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.