Sunday 14 December 2014

Never tailor your writing to what will sell...

Done, and done. No chance of writing things that people would want to buy. Good golly no. Who would want that?

When I saw this today on a passing tweet I thought, Yeah. That's me. Not a sellout.

My next thought was, I wish I knew what would sell so I could write it.

Subsequent thoughts centered on all the things that I would buy if I could sell millions and zillions of books.

But then I thought sadly of all the unlikeable characters doing unlikeable things that wouldn't have a voice if I didn't lend it to them.

Money - unlikeable characters. Money - unlikeable characters.

Look, it's not as though I'd actually be putting them to death or anything. I'm not a murderer. It's just that I wouldn't be breathing life into them. More like the morning-after pill than an infanticide.

I do like money as well. Or, at least, I like the things that I'd buy with it. The lots and lots and lots of things. But I don't want to be greedy. Even just a house would be nice. Just a little itty-bitty holiday house on a beachfront somewhere with lots of sun. I'm easy to please, really.

Hmmmmmmm?

No. Still bamboozled by the not-knowing what will sell.

Another mini-argument that ends up going nowhere.

Tell you what. I'll write about my unlikeable characters, doing unlikeable things, and maybe next year that'll be the thing that's selling.

Win-win.

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