Build Your Author Engine Challenge Day 2 - Name Your Energy/Brand

It's easy and hard at the same time. You ready?

You’re back but wondering why because here’s yet another “know-it-all” with big plans to help you but it’s probably just more things that aren’t going to help. Right?

Day 1 was figuring out what your archetype is.

Day 2 is figuring out how to make your brand fit to you.

Okay. So, let’s make some noise.

Everyone’s Fuel Should Be the Spark That Keeps Your Brand Alight

This is the big reveal! confetti and music It doesn’t matter what archetype you have, your fuel should be in your brand.

Okay. So, what the heck does this mean because right now, all you hear is noise. Am I right?

Let’s take a “for instance.” Let’s say that you’ve gone through all the branding exercises you know and you’ve boiled it down to “steamy romance with alpha heroes that melt your panties.” That’s decent. You know what you’re going to write under that brand name.

But can you write it for years?

Look, if you want this to be your 6-figure dream income source, you’ve got to be in it for the long haul. Does steamy romance with alpha heroes that melt panties fuel you? Do the conversations around these books excite you? Do these characters and the stories that evolve around them inspire you? Do the premise of these books keep you motivated and focused? And is this energy enough to sustain you while you do the research to discover how to write this type of story well?

The answer is maybe. I mean, this is you. For me, the answer was no. I really thought I could write that for years and years. The money was soooooo good. And the awards? OMG. The awards made me feel like a million bucks!

But the characters and the stories started to wear thin. I got tired of telling the “same story” different ways with the “same people,” but with different hair colors. Understand, that it wasn’t what happened. I told a diverse array of stories. But my soul and my muse wanted to write stories that were outside of that.

So, I evolved. I love writing books with lots of worldbuilding. So, I decided that my books were escapism. I create big worlds and I cannot lie, and readers love to escape into them.

Except that for some reason, I kept getting readers who were the opposite of who I wanted and they read my books and tore them apart. So, that brand was true but not quite right.

Are you feeling what I’m feeling? Is this starting to get a little familiar?

If you’re on the chaotic spectrum, then probably… yes.

The Reason

Brand is hard for people on the chaotic spectrum because for us, it’s not about genre. Can we do genre in our branding? Yes. But will that sustain us? No. Why not? Because we need more than just genre to keep our muses going through the good as well as through the lean years.

Your brand isn’t a logo or a catch phrase. Your brand is the promise you give to your readers, letting them know what they can expect with each book.

This is also the thing you gauge each book or shiny idea by. “Does this meet my brand promise?”

Your brand is your business. This is the backbone you build everything on. Not only is a promise to your reader, it’s the fuel you write with, it’s the motivation that gets you into the chair every writing day (notice how I didn’t say every day? Every writing day.). It’s the tool you use to focus. And it’s what you determine the courses and lessons you need to learn to do better.

So, what happens when your brand misses the mark? When it’s not enough for you to build off of?

You dig deeper.

The Breakdown

So, how do you do that? Well, it depends on… you guessed it. Your archetype.

Heartweavers need EMOTION, a burning why to fuel them. For me, it’s anger. I need anger like I need life. It’s the thing that keeps me safe. It’s the thing that fuels my boundaries. It’s the thing that burns bridges when the people I’m bound to keep hurting or disrespecting me. I need anger. So, I can’t do cozy. I can’t do romance. I mean, I do romance, but I can’t do HEA. This anger does not guarantee an HEA. A Heartweaver's brand isn't "I write women's fiction" or "I write emotional fantasy." It's "I write books about women who make the best decisions they can with the resources they have been given and it’s messy as hell." The genre is the container. The emotion is the fuel. If your brand promise doesn't make you feel something deep and a little scary every time you sit down to write, it's not deep enough. Dig until you find the wound. That's where your stories live. And that's what your reader comes back for — not your tropes, not your subgenre, not your cover aesthetic. She comes back because you make her feel seen in a way no other author does. When you lose touch with that wound — when life gets chaotic and your emotions are everywhere and you can't find the thread — your writing stalls. Not because you forgot how to write. Because you disconnected from the why. The fix isn't discipline. It's reconnection.

