Thursday 5 January 2017

Insecure Writer's Support Group: The Curse of Unpopularity

Insecure Writer's Support Group is a blog hop hosted by Alex J. Cavanaugh where totally insecure writers can get together and share the things that are making us go argh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
      A while ago , I wrote about not having the natural writing skill that some others are just born, this month I want to address the other thing that I have always lacked: popularity. Or rather my ideas have never been popular. I’ve always been somewhat of an outlier but it’s never really bothered me until recently when I’ve come to the realisation that the way I see things, my plots and characters, just don’t have mainstream appeal. As much as some writers and some readers will pretend that certain popular tropes don’t exist, they do, and they’re not the kind of thing I enjoy reading or writing.
       None of my novels have love triangles, not all of my characters are attractive, often my heroines aren’t “nice,” and I don’t prescribe to competitive female behaviour which is so prevalent in the YA genre. For a long time now I’ve thought of myself as a writer in the way that Michael Bay is a director. I like all the flashy, action stuff without much emotional substance behind it. I don’t care that it makes sense as long as things are blowing up.
       In an attempt to  break out of my comfort zone I tried to write one of these tropey novels. I've written all of two lines in two weeks. Clearly this isn't working out and I am now trying to make peace with the fact that what I write will never be wildly popular but maybe I can find my small niche of readers one day if I JUST KEEP WRITING.