What to Write if You Want to Get Published

 by Fran Hodgkins

The question is on every aspiring writer’s mind: What should I write so I can get published? After asking this, a lot of writers end up chasing trends based on what they see in the bookstore. “But books about talking pastry are hot!” complains Writer A. “Why isn’t anyone snatching up my manuscript ‘Cassie the Cowpoke Crossaint’?”

 

There may be many reasons. One of them could likely be that one book about talking pastry makes the best-seller list and leads to an editor’s or agent’s inbox exploding with baked-goods-related manuscripts.

 

Same for books about boy wizards, or dragons, or fairies. “That writer did it and caught a wave,” Writer B thinks. “I’ll do the same!” So Writer B sits down and writes about a boy who wants to be a wizard.

 

Sigh.

 

Trends = Sausages

 

You see, it’s hard to get published. It’s even harder if you write your manuscripts based on what’s hot now. (Remember, books come out a year to two years—maybe even more— after the contract is signed.) Writing to trends is like a cartoon dog chasing a string of sausages: You run and you run and for what? 

 

 

 

What you need to write is what you, and only you, can write.

 

 

 I have a good friend who has written several charming books about fairies. The books have done well and are still in print. In so many ways, they were the ideal books for my friend to write; she has a whimsy streak a mile wide. Could I have written a book about fairies? Perhaps. Would it have been charming and whimsical? Absolutely not. You see, in my family tradition, fairies were not something you encouraged to hang around in the yard or move into the house. No, the fae were spirits who could help you and harm you within the same minute. They were to be avoided, or if that was impossible, placated, not encouraged with the building of tiny doorways and miniscule fire pits. My family’s fae were more Scorpio Races than Tinkerbell —not exactly ideal picture-book material!

 

My suggestion is to look beyond the children’s book section in the bookstore. Look at your own to-be-read pile. Yes, the one teetering on your bedside table. What kind of books do you like to read? Historical fiction? Romance? Mystery? It doesn’t matter if the titles on your table are for an adult audience: they show what you enjoy, what you gravitate toward. If you have a stack of mysteries waiting for you, does that mean you shouldn’t try a writing a romantic YA or a compelling MG novel set in the 1960s? Of course not. But it does mean that you shouldn’t disregard writing what you love to read.

 

Think of it this way. If you were reading Anne McCaffrey and Ursula LeGuin when you were young, the elements of fantasy are in your bones. With every Dragonriders of Pern or Earthsea novel you read, you laid now another layer of quality writing — specifically, quality fantasy writing — on your bones, just as if they were the cells that make up your femurs and tibias and ribs. The rhythms and language and structures of these stories have become part of you. They’ve been there so long that they are practically instinctive. Put them to work. Start your story.

 

 The Story Only You Can Write

Start the story that only you can write. This is probably the hardest part of writing. Writing your own, unique story – now I’m not saying you have to write a story that divulges uncomfortable private secrets. What I mean is write the story that grows from you, from your bones, from your family traditions, beliefs, superstitions, experiences.

 

This is really the essence of the advice “Write what you know.” If you have a dog that wanders off, use that a jumping-off point. If your grandmother loved you and her 100^th birthday is one of your fondest memories, there you go—another story seed.

 

Every person has their own stories. What are yours? 

 

Be Yourself

 

It's easy to dismiss yourself as not having worthwhile or interesting stories. But remember these statistics:

 

• Of the nearly 8 billion human beings on this planet, there is only one you. (Here's where my husband would ask, "But what about identical twins?" — we aren't going there.)
• If you go back through your family tree, thousands of people had to meet in order to produce the lovely and talented you. (Don't believe me? Check this out: https://cms9files.revize.com/franklincountync/Community/Library/Genealogy/ancestors1.pdf) 
  

 

 

You came from literally thousands of people, and you are unique. That means you have unique stories. Don't sell yourself short. Don't try to write the next HP or Hunger Games. 

Tell us your story. We want to hear it!