Writing for the Masses...or for Yourself?

"Never, never try to scope the market. You've got to write what you're passionate about. Otherwise you'll produce juiceless, flavorless fiction." -Dean Koontz

 

I love this quote, and it was sent to me recently at a time when it was most needed. I just finished my latest novel (a supernatural suspense thriller) which was very different from my last novel (a technological thriller called Stolen Lives and coming out in just 39 days from River Oak!), and was wrestling with the idea of my next novel. For a long time, I'd had this idea in my head and tossed it around. The plot was there, the characters were there, and it had the potential to be a good novel. The problem? No one I talked to about the novel became nearly as excited about it as I did. Folks understood the concept I was presenting, and could see the possibilities with it, but it didn't light a fire in anyone so they had to say "Oh, I want to read that one!"

 

As I approached the final chapters of the supernatural thriller, I began to seriously consider the next book I would write. Would I press on with the idea I'd toyed with? With no other good ideas in mind, it seemed a given--but I'd lost the enthusiasm I'd once had for the book. My balloon had been deflated, and I was writing it more out of need than desire. I needed a new spark.

 

Then it came! I had an idea for a story so different I can honestly say it had never been done in Christian Fiction before. The more I thought about it, the more I liked it. And when I started researching it, everything I turned up gave me a little bit more fodder for the story. Soon my tiny seed of an idea had grown into a beautiful plot with some of the most exciting characters I've ever seen. This was good stuff!

 

My problem? As I said before, it has never been done before. It would be pushing the envelope in some areas (nothing dirty or anything...just opening a new door in Christian Thrillers/Horror), but I believe there's an audience out there for it. When I discreetly asked a few valued friends what they'd think about a book like it, they were thrilled and wanted to read it as the pages came out. That was what I was looking for!

 

So here I go, working hard on a novel that may be hard to sell to a publisher right off the bat...but it's got an audience and it's something I'm passionate about. The characters are fresh, the story is strong, and the protagonist is perhaps the creepiest you've ever seen. This is juicy fiction!

 

If you're trying to figure out a direction for a book, or if you're floundering over something you've written already, just remember you have to be true to yourself in what you write. Unless you're under contract to a publisher for a specific type of novel in a specific time frame, you have free reign and creativity in what you write! Go out there and push the limits (in a good way) and see what happens. Christian Fiction (and most any type of fiction now) is more open to new ideas than ever before. If the story thrills you when you think about writing it, I promise it will produce the same reaction in your readers when they read it. Write for yourself! Write with your pen on fire!

 

Powered By Qumana