![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
What do I like to write?
Sep. 8th, 2018 05:06 pmI think I mentioned in my previous post that I'm in a rut right now in regard to writing, and as I was talking to my friend about it, she suggested that I write what I like to read.
Which is some common sense advice that I'd somehow managed to forget.
Maybe this is due to my childhood or something, but oftentimes I get very focused on trying to write something "groundbreaking" and "original" and "never been done before" and "'certain' to be successful"...and every single time, those projects fail.
My finished novels were always, always ones that I initially started with no intention of publication—stories that I started writing purely for fun, not because I was trying to make a statement or leave my mark on the world. Stories that I started off writing because they were exactly the kind of book I wanted to read and couldn't find.
Book #1 was the amnesiac assassin enemies-to-lovers story that I'd been trying to write for ages because I love writing assassins, I love writing/reading enemies-to-lovers, and I love amnesia tropes.
Book #2 was the story about an autistic vampire hunter who got to kick ass while snarking at how unfair neurotypical society was because I wanted to read about a kick-ass autistic protagonist and complain about neurotypical privilege.
Inevitably, of course, I do end up making statements, and my stories do end up being unique and original. But it's always a side effect rather than the primary goal.
The problem then, though, is that I essentially have to "trick" my brain into working on a project that I can finish.
Which is ridiculously hard.
And due to real-life stress and/or genre fatigue, sometimes I get into periods when I don't know what I like anymore, because I don't like anything (or barely anything) I'm actually reading. And then I can't write at all.
On top of that, there are only so many tropes I like, but I also try not to repeat myself from story to story because I feel like that's tacky.
...Sigh.
Which is some common sense advice that I'd somehow managed to forget.
Maybe this is due to my childhood or something, but oftentimes I get very focused on trying to write something "groundbreaking" and "original" and "never been done before" and "'certain' to be successful"...and every single time, those projects fail.
My finished novels were always, always ones that I initially started with no intention of publication—stories that I started writing purely for fun, not because I was trying to make a statement or leave my mark on the world. Stories that I started off writing because they were exactly the kind of book I wanted to read and couldn't find.
Book #1 was the amnesiac assassin enemies-to-lovers story that I'd been trying to write for ages because I love writing assassins, I love writing/reading enemies-to-lovers, and I love amnesia tropes.
Book #2 was the story about an autistic vampire hunter who got to kick ass while snarking at how unfair neurotypical society was because I wanted to read about a kick-ass autistic protagonist and complain about neurotypical privilege.
Inevitably, of course, I do end up making statements, and my stories do end up being unique and original. But it's always a side effect rather than the primary goal.
The problem then, though, is that I essentially have to "trick" my brain into working on a project that I can finish.
Which is ridiculously hard.
And due to real-life stress and/or genre fatigue, sometimes I get into periods when I don't know what I like anymore, because I don't like anything (or barely anything) I'm actually reading. And then I can't write at all.
On top of that, there are only so many tropes I like, but I also try not to repeat myself from story to story because I feel like that's tacky.
...Sigh.
