The Benefits of Writing "Off-Brand"

This always happens. I write an article that gets a bit of attention, and then I think that this is the only type of piece I can ever write again in my life.

Over the past few months, I’ve been angling to become Vocal famous. I honestly don’t even know what the hell Vocal Famous means, but I keep using that term in my articles to force subliminal messages into my reader’s (and Vocal’s) brains.

It’s working!

Well, sort of. I managed to get a few pieces widely viewed, and people laughed at my jokes. Of course, the laughing part is a total win for me, so I’m happy.

If you haven’t read anything from me...Where have you been?!

Jokes!

If you haven’t read anything from me, you’ll need to know one thing to understand this article. I like to reveal the entirety of my life into small snippets of hilarity on the internet. It’s my thing! I carefully pluck out those humiliating life moments that we all experience and expose them without shame (or extreme shame, however you want to look at it) for the world to see.

I want to bring us all together by humorously exposing my flaws and defects.

It’s fun! And it helped me come up with the branding idea for The Queen of Cringe. Something that is happily catching on in this little corner of the Vocal universe.

Yesterday, however, something weird happened.

I received an email from Vocal saying that I had placed second in the Boss Mom Challenge.

I was surprised. Not because I didn’t believe in the piece. To be honest, I think it may be some of my best writing.

The thing is, it’s so off-brand for me.

There are a few jokey lines in there, but it’s nothing compared to the usual stuff I publish on Vocal. So I didn’t think it would have a chance. I actually forgot I had even submitted the piece to the challenge. So the email revealing my win was indeed a big win for this Queen of Cringe.

My friend and fellow Vocal creator, Tom (I know, it's weird how much I've been talking about Tom lately.), reached out after the announcement to congratulate me on my win. He told me he enjoyed the piece as it had a lot of heart and soul. I replied that I was surprised it had placed because it was so off-brand for me.

Then! Tom said, “You write well off-brand as well.”

Oh. My. Goodness. I’m going to be dining out on that compliment for a while, let me tell you!

Also, to understand the significance of Tom's comment, you have to read the original love letter I wrote to him. Then you'll understand why this is exciting stuff!

The entire exchange got me thinking about niche writing and branding ourselves as writers. For the longest time, I never believed in niches. Instead, I thought that writing what was in your heart was how to create the work that will satisfy your soul truly.

Then somewhere along the lines, I made a few bucks from my cringy posts, and that was it. I was now a cringe writer.

I had fallen into the niche without even realizing it.

I started consciously only writing specific topics for Vocal because I thought they’d have a better chance at “doing well” and going further on the platform. So I stopped listening to my heart and started chasing reads.

There’s nothing wrong with hunting the numbers now and again. As online creators, our stats are essential to know if we are gaining traction and moving forward in our craft.

The problem with writing for the stats is the enormous hole you’re leaving in that creative wonderland of a brain—so many unwritten words flitting out into the ether because we’re so busy building the brand.

I’d love to tell you that I have all the time in the world so that I can write The Queen of Cringe, sappy love letters to fellow creators, plus bust out a gripping heart and soul piece, but that would be a downright lie.

As is the case with most of us, we have other responsibilities in our lives. We simply cannot write every hour of every dang day of our lives even though that’s probably what we want to do.

So then, when the harsh reality that we simply cannot write every piece that appears to us comes to the forefront, we prioritize. And what do we prioritize?

Our brand and niches, that’s what.

That’s where the money/fame/prestige comes from, so those are the pieces we will spend our hard-earned time constructing.

At least that was my thought process up until yesterday.

Then, by great good luck, or perhaps my magic is kicking up again, I was gifted not only with placement in a challenge but also with a new line of thought regarding creating.

It’s not about staying on brand and forever giving the readers what they expect from you. Sometimes, we need to shake things up, let out a bit of the strange, and be a different character for just a little while.

Our creative ambition deserves a little room to get up and stretch its legs a bit.

***

Lindsay Brown is a writer who is going to actually take her own good advice for once and start sharing some new and exciting pieces.

While still keeping up with her Queen of Cringe alias.

She's pretty sure she can swing it all. Yeah, how tough could writing ALL the words be, anyway?