Write Good or Die

writing.
    It takes a very, very powerful self-belief to stand up to these myths and just write what you want, at the speed you want, and mail to whom you want after you are finished. Yet to be a true artist, a true long-term professional writer, you have to learn to stand up for your writing and your art.
    Is all this easy to learn? No. Darned hard, actually.
    But to be a true artist, write what you want. Never write to market.
    PERSONAL BELIEFS vs. AGENT CAREER PLANNING MYTH
    Now, this is a fun area because when you look at it, this myth becomes just flat silly on the surface.
    You live in Outback small town. You were raised by some combination of humans, have friends that make up some combination of humans, believe in some combination of religious beliefs, have some combination of writing talents, and have a very certain combination of fears, passions, and likes and dislikes.
    In other words, you are an individual, a one-of-a-kind writer. That’s what makes your voice unique and your writing different from everyone else.
    The agent is also a unique person, with certain likes and dislikes and beliefs in what sells and what doesn’t and who will buy what and why and how every writer should follow the recent trend and have a vampire do something on page three.
    So you, young writer, believe in this myth of career planning and trust some stranger to tell you what to write. The stranger has a different upbringing, a different set of values, and no idea at all who you really are as a person. They don’t know your voice or what makes you unique. In fact, to them, you need to be more like everyone else.
    Yet you let the stranger tell you what to write. And then you wonder why you are not passionate about your writing anymore. Duh.
    From the fact that each of us is different, each of us is unique, it should become clear that no writer should ever listen to anyone else, family, spouse, kids, workshop, or agent to tell them what to write next.
    Just write your own book. That way lays success. Anything else is just a disaster or failure waiting to happen.
    BUSINESS vs. AGENT CAREER PLANNING MYTH
    Agents flat don’t know a writer’s business. That is a truth. Some may think they do, but they don’t understand writer cash flow, don’t understand how writers make money, let alone how much time and effort it takes us to produce a product. They don’t know and shouldn’t be expected to know. (If you think all your writing money comes through your agent, wow, do you have a lot to learn about the business of being a writer.)
    But to an agent only concerned with their own business (which writers do not understand, either), they want to sell books. And if there is a current trend, agents want their clients to write into that current trend, even though a trend is usually two years old by the time an agent catches a whiff of it.
    I had an agent call me four years after the vampire craze started and ask if I had a vampire novel. Wow, that was a human ahead of the curve. Not. Another agent called me after the Titanic movie became a hit and said, “Didn’t you publish a book about the Titanic once?” I said I had a novel that partially set on the Titanic, but that was it, and it didn’t fit. Agent didn’t believe me and wanted to see it, so I sent it and then agent wrote me a snippy note asking why I thought that book would ever fit being reprinted. I just laughed and said nothing.
    So, because the agent thinks it would be good business for you to sell another book just like your last one, or worse yet, just like the one they just sold for another client, they tell you to write that. And if that one sells, they tell you write it again. And again. And again, until finally it doesn’t sell anymore and they drop you.
    Now understand, I am not talking about series characters, or writers who love to write just mysteries or just science fiction. Back to the top. Write what you love first and foremost, then worry about how to sell it. If you love mysteries, write them. If you love science fiction, write that. If you have a series character you love to spend time with, keep writing books with that character.
    But if the only reason you are writing the next mystery is because your agent wanted you to write it when your passion has moved to romantic suspense, then you are in trouble.
    To an agent’s business, it makes great sense to tell writers to write the same book over and over again.
    To a writer’s business, it makes no sense