Wednesday W&W: Myths About Authors

Many of you have seen this post before. I published it a while ago over at Ethan Stone’s blog, but unfortunately, due to a strange snafu, it has been deleted. I have decided to post it here again today, mostly out of laziness, but also because I think it bears repeating.

Myth #1: Writers don’t care if their story is unique or not. They just want to make money, and will rehash any tired old trope to do it.

Fact: Every writer feels their story is unique in some way. No author ever says, “Today, I’ll write a cookie-cutter GFY novella.” That’s not how our brains work.

Don’t get me wrong. I see where this idea comes from. Having come from a fantasy background, I used to feel the same way. I got to the point where I thought I’d puke if I read another ‘coming-of-age while on a magic quest’ story. Let me guess? The boy (either an unappreciated younger son of the king, or an unwitting heir-in-exile who’s been raised by sheepherders) sets out on a stallion, carrying a sword, wearing a cloak, traveling across a dangerous land while eating stew, falling in love with the plucky young heroine, and eventually saving the world from the treacherous evil wizard (whose motive was rarely understood by anybody) and claiming his throne? Gee, what a surprise.

Here’s the thing, though. If I could talk to that author, I bet she’d say, “Yes, but look! The dwarves don’t have beards and the elves aren’t archers! The evil wizard didn’t wear black, and the horse was actually a gelding! See how I made that unique?”

In a perfect world, a beta reader or her agent or her editor would have said, “Hey honey, how about if we do away with the stew this time?” Or, “Wouldn’t it be ever more practical if they had actual coats, with sleeves, instead of cloaks?” If those things had happened, the book would have been a lot better. But honestly, no author sets out intending to create something formulaic. It may be that we get so caught up in some other aspect of the storyline (like the romance between said prince and heroine) that we sort of forget to explain why exactly the wizard is evil and how he manages to have all of those minions when he kills his followers left and right, but at no point did we intend to turn out a crappy product. If the book sucks, it’s because we failed. Not because we didn’t care.

Myth #2: Writers chase the market.

Fact: I think this myth is complete and utter bullshit. Every person who writes a vampire book is not chasing the Twilight market, and I might just punch the next person who says so.

Do books seem to come in waves (ie, tons of YA vampire books following the success of a certain one)? Of course. But it’s NOT because authors are chasing the market.

Let me see if I can explain:

When I was a kid, I read and re-read the novelizations of the three original Star Wars movies over and over and over again. I knew them back to front, top to bottom. It might have been my one and only foray into anything that even remotely resembles fanfic, because I had two characters I’d added (both me, of course), and I had whole chapters set aside for me. I spent a ridiculous amount of time clarifying each little point of the plot and where I was at the time. And from that, I began to spin my own story.

For probably the next five years (we’re talking approximately age 11-16 here), I had dreams of writing a sci-fi story about a rakish scoundrel smuggler and his teenage sister, and their adventures far, far away. It wasn’t Star Wars. It was actually a much more brutal, post-apocalyptic kind of world, but the elements were certainly still there. Yet at no point did I think, “Boy, I could really cash in on George Lucas’ market!” It was simply that Han Solo piqued my interest and made my imagination kick into gear.

The same thing happens now. Maybe some author is reading A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court, and her teenage daughter is watching the Twilight movies on repeat, and her sister calls to report the sky is falling, and the next thing this author knows, she’s writing about a vampire time-traveler who has to save her sister from Merlin and his werewolf cronies and get back to Nevada in time to serve dinner.

So, is she chasing the Twilight market? Or the Mark Twain market? Or the Arthurian market?

Give me a break. The truth is, she’s not chasing any market at all. She’s simply writing the story that’s beating itself to death against the walls inside her head in its wild effort to escape onto the page. Does it seem like the author is simply copying what’s already been done? Maybe. But believe me, the author is doing her absolute damnedest to make it original. (See Myth #1)

Now, Is there some author somewhere in the world who is chasing the market? Probably. But he/she is in the vast, VAST minority. For most of us, we’re simply writing the story that comes to us. We may be inspired by what we read or what we see, which in part explains the fact that certain styles or genres seem to come in waves, but I have never, EVER heard an author who actually said, “Oh, I’ll write X just because it sells.” The simple truth is, most writers don’t have the time or the inclination to scour the market in search of trends, and even if we did, by the time we wrote the story and sold it, the trend would be over.

The flip side of this of course is that there IS a market. And you know who chases it? PUBLISHERS! So while we may suddenly be seeing an onslaught of YA vampire novels hitting the shelves, the reason isn’t because all of those authors wanted to cash in on Stephanie’s work. It’s because suddenly YA vampires are hot, and the publishers want a piece of that pie, so they accept more of those submissions than they would have before. In my experience, writers don’t give a flying fuck what sells. They only want to finish their damn book and turn off the voices screaming inside their heads so they can finally get some sleep.