Studying the Market: Then and Now (Part I)

When I first started writing, researching the publishing market meant this:

1. Going into a bookstore on the way home from school.

2. Scanning the shelves of the YA section, especially the books on special displays that were selling REALLY well. (I was already reading blogs at that time, and I knew I needed to get a sense of what was out there. I didn’t want to walk into the writing world wearing a blindfold.)

3. Looking at covers, reading book blurbs and the first few sentences of the first pages.

4. Drawing conclusions. (Note: At the time I wasn’t paying much attention to writing style and that stuff yet. This was probably a good thing since it can be overwhelming, and the important thing then was to start writing.)

Results: The most popular YA books had 3 things: (Yes, it was that easy! Lol)

Ready?

….

I. Death/murder, or at least the threat of one or the other.

II. Romance (the more impossible, the better.)

III. Something special about the main character. (Ability, circumstances, etc.)

I headed home with my newfound knowledge, but if just made me sad and dragged me down. What if I didn’t want to write about any of those things? In fact, knowing that I should probably try to write about them made me want to write about them even less.

Blogs were saying: Write the novel you want to read. Write the novel you want to write.

I abandoned my research. I was going to write the story I wanted to.

TIME TIME TIME TIME TIME TIME

A year and a half later, I’ve written a novel that has: death and murder, and the threat of both, as well as romance and a special main character. I never forced the story to bend so that it would include those aspects. But it did. I had even forgotten about my “research.” Weird? Maybe. It’s possible that on a subconscious level those elements stuck with me.

So my advice here is: Don’t force your novel to follow a trend, but Do observe the market.

How about you? Do you study the market? What kind of novels do you write?

How to Avoid Writing-related Panic Attacks

I’ve noticed in the writing blogosphere that a lot of us have bouts of elated “this is the best book ever written” as well as many “nobody will ever like this, I don’t even know why I bother, I’m gonna wipe it all off my computer to spare others the misery” moments. If you’re ever experiencing any of the common writer ailments, please scan down the list for easy fixes.

1) Everybody wants to be a writer, there’s so much competition, what are my chances? Well, if you visit writing blogs, it is easy to feel like everybody wants to be a writer, but you have to remember that it’s mostly because those are the people you talk to. Think of people you’ve actually met. How many of them are writers? Not all that many. Try to keep it in perspective.

2) My character just did something weird/my plot took an unplanned turn, why do I even bother to keep writing, this story will never work now. Remember—you can always, always edit later. It might seem catastrophic at the moment, but if you distance yourself from the particular problem for some time (hopefully by writing the rest of the book), you can always come back and snip, snip until you excise the problem, or remold the scene till it works with the rest of the story.

3) This is taking sooo long. This first draft/first edit/nth edit will NEVER end. Actually, as long as you keep writing a certain amount per day (no matter how little), you are bound to eventually complete your task. Sure, writing more per day will get it done faster, but either way it will eventually finish. Look back at how much you’ve already done. If you write a certain amount per day, estimate how long it will take and remember: it takes time to get a story down and that’s okay. It’s not a race.

4) I’m trying really hard to improve my writing, but the industry trades are changing all the time, different agents have opposing opinions, and even my crit buddies can’t agree on how my story should be changed! All of this may be true, but you have to keep in mind that it’s your story and that everybody has different opinions. Everybody will never agree exactly on what they dislike or like about it, and all of the advice out there will not always be applicable for you. You have to do what’s right for your story and characters, as well as what works for you as a writer.

5) That writer writes so much better than me, I’ll never be that good. You’re probably right. You won’t be that very same good, but you will be your own good. The writers you admire have written for years and years, and the strengths that you admire in them are probably your weaknesses. Which is what makes it interesting. If we all wrote exactly the same way, there won’t be as much variety. Write your own story, write it in your own unique way.

6) All the good ideas are already taken. If you boil it down to broad terms such as friendship, love, revenge, etc—then yes, all of the good ideas have been taken, and have been done over and over again. (Because they’re good!) But you can always add twists, and your own personal touches—the execution, the voice, the characters. In the end, it’s all about shedding new light on old concepts.

That’s all the ones I can think of for now. What problems and doubts do you have with your writing? And even more importantly, how do you deal with them?