It is very easy as both a reader and a writer to get swept up into book trends and for our reading and writing habits to be dictated by them. First Chick-lit was everywhere, we all read it and wrote it. Then Young Adult was explosive and again, it was everywhere with all of us reading and writing it. Then it was Erotica and well… lather, rinse, repeat.
We read so much of it that we began to operate under the delusion that we could do it and we start to think: “I could write that”. I am guilty of that one too!
However, the problem with writing trends is that we end up chasing our tail. As we are reading our book in the current trend (fill in the genre blank), it is happening… trending… now. So we decide to write for the trend. First, we need to write the book (well), then find an agent and a publisher. This could take two to three years. Then 18 months to be published. And that is where the problem begins to become evident: time. Because, trends whether it be books, or clothes, or TV shows do not last forever.
By the time our book hits the shelf, there is a new trend in town and our book is alone on a crowded book shelf with more of the same. Instead of writing for the current trend, we need to write the book we have always wanted to write. We need to write the story that will not leave us alone. This is our story. Our shot. We need to make it our own.
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