore” button.

Use your Name

Of course, should I decide to change tack, genre or subject matter for subsequent writing, then of course my image would need to change accordingly.  And it’s for that reason that I always use my own name David Faylin for my writer’s platform.  Because always, the most consistent thing about us is our name or pseudonym.

More to follow.. Take care speak soon maybe, David.