WAKE UP AND WRITE
Writing to Trends Won’t Do Your Book Justice
What’s going to sell and what’s going to be successful is what comes from your heart
Wake Up and Write is a regular advice column from Moms Don’t Have Time to Write. Today, we have Nancy Johnson — an award-winning journalist, novelist, and author of The Kindest Lie — who shared her writing advice on the podcast Moms Don’t Have Time to Read Books, hosted by Zibby Owens.
“Be true to yourself, and to whatever the intention is for the book that you want to write. Stay true to that, to what’s authentic and real for you.”
“I talk to so many writers who say, “You know what? I think I might want to write about vampires because I heard vampires might be coming back in vogue. I’ll do domestic suspense because I hear that it’s kind of hot. If I put ‘girl’ in the title, it’ll definitely sell.”
I don’t think you can write to trends and do your book any justice because then you’re just writing to market. You’re writing what you think people want to read and what you think is going to sell. I think what’s going to sell and what’s going to be successful is what comes from your heart, from your soul, from your passion. That would be my main advice. Just write what’s true to you.
Also, be gentle with yourself, too. During this pandemic, everybody is going through so much emotionally right now. Our lives are crazy even though we are tethered to home and sequestered. Be gentle in terms of how often you write. I don’t necessarily believe you have to write every single day to be a successful writer. Write when you feel compelled to write.
At the same time, you have to be disciplined, too. Sometimes you do have to push yourself, but don’t feel that you have to do it every single day. As long as you’re getting words on the page and you are telling the story that only you can tell, that’s going to resonate with other people, because it’s your story.”
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