Does it matter?
It shouldn't. Because your goal in writing should not be to strike gold (or miss big) with whatever happens to be the current trend. Your goal should be to write what you write - and to write it well.
Do this.
When you do, you'll find your way. You'll be a unique voice shouting out in a wilderness of sameness. You'll make your mark.
Write what you write!
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Now it's zombipocalypse dystopian steampunk. Nobody knows why. But New York has spoken. Corporate guys in suits know what everybody is going to read, because they're going to publish a lot of it--and when people see a lot of something, they figure they'll be left out if they don't buy it.
ReplyDeleteI think people who write very, very fast, and write in a popular genre (esp. the YA version) can sometimes catch a wave of popularity. But at what price? I agree it needs to be something you love to begin with. Because if it stays popular, you're going to have to write a lot of it.
On the other hand, if you write something deemed "dead" like westerns, cozies, family sagas, gothic suspense, or romantic comedies, you're ***t out of luck. Unless you indulge in a little literary necrophilia and self-publish.
This article makes me chuckle to myself because I love epic fantasy, but I can't write it. Maybe one day.
ReplyDeleteI'm working on a fantasy with a western twist. Other than Stephen King's Dark Tower series I don't know of anyone else that had put a fantastical twist on the western genre. Recently, two of my favorite fantasy authors (Joe Abercrombie and Brandon Sanderson) both announced their next books would be fantasies with a western twist. I almost trashed the novel I've been working on. I did relent because I'll be doing something different than what they're doing.
I just deleted my comment because I may have offended some others who stumble upon this post. So, I'll just say thanks.
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ReplyDeleteI also deleted my previous comment but only because it is 6 am and my fingers are so cold that I can't type properly. Roll on summer!
ReplyDeleteI suspect that the comment that Paul deleted contained a host more interesting words than thanks, but alas, now we'll never know.
A while ago our stationery shop come book shop come CD shop was stocked to the brim with vampire novels (actually it still is, come to think of it) and it certainly seems as if they ride the bandwagon until it crashes and burns (and by they I mean the people who supposedly know what everyone wants to read).
Before Stephenie Meyer wrote Twilight, vampires were quite literally dead and so I really think we should just all write what we write best, as JM quite rightly says, and get on with it. Who knows, we may just be the front runners of the next hype or then maybe not, but at least we enjoyed what we wrote and did it for ourselves.
What writing era whould you call our's today? I mean anything and everything goes.
ReplyDeleteWriting is not publishing. Coming late to this party and admittedly, never on the initial guest list....I am not privy to this idea that the purpose of writing is to publish. In academia (and the reason I ran as fast from academic medicine as possible) is the mantra: publish or perish. I just wanted to practice medicine. Likewise, I tote around in my head several narrative threads. I have written the first full length novel. Would I love to get it published? Hell yeah. Would I love for someone to read it and love my characters.... absolutely. But just the process of writing is spectacular. To intentionally write in anticipation of what a buying reader might prefer is suicide. Write your own story and be true to your own creative energy. And don't take yourself too seriously.
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