I used personal branding tips to build my Nanowrimo characters

Here’s why you should, too

Lately, I have been reading a lot about two topics: “Personal branding”, why it matters and how to make one; and some tips and hacks about how to finish this year’s Nanowrimo. As expected, I gained a wealth of information from various sources about both topics, and I wanted to share them with friends and other readers. My dilemma: which topic to write about first.

I was mulling this prioritization problem when it hit me: I could actually integrate personal branding principles into my character-building attempts for Nanowrimo.

Here’s how to pull that off.

Firstly: What is personal branding?

Put simply, your personal brand is the entire you-experience. Creating a character’s personal brand, therefore, is creating the reader’s full experience of that character. What particular values does that character hold? What kinds of experiences does that character enable? If you were to ask that character’s friends in the story about the kinds of experiences they would likely have with your character, what would they be?

A personal branding exercise I found particularly useful for building a character is the ‘3 Cornerstone words’ exercise: If that character had to choose three words to describe herself/himself in totality, what would those words be?

For the character I’m building for Nanowrimo, her cornerstone words are Creativity, Dedication and Loyalty. She is an artist who values hard work, perseverance and originality. If you’d ask her friends in the story, they would say that she is a dependable friend who is earnest in her relationships, that she always goes the extra mile in making sure her work is always excellent, and that she consistently creates, even if she feels lazy to do so.

Based on just a few words, you would know how she would act in certain situations, because that is her “brand”. this is why branding your character could be useful — it allows you to get to know her better.

Digging deeper

When thinking about your character’s brand, it is also important to dig further into your character’s cornerstone words, and flesh out her background. Some useful questions include:

- How did your character get to where he/she is? (Background)
- Who does your character want to be in 5 years? (Dreams)
- What is your character passionate about? (Passions)
- Who inspires your character? (Inspirations)
- What skills/characteristics does the character want to grow or develop? (Ambitions)

My Nanowrimo character, for example, has been running her own art gallery for a while, and practicing her own art alongside that. (Background) In the future, she wants to be a driving force in her community, and she wants to support other local artists. (Dreams) She is passionate about empowering small art-related enterprises and teaching children about art, (Passions) and she is inspired by other women veteran artists in her town who have been doing the same thing (Inspiration). She wants to develop her leadership, organizing and educating skills in order to realize her goals. (Ambition)

With these new pieces of information, we can paint a clearer picture of this character, who not only has internal values but has hopes and dreams as well. These also give us a fair idea of what kinds of activities to write her in, and how to push her story arc along.

Make your character believable

One of the purposes of building a personal brand is to build credibility, and I soon found that you can also use the same branding principles in building a believable character.

What makes a character “believable” or “credible”? For me, a character is “credible” when that character’s actions are aligned, in the sense that they are in agreement with the rest of that character. A believable character is one that is consistent with himself or herself.

Characters who act “out of character” or in ways that cannot be properly rationalized can be confusing and jarring, and it is important to make characters that readers can easily follow. Here are a few questions I’ve found useful as guide:

- What does the character believe in?
- How does the character live out those values?
- How do the character’s values and actions add up?

This is not to say that one cannot write characters who act against their values — in fact, this is a very complex conflict to explore in writing. However, we must also take into account the readers’ possible questions about this: If Character A believes this but does that — why? Failing to provide believable motivation would make this particular development out of place, thus making it harder for the reader to integrate it into the storyline.

Your character’s ’Elevator Pitch’

Perhaps the truest test of whether you truly know your character is if you can already write an ‘elevator pitch’ for that character. Professionals are encouraged to craft an ‘elevator pitch’ for themselves so that they can seize opportunities even in short windows of time — after all, if you are given 30 seconds to introduce yourself and what you offer to a VIP during a short elevator ride, wouldn’t you want to make the most out of it?

In the same vein, if a friend asks about your Nanowrimo character this year, how would you go about it?

Consider this structure I learned from here:

- Start off with a “summary label” for your character. What does s/he do?
- What makes your character unique?
- Where did your character come from (brief background on experience)
- Where is your character currently?
- Where is your character going?

In my case, my Nanowrimo character is a painter (generic label) who specializes in murals (uniqueness) and who has been active in painting her town’s empty walls since her university days (background). She is currently running her own art gallery and still painting murals (present situation). In the future, she wants to transform her art gallery into a more collaborative space that hosts smaller art enterprises and teaches art to children (future).

A final word

Lastly, while character is only one element of your Nanowrimo story, the better you know your character, the easier it is to further the plot and make a story that readers can follow and understand. Good, believable characters with a strong sense of self are, indeed, more enjoyable relatable.

Are you writing for Nanowrimo this year? Who is your main character and what is his/her personal branding like? If you were to create an elevator pitch for him/her, how would it go? Let me know in the comments!

If you found this article useful or know someone who would, please share or click the applause button, so that more people can find it. Thank you!