A month-long novel-planning challenge with prizes galore. |
āThe artist cannot look to others to validate his efforts or his calling. If you don't believe me, ask Van Gogh, who produced masterpiece after masterpiece and never found a buyer in his whole life.ā ā Steven Pressfield, The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks & Win Your Inner Creative Battles Hello Professor Dra-Q-La, Iād suggest reading the above book. Itās pretty fantastic, and deals extensively with overcoming our inner doubts as artists. Anyway, when it comes to Hallmark Stories . . . theyāre so not my cup of tea. And they arenāt for most writers. A great example is Stephen King, not only is he a niche writer, his stories often end badly for all involved. Many of his books, when taken to Movies, have the endings reworked into that sort of Hallmark everything is okay ending. Trust me, the books end harshly on occasion. And they donāt hold a candle to his short stories. Almost all of those turn out bad for the characters. Finding a niche is important because almost all readers are niche readers. Once you establish your audience, theyāll be upset if you stray from their niche to try something radically different. As for Greek Gods, thereās an audience for that. The Percy Jackson novels show thereās a younger audience, and Sherrilyn Kenyon Dark Hunter series (with easily over 20 novels) features the Greek Gods set in our day an age, and how that messes up the lives of us poor mortals. These books mingle romance with mythology, and she doesnāt waste time talking down to her audience. The point Iām trying to make is to go with your heart. As an artist, itās vital we tell the truth. Not the hard truth of two plus two, but the truth of our hearts. When we stray from that truth, and start looking and mimicking whatās popular to fit in, we lose ourselves. More importantly, we lose our audience. Readers can spot a faker from a mile away. My novel is going to mix gay romance with a zombie apocalypse, will my audience be huge? Probably not. But thatās the book in my heart, and itās the story I plan to tell. |