Wildscribes need the EXPERIENCE to fuel them. Not the theme, not the genre, not the character type — the sensory experience of being inside the story. Their brand promise lives in what their reader FEELS while reading, not after. It's the car chase, the first kiss in the rain, the moment the floor drops out. A Wildscribe's brand isn't "I write thrillers." It's "I write books that make your heart race and your hands shake." If the experience of writing the book doesn't physically excite the Wildscribe — if she doesn't feel it in her body — she'll leave. Her brand has to make her want to LIVE inside the story. The genre doesn't matter as long as the experience is there. A Wildscribe can write romance or horror or literary fiction as long as every scene has movement, sensation, and a reason to stay in the chair. When she gets bored or overwhelmed, she's gone. So her brand promise has to be the thing that never steers her wrong.

Mythmakers need the PUZZLE to fuel them. Their brand promise lives in the complexity — the plot architecture, the connections readers won't see coming, the "holy shit, that was planted in chapter 3" moment in chapter 27. A Mythmaker's brand isn't "I write fantasy" or "I write sci-fi." It's "I write books where nothing is what it seems and everything connects." The genre is secondary to the intellectual challenge. A Mythmaker can write mysteries, thrillers, epic fantasy, science fiction — anything where the architecture IS the art. But here's the Mythmaker trap: they think their brand is their SYSTEM. It's not. Your brand isn't your launch strategy or your marketing funnel, your keyword research, or how well you and only you know the genre. Your brand is the promise your reader gets: "this author will make me think, surprise me, and reward me for paying attention." If your current series doesn't challenge you intellectually anymore, you'll abandon it for the next shiny puzzle. So your brand has to be broad enough to contain your curiosity but specific enough that your reader knows what she's getting.

Lorekeepers need the MISSION to fuel them. Their brand promise lives in reliability and impact — they want to know that their books are doing something meaningful and that the effort has a measurable return. A LoreKeeper's brand isn't just genre and character type, though those matter to them more than the other archetypes. It's "I write books that deliver a consistent, satisfying experience every single time." Their readers trust them because a LoreKeeper NEVER delivers something unexpected. That's both the strength and the trap — the LoreKeeper's brand promise works until the market shifts around her and she keeps delivering what used to work. Her brand fuel is knowing that her books matter to a specific reader who counts on her. When she loses sight of that reader — when the numbers replace the person — she loses her fuel. So her brand has to be anchored to a real reader she can picture, not just a demographic or a sales target. She needs to know WHO she's writing for, not just WHAT she's writing.

How the Fuck Do I Get This into My Author Engine?

To find your brand, you need to keep asking why until you get an answer that resonates. Challenge any answer that feels easy. When you find an answer that scares you a little, you’ve got it.

Then ask yourself, does this:

1. Inspired

2. Energy

3. Focus

4. Learn what it takes to craft

But it’s not quite that simple.

Heartweavers, look for your heart wounds. What did the younger version of you need while growing up? What are you healing through? Who do you need to be to shelter the younger version of you? Make this a battle cry. Create a poster of it. Plaster it on the walls of the safe place you’ve made for yourself and when you’re feeling low, you yell that call into your own space.

Wildscribes, look for the experiences that made you feel the most alive or the things you never quite got to experience for yourself. Where are you going in your life? What do you need to learn, to experience, to keep alive in order to get there? That’s your brand. Make it a sign you put next to the door over the light switch so you see it every day you flee. Stop running from it, sweetie.

Mythmakers, what is the problem you most deeply want to solve? Don’t tell me you’re thinking small. I know you’re not. You want to shape the world. Great. How? Why? Where? When? What’s your solution? What pattern do you see that no one else does? That’s your brand, baby. That’s your brand. Now, for fuck’s sake, stop veering off.

Lorekeepers, look for the bridge between your interest, what you read, what you enjoy—because, sweetie, you are an ingredient that matters in this formula—and find a profitable niche to make your bed in. You’re gonna be right here for a long while, so make sure it’s something you really enjoy. And then keep reading the market as it fluctuates. You don’t have to move with every trend, but be aware when the trends become tropes.

Where To Start

Write down:

1. What you like to write in genre, mood, and tropes. And write down why you love them.

2. What characters do you like to write and why?

3. What matters to you. Go back to your archetype(s) to figure out what questions to ask. If you’re a hybrid, ask the questions from both archetypes because you’re not just one or the other. You’re both.

Post your result in the comments — tell me what matters to you and what your brand is being built around.

Burn the bookmill. Build your author engine.