There’s a Venn intersection of writing themes going around the blogs in the last couple of months or so that I find absolutely fascinating.
A. The “write from your heart” blog roundup:
From Smart Bitches: “So if you needed inspiration today, make art! Write something. Don’t listen to anyone who tells you romance novels aren’t art – they are to me.”
I’m going to paraphrase that from “romance novels” to “romance that do not have anything in common with what’s on the bookshelves.”
B. The write what will make you a living.
From Dear Author: “Where have all the good contemporary romance authors gone?”
Well, you can read the thread and the answer to the question is: Midlist. There are a few names that keep cropping up, but those authors can only write so fast. The consensus seems to me to be that
A∩B
What the readers will actually read.
The question going around the writing world (at least for the last 50 years) is: What do readers want?
This is the wrong question.
The right question is: What will readers read and like if presented with it?
Likewise, there’s another Venn diagram of reading themes going around a few of the same blogs.
B. The “I want to read more of Y, but publishers aren’t putting that out.”
A∩B