I don’t know about other writing teachers and coaches, but the first thing I ask my students is why have you picked that genre?
Most of the time, the response is because their romance fans or always loved mysteries. However, sometimes I hear these words…it’s the hottest genre right now and I’ll sell a lot of books.
That might happen, assuming you get published. Even then, it could be two years before a book is acquired and published, especially if you’re with one of the bigger publishing houses.
My golden rule is never write to fads because what’s hot to today is cold tomorrow. Writing a book isn’t easy, writing the type of story you wouldn’t read is just making it harder on yourself.
Your favorite genre is the one you should be writing in. Well, at least when you start out. You’ll have an appreciation for the genre, you’ll know from being an avid reader, what works and what doesn’t so it cuts down on the learning curve. And are you really going to stick with writing a story, that if truth be told, you sort of hate?
When I switched to writing romances, my first instinct was to pen a Harlequin category story. Confession time, I’d read just a handful of them. That was only because my maternal grandmother used to bring four or five Mills and Boon books with her every time she came to stay with us. I think in the back of my mind I wanted her to read one with my name on it.
I struggled to get things right. Fast forward a couple of years, I never got it right because the storylines they published didn’t fit the sort of plots I liked to create. If I would have been honest with myself sooner, then I probably would have been published sooner too. It was a hard lesson to learn and that’s why I push the issue with my students.
So, are you writing the right book for you?