Wednesday, August 24, 2011

author persona?

One of my teachers recently asked us what kind of author we want to be, what do we want for an author persona. Leaving aside obvious answers like: "The best writer of all time!" or "Award-winning!" and other similar responses, this is a tricky question.

I know a number of authors who have quite strong author personas. For example, one stay-at-home-mom I know is always posting/twittering about flirting with handsome men, drinking beer, going to rock concerts, kissing strangers (men and women), and the like. This is very compatible with the sex-laden fiction she writes--so it works. :) Another writer I know cracks a lot of jokes and often talks about drinking, hanging out in the bar, appreciating ladies and similar at conferences, when he is in reality a very accomplished writer and artist. But again, his fiction is pretty humorous, so it works. Both of these example writers have taken a small part of their personalities and run with it. Kudos to them.

Sadly,if I was to take a part of my personality and run with it, it would probably turn out more like Sheldon Cooper of Big Bang Theory fame. Yikes. On the other hand, he's pretty funny...

How about you? Do you have an author persona?

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