didi768

I was thinking. Write what you know.
I know nursing, motherhood, loving to eat, hating to exercise, how to do laundry.
Do we always have to write what we know? I suppose if we don't, we'll be doing a lot of research, correct?
Ok, do you guys want fiction about hospitals? Home care? Hospice? Death? Sick kids who are vegetables...what????
What is something that is not overdone? I'm sick of chic lit and love crap.

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Di

seigfried007

Well, didi, what about your life isn't "chic lit and love crap"?

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Sam Winchester

If every writer who ever lived adhered to the creedo of "write what you know," there wouldn't be half the books there is today. Write about anything, even if you know sweet FA about it. That's what research is for. Friedrich Nietzsche said "what does not kill me, makes me stronger". You can apply that to writing. Writing about what you don't know can only make you better. I have no idea how to write a horror book because my genre is action-adventure/techno-thriller. My next novel will be horror, because I want a change. In my neck of the woods, there is a saying: "a change is as good as a rest".

Sam.

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astralis

Write what you know is not intended to mean write about only your professional and personal experiences. Instead, it's about writing what you know about the human experience. You can't go wrong when you do that.

After all, George Lucas didn't have to travel back in time to a galaxy far, far away to know how to write Star Wars.

There's nothing that is really overdone. If you create a story that will take the reader to the height of meaning, it works, no matter the genre. If you write a cliche, then yeah, that is overdone.

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HarryG

70% of books are bought by women aged between 35 and 55. So, of you want to write for the mainstream, that's who you have to write for. As to what those 70% of female readers want to read about, you just need to study the bestsellers lists.


You will find some surprises there, or, maybe not. And, I'm talking about fiction. Before anyone asks, here is a link that may help:


List of best-selling fiction authors - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Truth-Teller

Study the bestseller's list? What for? Are you going to write something in the current trend? What's rising to the top, may descend to it's nadir after a few months, so I suggest you stick to what you know and what you've expierenced and what you love to do, instead of trying to earn a quick buck.

What do reader's want? Why, it's simple: something he or she could relate to, and or identify with the characters. Why not write about your interaction with the seniors and how they accept death? Why not show us that old men are no different then young men, it's only the age that separates them? Talk about the grieving process, and how young folks view hospice. Make us care about our grandfather and grandmothers in a culture where we hate them, or just think about abandoning them in a retirement home. Why should we invest time and money for old people? You should know. Should they just be allowed to die? What makes them so special? Are they afraid to die? What can we learn from them? Have there ever been abuse against seniles where you work? What did you do about it? What is one thing old folks want the most? Etc, etc.

Wallmaker

:: Bangs Head on Keyboard::

That's a really narrow scope of what "write what you know" means and it's a small list of things you know at 42. You have experienced a wide gamut of human experiences. You were a child, you were a teen, you met someone, and you had kids. Lots of stuff happened. And along the way you've made beliefs, life decisions, etc etc. You know lots. I probably wish I knew as much as you.

Here's a question. What do you read?

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Felicia

If you're going to write an essay paper, you should write want to know, things that you're familiar with. Topics that interest you the most. Topics where you can freely express your ideas and things you can easily relate it with your experiences.

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HarryG

The OP asked what reader's want to read and I replied that there is information available on that subject, lots of it.


I normally shy away from your posts because I find them 'daft', for want of a better word, and it seems I'm not the only one. If you seek to be a troll, then at least have the courage to be one, and not your half-hearted efforts.


At least a decent troll can cheer up a forum.

Joe Moore

If you want to invest in the stock market, you spend time studying the Dow Jones Industrials or the NASDAQ composite. Even though they are snapshots in time, they can teach you which trends are moving up or down, or which blue chips are good, safe, long-term investments. The bestseller lists are the stock market for writers. They tell you which authors, subject matter or genres have long-term readership. They definitely tell you what readers want. Will the tastes of the market change? Of course. Will authors come and go? Sure. Should you try and time the market? No. Instead, use the lists to understand and analyze it.

For instance, if you see the same name(s) repeatedly on the bestseller lists year after year—guess what? Those writers are delivering what readers want. Study the lists as you would the Dow Jones. Buy the number one or top five books every few months. Read them. Why are they worthy to be on that list. Why are those writers selling millions of copies? What makes them a sound investment? Learn from them. The bestseller lists will tell you exactly what readers want from subject matter to quality to style. They are the pulse of the publishing industry. And if you study them over an extended period of time, you’ll get an even better picture of what readers want. Then put your research to work and write the best book you can. Good luck.

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Truth-Teller

You people are really pissing me off.

I'm not even going to call you writers.

Studying the market, to write a bestseller... *laughs insanely*

seigfried007

:looks around for TT's bestseller:

The stock market analogy was fabulous, btw, Joe Moore. There's a lot more to those lists than simply names, numbers and titles. There's a lot of history to delve into and a lot of research to be done into eachbook and author. Some are only bestsellers because of name recognition; others because someone big in the media took it and ran with it and the populace wanted to know what the hype was about.

Name recognition's a blue chip market--unless the author does really stupid things for awhile, he or she will remain a blue chip bestseller. Sudden successes are more like the dot.com bust and even if they stay around for awhile, they're less likely to become the 30+-year blue-chip markets. You can plan for blue chip but not for dot.com. Blue chip, however, is a function of long-term trends and long-term writing.

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mi is happy

The books that sell the best are different. They usually aren't something the average Joe-shmo can think of. It something that anyone that reads it suggests it to their friends. Frequent readers will read crappy novels, but when something good they all read it as well as non-book-lovers.

The reason why so many readers are 35-55 year old women are because of silly book clubs and they have time to read while their kids are asleep or at school.

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Truth-Teller

"Book-buyers aren't attracted, by and large, by the literary merits of a novel; book-buyers want a good story to take with them on the airplane, something that will first fascinate them, the pull them in and keep them turning the pages. This happens, I think, when readers recognize the people in a book, their behaviors, their surroundings, and their talk. When the reader hears strong choes of his or her own life and beliefs, he or she is apt to become more invested in the story. I'd argue that it's impossible to make this sort of connection in a premeditated way, gauging the market like a racetrack tout with a hot tip.

Stylistic imitation is one thing, a perfectly honorable way to get started as a writer... but one cannot imimtate a writer's approach to a particular genre, no matter how simple what that writer is doing may seem. People who decide to make a fortune writing like John Grisham or Tom Clancy produce nothing but pale imitations, by and large, because vocabulary is not the same thing as feeling and plot is light-years from the truth as it is understood by the mind and the heart.

Writing isn't about making money, getting famous, getting dates, getting laid or making friends. In th end, it's about enriching the lives of those who will read your work, and enriching your own life, as well. "

--Stephen King

starseed

For me it's just about how well something is written, the way it's written.
For example I have no interest in kids or marriage, etc. But I love the book "Diary of a mad housewife."