This is a trend I can get behind

The topic of YA Lit Chat on Twitter a couple weeks ago was trend in YA. I participated in a small chunk of the chat, but left early once I realized:

Why am I spending time talking about trends instead of writing?

Anyone who reads can recognize certain trends rolling through books, YA or otherwise. You may notice a rash of steampunk suddenly, or be overwhelmed by the number of Jane Austen odes on the bookstore shelves. One doesn’t need to be an avid reader to know vampires are big.

It is tempting to want to write a certain kind of story after seeing similar ones become so popular. There is that initial rush of oh! people love werewolves right now…if I write werewolves, I will be IN!

Yeah…it doesn’t work like that, for many reasons.

First off: publishing is slow. Glaciers make the publishing industries look like bullet trains. By the time one writes a book, finds representation, finds a publisher, goes through rounds of edits, waits for the design team to do their thing, blah, blah, blah….and the book finally makes it to the shelves, the trend ship has long sailed. Your book releases and you suddenly find yourself in a world where nobody cares about werewolves anymore. Your poor little book hunkers down on the shelf, making a permanent home for itself, while books about midget superheroes and functional families are being sold like hotcakes.

Secondly: market saturation. If there are 167 sasquatch novels on the shelves, why would you want to add #168? Wouldn’t you rather add something new, something fresh? Something original? I know I would. I also know that agents and publishers always have their eyes open for fresh new writing. What editor out there is going to want to pick up a book that is remarkably similar to one they already have on their list?

Number Three: Passion shows through in writing. When I read a book I can tell if a writer was passionate about her characters, her story, her work. When a writer is passionate about her book, that radiates off the pages and makes the book so much better. When a writer starts writing something just because they think it is the next big thing! that passion is just not there. And as a reader, I can sense that.

Now, don’t get me wrong here. While I don’t think anyone should try to write to trends, I also don’t think anyone should shy away from what they want to write because it is a trend. Strong new voices shine through every day, and you should never be scared to write what you want. Write the book you love, and work as hard as you can to make it great.

Okay, okay…I am almost done. One final thought on trends: in 1997, teenage girls did not know they wanted a movie about a sinking ship. But they did. They wanted it over and over again.

That is all.