Branded Blog

In the midst of an evening full of laughter, wine, cheese and quotable quotes that included the iconic “Exclamation marks are like erections, you can only have one per story” (by one gifted, sassy novelist), I got the best piece of criticism I’ve ever been given.

It was short, which is not the norm for discussions at this writing group, but it was amazingly insightful and helpful and encouraging – and all of that is very much the norm in this group.

It came from a certain (very) nomadically wonderful poet, and I’m sure she had no idea that her one comment made me smile for a very long time, despite the fact that she had actually told me that one of my dialogues sucked!

And she was right.

And that was the beauty of it.

The group has been reading my developing book for a while now, they’ve pretty much read each chapter as it was written and they’ve gotten to know my characters as I’ve unravelled them.

The comment was on an exchange between a grandfather and grand-daughter, characters that have talked to each other a lot, and have gotten to know each other along the way. Only this time I hadn’t written the chapter from scratch, I’d started with a section I’d cut from a previous exchange and tried to make it work. It hadn’t. And it was noticed.

“But he doesn’t talk to her like that, though” the nomadic poetess said, “something is wrong here…”.

And I smiled and kept smiling.

The criticism was, as I’ve said, absolutely spot on. That section is off and needs re-writing. But that was far less important than what her comment implied. You see she said “he doesn’t talk to her like that” – she didn’t say “you don’t write him like that”. He’s become real to her, he has his own voice, his own way of relating to others. He’s become unique. He has become more than my character, he has become an entity in his own right. He is authentic, this creation of mine, he is much more than I expected him to be, hoped he would be. And I am thrilled.

For me it’s pretty much the pinnacle of writing achievement – create a character who grows beyond even your own expectations, and is full and clear and stands for something.

And that’s what we should be doing with our brands too. We should be building them so that they are so focussed, so well developed that they evolve into fully fledged beings that have their own voices. And that are loved for those voices by those who get to know them.

But beware, once you have such a beautiful brand, best you be true to it else your staunchest supporters will quickly call you out on any misstep you may make!

Your brand, like a character, depends on your complete commitment and utter integrity when dealing with it. You can’t ever afford to let it slip – not in the quality of what you deliver, or how you talk about it.

Good friends of ours came to visit a few months back, having spent time living in Canada and elsewhere they hadn’t seen our current home yet. As they walked in, her comment was “Oh, your house is just like your Pinterest boards!” which made us all giggle, but it was his follow up comment that was most intriguing: “Now isn’t that the ultimate test of integrity?” he joked. They’re special, these two, and worth knowing.

And isn’t it just so true – our lives are not always what our social media posts make them out to be, but with our brands we don’t have that luxury. They need to be irreproachable, they must have 100% integrity in what they say and what they do, otherwise they are lost. And we have lost all the time and money and love we’ve poured into them.

And how sad to lose such wonderful, rich characters that can add so much to our lives if we are true to them, and if they serve the purpose they promise to.