Writing Life

One of the recurring writing debates involves chosing between writing the story that moves you and the story of the moment. Personally, I don't have enough range to write the story of the minute. Besides I don't know what the story of the minute is. I'm sure someone knows, there are market analysts, book brokers, buyers for the big bookstores, editors,and agents all with lots of information and the savvy to interpret said information into real world decisions. And even they fail to predict new trends with perfect accuracy.

Does this mean I should never slant a story for a particular market? Of course not, not if I want to sell the stories I write. And I do. For me it means there is no point in my jumping in young adult, vampires as romance heroes, fantasy worlds, or erotica. Are those hot markets? Maybe. Will they be hot markets two years dowm the road, when the story I'm working on now might actually be available for purchse? I can't even guess.

And that's my point about writing the story you want to tell.

Long before I ever thought of writing, I was an avid reader. I have new favorites, comfort reads, must buys and reward reads. What do they all have in common? Damn fine writing. For me, that means characters that live on after the final page has been read. There are those who read for plot. I've got nothing against plot, bring it on, but give me someone to care about in all that action or I won't bother turning those heavy heavy pages.