What Should Be my Author Style?
This meme of two Georges chatting about writing female characters has been popping up all over the interwebs, the punchline of which is that George R R Martin thinks that women are people. In the interview George S responds “Obviously” and George RRM goes on to talk about how he writes ALL characters who aren’t necessarily like him, dwarves, kings, murderers, paraplegics, children, etc. He does research. He puts himself in their shoes. None of that stuff ended up in the meme. Just GRRM looking cool in his purple vest and turtle-pinned black hat giving his pro-woman one-liner.
The constant viewing of this image left me with two thoughts. The first is that it hurts my head that in 2013 the idea that women are people is still a revelation worthy of memehood. Good on GRRM for realizing this truth that should be obvious to everyone. My favourite line in the interview comes later when he goes on to say, “They’re more like me than they are unlike me. They have some special condition that they have a different set of genitals than I do.” You can see he gets the absurdity of this as much as I do. This is so much a giant duh that I can’t even bring myself to devote an entire blog post to it.
The second thought I had when over-viewing this meme, is that I don’t look like an author. I mean, that vest and hat paired with that beard and those glasses is an ensemble that screams novelist. With an author mother, I’ve grown up going to various book-writer shindigs and have seen many similarly distinct looks. Not all authors look like George R R Martin of course (though the white beard is a popular choice), but each has their own way of rocking a bookish anti-style that gives no doubt that they are the author and not just a sales girl selling books. My friend and volunteer marketing manager recently suggested that I do a signing dressed as Emily pictured on the cover of my book, which would mean showing a lot of midriff. I’m actually considering it, though after two kids my midriff isn’t as big a selling feature as it once was.
So what do you think? What does an author look like to you? Any suggests on what my author style should be? Talk to me in the comments below. Serious comments are welcome but absurdity is always encouraged!
