On Emoting and the Writer's Personality
Last night I was wasting time by watching So You Think You Can Dance. After a group performance one dancer was called to the front of the stage where she was accused by the judges of not having enough personality. She said, calmly, that she knew she could do this, she knew she could compete, she knew she was good enough.
But the judges said that she didn’t say it with enough conviction. They wanted her to shout it out, leap up and down, be emotive.
In response, the poor dancer did the only sensible thing she could do: she started to cry.
The judges liked this. Ah, they said, see, she does have a personality. She would do. She made it through to the next round.
I seethed with anger at these stupid, simple-minded judges. Just like the judges on America’s Next Top Model, who every season attack some obviously shy girl for “not having any personality,” these idiots think that being loud and extroverted is the only acceptable personality to have.
If these judges are looking for a spokesperson, someone to stand in front of a camera and incite passion or excitement, then being extroverted and bubbly is definitely a must. Maybe part of the winning contract for So You Think You Can Dance or America’s Next Top Model is about promotion. It is, after all, a TV show.
And that’s the wonderful thing about writing: a writer doesn’t have to verbally emote. A writer can keep his feelings inside and then let them out on paper. A writer can be shy, quiet. A writer doesn’t have to jump up and down when she hears good news. She can be quietly happy. A writer can sit, calmly, behind the scenes, tapping out the next masterpiece on an old typewriter, beautifully alone, loving her solitude.
Can’t she?
Of course not. At least, not anymore. In the publishing world, and particularly in the indie publishing world, a writer now must promote his or her own work, and promotion is hard to do without getting in people’s faces. Indie writers, for the most part, don’t have agents or publicists.
More than finding time to write, more than coming up with a great concept, and more than editing, the most difficult task for a huge number of writers is developing (or at least faking) that extroverted personality type coveted by the Hollywood bimbos and mimbos of our world.
If a writer wants people to read her book, she’s got to go out and tell people, “READ MY BOOK!”
And it’s helpful if she’s emotive about it.
