Walk your writing down the runway

LEARNING FROM FASHION SHOWS

Image by Chalo Garcia

I used to throw get togethers at my downtown apartment. To set the vibe, I’d run a Lana Del Ray playlist on low volume and have seasons of fashion shows playing back to back to back silently on my big screen.

The shows were always a conversation starter, and when friends hit me up about it today, they ask “when are you having another runway party?”

Other than being naturally curious about all art, I often wonder why the runway is so interesting to me. But when I really think about it, it makes so much sense, and it all connects to who I am as a writer.

Because when I write, I’m designing a piece. I’m stitching together words so they fit the imagination like a sleek, black dress. I’m strutting my words on the page asking for silent nods of validation.

But it goes deeper than that.

The way runways work (generally speaking), there’s wearable fashion, high fashion, and haute couture. Wearable is where you find your streetwear clothing, the stuff you can take from the runway and wear it casually to brunch or to go to work. High fashion is a bit more luxurious, with pieces designed to be more of an expression of art than something wearable. That’s not at all to say that you can’t wear high fashion pieces, but because of price and style, think of high fashion pieces as special occasion fashion.

Then there’s haute couture. These are the exclusive, one-of-one pieces that are sewn completely by hand. These pieces are only for a specific crowd who have the money and the access to purchase them, but they’re still shown on the runway for all to see.

When I think of my writing, I see so many similarities to the runway and fashion, more broadly.

Fashion at its core is about expression, experimentation, and commercialization. All of these elements are present on the runway and writing incorporates the same three principles.

Wearable fashion represents the commercialization. It transforms the artistic ideas of a designer into a handbag or purse, into a pair of jeans you can purchase at Zara or a blouse or collared shirt you can grab off the wrack. As much as designers might not like the process of distilling their ideas into something sellable, without wearable fashion, there would be no houses for designers to create from because they wouldn’t be able to sustain themselves financially.

I personally believe that commercialization is the hardest part. As a writer, these are my novels. These are my books written in hopes of connecting to the widest audience possible. I want readers pulling my books off shelves, physical and digital, like they pull clothes off of hangers.

When I put my of books on the runway, I need to give readers a reason to buy into my story. That’s why I put so much thought into my titles. My title is like a calling that gives readers a glimpse of what they can expect inside. I think of book covers in a similar manner. Does it speak to the readers I’m trying to attract? Is it designed to stop a potential reader from scrolling and attract enough attention for them to click on the link or flip to the back to read the description?

My books are my sleek black dresses. It’s made for all occasions and speaks to the widest audience.

But there’s high fashion writing, also. Writing where you care about the community you’re building, but you’re not so caught up in anyone outside of that community. You’re writing exactly what you want to write without apology and without concern for how others outside of that community interpret or react to the writing.

My high fashion writing is this newsletter. My Substack combines my love of pop culture with my love of writing and my mission to help other writers understand their value. If other readers find value in the themes and expressions, great! If they don’t, great! It’s not for them, it’s for you.

This Substack is where I feel comfortable experimenting, which is one of the three principles we mentioned earlier. I write pieces about why writers should get shoe deals. I write about musicians like Tupac and Lana Del Rey and their connection to my craft. This is joyful creativity in motion; high fashion, yes, and so when I send these pieces down the runway, I don’t expect everyone to get it. But that’s exactly what makes this space so liberating; I don’t need everyone to get it.

My haute couture writing is mostly for myself. It’s where all of my experimentation happens before it turns into anything else. It’s the super-wonky novel ideas. It’s coming up with new platforms for writers or thinking about creative ways to use my writing ability to create something else, something other.

Most of you reading this will never see my haute couture writing, at least not in its original form. Some derivative will likely seep into one of my novels or maybe even this newsletter, but my the raw ideas are for myself and a select few. That’s how it works for me.

And some form of this can work for you too. Your writing needs all three elements of the runway. You need the commercialization to keep the lights on while expression and experimentation are the thread that ignites and sustains your creativity. You need some combination of wearable, high fashion and couture. This is how we build careers. This is how we become superstars.

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Thanks for reading. I see a lot of you here are new and I’m so grateful and excited.

Feel free to check out some of my more popular posts:

Let’s Give Miley Cyrus Her Flowers

News is where the money’s at

Trend alert: writing isn’t enough

I’ve also just released a FEAR GUIDE journal for writers. Check that out here.

As always, thank you for being here and don’t be afraid to hop in the comments or send me an email. I love talking about writing + publishing + pop culture.