BY CELESTE COX
I am the publicist for Xchyler so it might be odd that I’m not writing this blog post about marketing, but in a way this subject has everything to do with marketing.
With social media comes a way to connect with public figures. It’s great for those of us in fandoms. It’s a great day to be a fan in 2014. Celebrities might re-tweet something your say online! But here’s the problem with all that: we, the fans are altering the very thing we love the most: the writing.
If you don’t know what “shipping” is, it’s wanting certain characters to fall in love and mixing their names together. Example: Katniss and Peeta could be Keeta. Shipping is fun in its own way but because it’s all about publicity these days and going with what the fans want, writers are putting couples together based off of popular consensus.
And not just romantic relationships either! Villains, plot twists, any drama to throw out there even if it goes against that characters’ personality entirely. I can name countless TV shows, movie sequels, and sadly, too many novels that have done this.
But here’s the thing you have to decide. Do you want the most superficial drama for the sake of drama story, or do you want your characters to live through your writing?
Don’t follow the craze! Stay true to your characters. Let them be who they are even if it’s not popular. I promise, your readers will notice authenticity no matter how exciting the plot is.
The best writers are the ones who can make even the smallest of moments feel real.
Be one of those writers. Stay true to your characters and you’ll stay true to yourself.
Celeste Cox is a superhero by day and a writer by night. She’s also the publicist for The X. When she isn’t performing all her superhero publicist duties, she spends her time on her blog, A Happy Messy Life, and wishing she was a mermaid so she could swim at the beach all day. Celeste loves the marketing world and figuring out what makes it tick.