Monday morning musings – Deciding what to write

I’ve seen this debate many times amongst aspiring authors and I’ve been there myself after I’d written several books and was trying to decide what to write next.

When deciding what story to write, the advice you’ll hear the most often is: You shouldn’t “write to the market” and that you should “write what you know”.

I agree with part of this.

Instead of writing what you know…write what you can imagine! This is so much more fun and gives you a much larger canvas to work with. There are tons of research resources out there, so don’t be afraid to tackle a subject if the storyline idea you want to write about really speaks to you. Use the resources and go forth!

Which brings me to the other part: Writing to the market. Did you know that books on the shelves today were bought eighteen months to two years before? If you write to the market, ie…try to write something like the popular books that are out there today, then you’re already behind the eight ball as far as what publishers might be looking for. So what’s an aspiring author supposed to do? Write the book that speaks to you. It might be on target with the market, or it might not be. But the point is you’ll enjoy every bit of the journey you take while creating your book…and that’s most important when you’re first starting out. Not to mention, your passion for your story will show in the delivery.

The writing business, just like any other career, can be tough, so give yourself permission to write that “book of your heart”. Let it flow out of you and enjoy, enjoy, ENJOY every minute of it! That way, if that book doesn’t sell and you end up working on something else, you can remember the reason WHY you started writing, especially if it takes a while for you to sell. But, if you stick with it, try new stories while you work to improve your craft and do your best to make connections (go to conferences, meet editors/agents, work with critique partners), then you WILL sell. And then, maybe down the road, you can pull out that old book you never sold…the one that spoke to your heart. By then, you’ll be an experienced writer and you’ll know how to ‘fix’ the newbie mistakes within it, so you can finally see that “special” story–the one that started your path to publishing–on the shelves, too. :yes: