The parallels between what company marketing teams do in creating brands and what fiction writers do in building worlds is a connection I’ve seen having travelled through both worlds.

A brand is a collection of ideas about what a company (or in modern times an individual) wants to be. It is more than logos and slogans. It is clearly stated messages. It is the font used in an email. It is the formality of language used by its representatives. A brand is based on values, goals, and plans. It is that exact shade of green. And it is a hundred other tiny details that are noted and collected and (in good companies) put into a brand book as a set of rules and guidelines for engaging their customers through business.

A fictional world-build is a collection of ideas about what a story wants to be. It is more than maps and place names. It is the feel of the place and how the seasons affect the characters who live and work there. It is the slang used by the residents. A world is populated by the hopes and dreams of everyone inside it. It is the interesting twists in the roads through the world. And it is a hundred other tiny details that are noted and collected into the files of the novelist as a set of rules and guides for traversing that world through story.

Personally, I’ve been doing a bit of both lately.