WHO'S TO SAY WHAT'S A TREND?

Posted by: Genene Valleau
Current project: edits on a novella
Mood: Happy and productive (just not necessarily on writing!)

Me writing about trends is quite laughable. For as long as I can remember--and that's a very long time--I've been out of step. The only girl in a household of brothers and male cousins. The only female in cheerleading tryouts who didn't wear a short skirt. One of three people on the planet who have never watched reality TV.

All this doesn't mean I haven't yearned to be "like everyone else" at times nor did it keep me from making some dumb mistakes because I wanted to fit in.

However, I've never really anguished over whether to write to trends. Or maybe that's because I write fairly slow and realized by the time I finished a book, the "current" writing trend would be a tattered paperback selling for ten cents at a garage sale.

I gravitate more toward classics that don't go out of style: jeans and comfy shoes, suit jackets and tailored shirts, stories of people who overcome emotional trauma on the way to their happily-ever-after.

Interestingly enough, I've become bolder as I've gotten older. My suit jackets aren't all neutral colors. The heroes in my stories don't always have six-pack abs.

And I've met more people who don't follow trends, which may be a trend in itself. Though all people may have some experiences in common such as birth, death and paying taxes--we are all individuals with different tastes in all areas of our lives, including reading.

What a boon for writers! E-book publishers especially seem to be open to stories that don't fit neatly into one category or subgenre. I like the idea that there may be a market for stories like Minnette's "romantic paranormal sci-fi fantasy comedy children's book where the protagonist is a wizard, the bad guy is a gun-toting detective, and the heroine captains a spaceship full of six-year-olds who talk to dead people." (See Minnette Meador's post on April 9.)

What's the most out-of-the-ordinary story you've ever read or imagined writing?

Who knows? Maybe someday I'll write an autobiography about an old lady who wears purple and red and writes trend-setting stories in a dozen new sub-genres that sell at auction for millions of dollars. :)