I’m going to be the contrarian and say “NEVER brand yourself”. Your brand is you. What you write will always be unique to you, no matter the topic, because over time you become confident in what you believe, in what you have to say about it, and how you choose to say it.

You don’t have to paint yourself in a corner in order to do that. You don’t have to keep writing about the same topics in order to get readers to follow you. You just have to be YOU.

Creative people are always looking to expand their talents and try something different. Artists do it, musicians do it, and so do writers. Choose any enduring writer and you’ll see they didn’t write the same stories over and over, even from different points of view. Unless they were writing series or sequels, they moved on. And because we know their voices and admire their style we’ll read almost anything they write, no matter which direction they take.

It’s the same with essayists or creative non-fiction writers. We follow them because we love how they see things — all kinds of things — and not because they’ve chosen a single topic and stuck with it. Most readers don’t want to have to read the same conversation over and over again. It becomes lazy writing, and over time what was once compelling becomes boring after so many retreads.

Have confidence in your voice and follow where it takes you. Each journey is a new one and you’ll be more interested, which in turn will make you more interesting.