Sunday, June 10, 2012

Brand Name Dropping

Your female character loves Manolo Blahnik and Jimmy Choo shoes, and she'd never be caught dead without her Louis Vuitton bag and her gigantic DG sunglasses.

Good for you. You've added some realistic--and utterly lazy--details to your piece.

When you drop brand names like these into your writing, it reveals more about you than it reveals about your characters. It shows what you consider to be important.

I hope you're aware of the idea that products and brands don't signify anything about a person's discernment, value or class. But there's a bigger problem with brand-name-dropping: It shows that you're willing to use lazy shortcuts instead of real description.

The Sex In the City concept has been done, and the world is now drowning in brand-cognizant television, books and movies. Don't be tempted. Don't be as trite and shallow as the characters you're trying to script.