I'm a selfish writer. I am. I write my weird stories for myself, then often submit them, and low and behold, they, more often than not, get accepted. But guess what? I'd like to make some money doing this. Not out of greed. If I could write and make a semi-decent living (pay some bills, eat, etc.) that would be sweet. Only thing is, my type of weird tales don't get consistently published in the wage-earning press houses.
So...
I certainly don't care for storytelling by committee, but I tend to be in a groove within my preferred genre. Should I take my fiction darker? More lighthearted? Stranger? More modern? Less modern? More surrealistic? I'm just curious about what you might think. Really curious. A bit of curiosity demographics.
So...
I'd cherish some input. What really gets your attention? What would you lay money down for in a story? What makes your heart race in a story? What entertains you and makes you want more? I know these answers for myself, but I'm curious about you.
Please join my secret non-committee and leave a comment. Thanks.
I'm probably not the best person to give advice about making your writing more marketable. I tend to write what interests me and then look for a market to match it. Sometimes it works out and sometimes it doesn't. Either way I end up with material for my novels and collections.
ReplyDeleteYou could go the franchise route and line up work for hire doing gaming related novels (D&D, Warhammer etc) or you could write whatever your muse inspires you. Whichever you choose, you've got a God-given talent that you've honed through perseverance and I'll be looking forward to reading your next story, novel or collection.
Thanks Joel!
Deletewhat gets my attention, loyal readership and twenty or thirty hard earned bucks per book is the ability of fiction writer that can capture, resonate with and inspire my soul. I love weird, crazy tales that also have human element to them. so it really doesn't mater if the story is too surreal, bizarre, or dark in nature as long as it is balance with an insight to the readers humanity. A good example of this would be Stephen king's Hearts in Atlantis. It's kind of tame by kings standards but it has that perfect harmony of the supernatural and compassion (who would of thunk a conservative guy like me would appreciate compassion?). so the writers that I know of that can do that are part teacher, philosopher, historian, inventor, psychologist and intellectually honest wordsmith. (that's a not a tall order that's a venti order, are you up to the challenge?)
ReplyDeleteGood stuff Pat, thanks!
ReplyDelete