So, I’ve been promising this blog for a few weeks but life has gotten in the way. Still, better late than never, or so they say… whoever they are.
But I digress.
For Father’s Day this year – and here in Australia, we celebrate Father’s Day on the first Sunday of September, unlike our friends in the Northern Hemisphere – my eldest daughter designed a t-shirt for me as you see pictured above, including the #TeamFloyd. She has been one of the most passionate supporters of my writing and knows how desperately I would love to turn it into a viable career.
So, how do these two elements fit together?
When I wrote my first novel, Discoveries, my daughter and my wife served as my alpha readers. Their role was to look for errors, plot holes, character inconsistencies or just plain bad writing. To their credit, they found lots of those problems and really helped shape and improve my first foray into the literary world. And for the most part, they agreed on the issues and their solutions.
Except for one.
The two of them had polar opposite opinions on the dragon, Floyd. And if you want to learn more about him, read the novels! No spoilers here. But in short, my wife loved him. My daughter hated him. In fact, she hated him to such an extent that she wrote comments along the lines of: ‘I’m sorry, Dad. I can tell you really like Floyd but…’
Well, let’s just say the feedback from there was not terribly effusive.
Now I was really stuck. I went very close to a total rewrite of a couple of chapters, removing Floyd entirely and finding another way to… Sorry, I’m still not offering any spoilers! But suffice to say, after much agonising and discussion, Floyd made the cut. Just.
The issues continued as I handed the improved (I thought) version of the novel to my beta readers. I had comments about Floyd that ranged from ‘…had me virtually cheering out loud…’ and ‘Floyd was criminally underused’ to ‘I think you need to revise the dragon’s character. It’s completely changed the tone the narrative and it’s quite jarring.’
Revise. Revise. Revise. And… Floyd made the cut. Again.
But having such a polarising character – this had to be a problem, right?
Wrong.
In the end, I figured if I have a character who gets people talking, disagreeing and passionate in this manner, I’m onto something unique. Something that makes my novel and my character stand out. And so, I need to hold onto this – even if it is going to irritate some of my readers. And I stand by that decision. Indeed, Floyd has become a much more important character with a much more complex backstory as a result of these reactions.
You can’t please everyone.
But this raises the question: if my daughter hates Floyd so much, why the t-shirt?
Well, I’m glad you asked. One of the in-jokes among my immediate family is that my wife is the President of Team Floyd while my daughter is in charge of the alternate group, Die, Floyd, Die! Indeed, Floyd is part of the fabric of our family now, such that my youngest daughter made a little ornament of him as a Christmas present and, while we were visiting Wales, we purchased a wooden windchime with a dragon who looks a great deal like Floyd. Thus, despite her misgivings about the character, my eldest daughter has recognised the value of including someone like Floyd, who makes people debate and demonstrate their passion.
And so, she came up with the brilliant idea of creating a hashtag, #TeamFloyd, on a t-shirt, so that people who saw the shirt would look up what it means when they see me wearing it. And my wife, my other daughter and several others have asked to get one as well. A brilliant marketing idea!
Except…
My daughter missed one thing. She did not check if #TeamFloyd might already be taken or be getting used by another company or group. An understandable mistake, but unfortunately I find myself competing with American promoter, Floyd Mayweather.
Ah, well. I only need another 7000 or so followers of #TeamFloyd before I might compete with him – and by that stage, I might even have made a career out of my writing. Who knows? One step at a time.
Are you on #TeamFloyd or #DieFloydDie? Let me know in the comments below – and if you’re feeling really inspired, tell me why!
And if you haven’t read about Floyd yet, get cracking! Purchase Book 1 Discoveries at https://www.amazon.com.au/gp/product/B086MY91BT?pf_rd_r=495W3X0W5YPXVP5RCQED&pf_rd_p=558ffe22-ad34-4ebc-a2bd-441cd3d357aa and Book 2: Disruptions at https://www.amazon.com.au/Disruptions-Dystopian-Fantasy-covering-Magicium-ebook/dp/B08CRKGN35/ref=pd_sim_351_1/358-4705297-1980467?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B08CRKGN35&pd_rd_r=2d15f391-4257-4c4b-8c07-fbe3fd6406cb&pd_rd_w=z6Wws&pd_rd_wg=5WLtP&pf_rd_p=dec5644e-0ad3-467a-97e1-8e4d6a4ec7c2&pf_rd_r=JRQYHET521Q7JN6B05FB&psc=1&refRID=JRQYHET521Q7JN6B05FB