Anybody who’s been in a writing community or critique group for any length of time has had to deal with the inevitable people who are more than ready to deliver a swift death to their fellow writers’ dreams. Let’s take a few real life examples here. A friend of mine was working on a vampire novel several years ago (around 2002), before the big craze hit. Somebody at her writing group told her repeatedly and very harshly that she was wasting her time, because vampires were a dead genre and would never sell.
In the same writing community, I was told by another person that the urban fantasy novel I was working on was unoriginal because it featured a woman hunting (psychic) vampires for vengeance. According to her, I was writing a Laurell K. Hamilton rip-off, and anyway, nobody else could make a “breakout” in vampire fiction since she’d already done that with her book.
Right. See how accurate that was. 
Where the hell do these people get off? (Not literally. I don’t even want to think about that, thank you very much! 
) These aren’t even “the rules.” These are unilateral declarations of what will and will not sell. Here’s the problem with that. Not even the agents know what will sell. Yes, they have a better idea than writers, that’s for sure, but how many stories have you heard about authors who were told repeatedly by industry professionals that their book wasn’t saleable for whatever reason — and then went on to become a best-seller?
This isn’t to say that everything is saleable, because that’s not the case. It rarely is determined by pure subject matter, though (outside of genre restrictions), and more upon how well the writer pulls it off. Let’s say there’s some writer talking about her romance featuring elven ninja pirates in New York. The idea sounds totally implausible and unlikely to sell.
But, is it my place to take this woman aside and tell her she should work on something else? If she is obviously passionate about it, why not let her continue to write the story in peace? Maybe it won’t sell. But selling is not the end-all, be-all of writing. Sometimes we write stories not for other people, but for ourselves — and sometimes stories that will never see print are important for us to write, maybe to learn about writing, or maybe to learn something about ourselves.
What do you think? Is this behavior a “favor” to new writers, or is it an active detriment?
November 21st, 2007 at 12:51 pm
Dude…they’re elven assassins not ninjas. And I’m totally serious.
I’ve given up on listening to the rules. They get my back up. And I have totally given up on following ‘what will sell’ or ‘why this latest project of yours WON’T sell.’
Then again, I like odd subject matter, and twisting conventional themes. So maybe I’m not the best voice to be answering this thread. Maybe I’m the very person who should be listening to The Rules and writing formula books. *shrug* I’m much happier the way I am
November 21st, 2007 at 4:03 pm
It’s a definite detriment. Even to a writer who ISN’T a beginner, it’s a detriment because no one should try to shoot down another’s ideas. (But again, it’s all in the way you “word” a response…)
Instead, the more encouraging thing to do (if you have the patience and you have an idea) is to help the writer improve her idea. That’s why I only critique stories I’m interested in–I fully realize I’m not going to do a writer any good if I don’t even like their writing to begin with. So I make it easy for both of us.
November 21st, 2007 at 11:39 pm
I don’t know. Every time I start focusing on “what will sell” I start writing crap.
It isn’t my place to say anything. I’ll give an opinion like perhaps trying to sell the Elven assassins to Harlequin Presents is a questionable action BUT again what do I know?
It all confuses me anyway.