I knew I had a blog this week for Talia (she was good enough to let me rest from the nasty bugs I’ve got the past few weeks). What to write about? Now that stumped me this time and I’m going to use the reason *cough excuse cough* of being sick and not being able to work out. Seems ideas (along with characters) come to me when I’m on the treadmill or bike.
Anyway, I was sitting on the couch scrolling through Facebook and came across Calvin & Hobbes. I LOVE that cartoon and decided to spend some time reading quotes from Calvin & Hobbes – hey, I was braindead from being sick. Well, it turns out those two came through for me. As I was chuckling and reading the quotes, I figured it out.
You see, earlier in the day I was interviewed by J. Scott Coatsworth and Angel Martinez for Queer Sci Fi since MLR just released the first in the new Storming Love series and this one is science fiction based – Meteor Strikes…but I digress. In addition to the series, they were asking me about editing and MLR in general. And they asked me a version of the question that I seem to be asked the most: what theme do you see too much of and what do you think will be the next ‘hot’ theme?
These two questions are always the hardest for me to answer. I mean really? For reader A there can never be enough doctor stories but if reader B sees one more they’re going to scream. That’s for every theme out there. And ‘hot’ theme? I think that’s so cyclical it’s not funny.
What should you take away from this? Don’t pay attention to what’s popular right now. Write your story the way that you want to whether it’s vampires, mummies, a baker or a rock star. Only you can tell the story that you’re meant to tell. Because if you write your story well, self-edit it before sending it to your editor, work through edits, and release a well-written story with compelling characters, chances are that readers are going to want to read your story.
Now, I’m not guaranteeing that if you do all those steps that you’re going to make a gazillion dollars on your story. It’s hard for most authors to be full-time writers. I applaud those that can make a living from their writing.
On the cruel reality of commercial art:
Hobbes: Van Gogh would’ve sold more than one painting if he’d put tigers*** in them.
On the tragedy of hipsters:
Calvin: The world bores you when you’re cool.
***Kris’ note – or vampires or ghosts or werewolves or rock stars or cops or…you get the idea.