So, I was studying this morning -yes, studying, and the exam went well-. Brand Management, which is how to do marketing for a company focusing on the creation of value for a peculiar brand. It's pretty interesting, and it actually made me think of a little project that I want to bring forward...
Anyway, one of the first rules when creating the brand is to choose its characteristics. Your clients and most importantly the producers need to have clear what its message is, what it wants to be, what it wants to evolve into. Now, everything can become a brand, nowadays. Drinks, books, cities, people.
So, I tried applying it to the book I'm writing, the series I'm writing... And I realized I had been going at it the wrong way.
I mean, sure, it's a dystopian scifi, but it's more than that. It's much more than that! I don't know why I've been talking about everyone like it was another dark dystopian book in the Hunger Games tail. Yes, it's dystopian, yes, it has some dark moments, but at the bottom of it I wrote it as something to have fun with!
I have humour, I mention 4Chan, TVTropes, Megaman Legends 3 and more. Why the hell haven't I been focusing on that, too? Who says that darkness and humour can't go hand in hand? We have Daneel here on the forums that fuses crack, fight scenes and Lovecraft, for god's sake!
Another thing with a brand: it has to have both some common characteristics with the market it belongs in and something to make it unique to make it shine. This morning, I decided what I wanted S-Class to be. I want it to be SciFi. I want it to be Dystopian. And I want it to be humorous. I want it to be a series with shout-outs to the culture I grew up into, to my peers, to the Internet. To redditors, and 4channers, and tropers, and TFFers.
Starting today, as I finish the first draft of S-Class, I'm starting a real overhaul of the whole series. Starting with these small pieces, which are for a side project of the series that will see the light of the internet before the book itself, on which I, of course, would like your feedback. Here's the first.
2052 AD. Humanity is trapped in the usual revolting cycle. Governments rise and fall like teabags. The usual pigs fatten themselves on the groveling sheeps. Protocol-infringing hardasses poison the planet. And nations wage war in the name of ideals of all kinds.
And North Korea discovered unicorns. Or so they said.
The world is doomed to see this repeat itself unfettered till the end of all days, like the endless rerun of a tv series that wasn’t funny to begin with.
Except, something interrupts the usual broadcast.
Some think it was the devil on a bender. Or the almighty, finally tired of our crap. Most agree that it was a freak accident brought on by professor Joshua Kendrick, who did not survive to see what he had set into motion: a planet-wide genetic mutation. A forced evolution of 100% of the world population. The newly christened Super Sapiens are stronger, smarter, sturdier, and live longer.
I know. It sounds endearing, but think about it like this. An entire population of men who have gotten used to possessing and using a certain amount of strength, and they receive an increase in gripping power just as they’re taking a tinkle...
Ow.
And if that wasn’t chaos enough, the Day Humanity Evolved another event took place. A never identified phenomena erased all data on any kind of storage system connected to the Internet at the moment of its passing. Earth was forcefully thrown back to analog in one fell swoop. For some, this was a fate worse than death. Gaining three inches and 30 pounds of pure muscle without having lifted a scrawny finger their whole life was a meager consolation, when faced with the loss of years of hard-earned achievements.
… Losers.
The DHE pushed humanity forward. The Internet Crisis took it back 50 years in the past. And a third development, the most surprising of all, would contribute to throw the world into chaos for seven long years...
Anyway, one of the first rules when creating the brand is to choose its characteristics. Your clients and most importantly the producers need to have clear what its message is, what it wants to be, what it wants to evolve into. Now, everything can become a brand, nowadays. Drinks, books, cities, people.
So, I tried applying it to the book I'm writing, the series I'm writing... And I realized I had been going at it the wrong way.
I mean, sure, it's a dystopian scifi, but it's more than that. It's much more than that! I don't know why I've been talking about everyone like it was another dark dystopian book in the Hunger Games tail. Yes, it's dystopian, yes, it has some dark moments, but at the bottom of it I wrote it as something to have fun with!
I have humour, I mention 4Chan, TVTropes, Megaman Legends 3 and more. Why the hell haven't I been focusing on that, too? Who says that darkness and humour can't go hand in hand? We have Daneel here on the forums that fuses crack, fight scenes and Lovecraft, for god's sake!
Another thing with a brand: it has to have both some common characteristics with the market it belongs in and something to make it unique to make it shine. This morning, I decided what I wanted S-Class to be. I want it to be SciFi. I want it to be Dystopian. And I want it to be humorous. I want it to be a series with shout-outs to the culture I grew up into, to my peers, to the Internet. To redditors, and 4channers, and tropers, and TFFers.
Starting today, as I finish the first draft of S-Class, I'm starting a real overhaul of the whole series. Starting with these small pieces, which are for a side project of the series that will see the light of the internet before the book itself, on which I, of course, would like your feedback. Here's the first.
1) The Day Humanity Evolved + The Internet Crisis
2052 AD. Humanity is trapped in the usual revolting cycle. Governments rise and fall like teabags. The usual pigs fatten themselves on the groveling sheeps. Protocol-infringing hardasses poison the planet. And nations wage war in the name of ideals of all kinds.
And North Korea discovered unicorns. Or so they said.
The world is doomed to see this repeat itself unfettered till the end of all days, like the endless rerun of a tv series that wasn’t funny to begin with.
Except, something interrupts the usual broadcast.
Some think it was the devil on a bender. Or the almighty, finally tired of our crap. Most agree that it was a freak accident brought on by professor Joshua Kendrick, who did not survive to see what he had set into motion: a planet-wide genetic mutation. A forced evolution of 100% of the world population. The newly christened Super Sapiens are stronger, smarter, sturdier, and live longer.
I know. It sounds endearing, but think about it like this. An entire population of men who have gotten used to possessing and using a certain amount of strength, and they receive an increase in gripping power just as they’re taking a tinkle...
Ow.
And if that wasn’t chaos enough, the Day Humanity Evolved another event took place. A never identified phenomena erased all data on any kind of storage system connected to the Internet at the moment of its passing. Earth was forcefully thrown back to analog in one fell swoop. For some, this was a fate worse than death. Gaining three inches and 30 pounds of pure muscle without having lifted a scrawny finger their whole life was a meager consolation, when faced with the loss of years of hard-earned achievements.
… Losers.
The DHE pushed humanity forward. The Internet Crisis took it back 50 years in the past. And a third development, the most surprising of all, would contribute to throw the world into chaos for seven long years...