And just not worry about being pretentious and pseudo-intellectual, or doing everything by the book with genre fiction in hopes that a publisher will pick them up miraculously? Can we just find our own voices, and write what we want to write, without it having to appeal to the masses and be unoriginal, or without it needing to be a political mouthpiece? If you wanna do that, write nonfiction. Write on Medium. Please.
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bold of you to assume i know how to write on medium.
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There is nothing that says you canât write how you want to write or about a subject you want to write about. Everything can find an audience. How big that audience is depends upon the level of appeal people find in a writerâs work.
How salable the material is depends upon the popularity of the subject matter and the consumption of the masses. .
So yes, write what you want. However, if a writer wants to be a world-renowned/read author, there is a certain amount of formula that has to be adhered to. And being that I donât necessarily conform to formula, I am fully aware that my audience will remain cozy.
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He asked politely so I think itâs time you figured it out.
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Itâs weird because I donât see an actual scientific forumla in use, itâs more like reverse enginering other peopleâs sucesses.
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Itâs hugely subjectiveâŚ
And youâre right many people âcopycatâ otherâs formulas.
Like when Hollywood puts out three movies in a year with pretty much the same subject matter.
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well, part of writing what you want to write is being able to write something unoriginal or a âpolitical mouthpieceâ (not meant to be rude, i just donât entirely understand what this means).
while i agree that we throw too much of our worth into what other people will think of our stories, so much so that it honestly just strips the fun away from it and also brings up other problems (like publicly complaining that a reader didnât enjoy your story and that they shouldnât share their opinion if they donât like it (seriously, do not do this, yâall)), telling people what to write isnât going to solve anything. itâs just going to keep making people cautious about what to do bc itâs not addressing the root issue.
itâs unfortunately not as simple as pointing out how people treat it, itâs about whatâs causing it and what people can do to feel more confident in their work while also staying mindful about the type of feedback they are receiving.
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I think they mean something unique or doesnât have a political agenda behind itâŚ
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oh okay, thank you for making that a bit clearer (i just have problems with understanding phrases sometimes, itâs not about how it was stated LMAO) /gen
now that i reread it, iâm realizing itâs mostly about it feeling like it has to be about that instead of anything else (i think, at least 
). which, yeah, i do agree itâs such a weird part of the writing world in general.
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a little spicy today, narb 
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YWâŚ
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I feel like writing something political at the moment, but I get what youâre saying. No publisher is ever going to pick up my work, and Iâm fine with that. As long as pirates donât steal it, I donât worry about anything any more. The ethics of people these days scare me, though. You spend literally years of your life trying to write something you consider Pulitzer worthy, and then these shitheads steal it, claiming because they canât afford it that gives them the right to steal. No, it doesnât! If you canât afford, you do without.
But I digress. Is someone keeping you from writing what you want to? Or have you run across pretentious, pseudo-intellectual writing somewhere lately?
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I was waiting on you to make a joke like âbold enough for you to assume I know how to writeâ for some reason 
.
The problem is, honestly, there are so many âwritersâ who have sold something that tells people to do X, Y and Z so their books will sell, and a lot of times, that doesnât work because theyâre not writing the same genre, and they donât think the same way. So, it makes them frustrated because they spend X amount of money and followed the steps and got no results. I think that people should just own up and say âthis works for me, and I got into the game at X time, so your results will varyâ.
I see so many people who want to be best-selling authors, but donât realize that you have to find your own voice and planning method within the formula of the genre and write something that people actually want to read, and not a paint by numbers carbon copy of everything else in the genre.
You donât have to do everything else so-called experts say, but so many people get caught up in the minor details that they lose touch with the bigger picture within publishing. Most of the big names, yes, have plots that they plan, and characters that seem familiar but the stories have something within them that sets them apart from other stories in the genre.
And I am glad that you know where you stand and are happy with a cozy audience but people need to realize that itâs more than just âfollow these steps like X author and become famous!â
Yeah, thatâs what I meant lol. Sorry about not being super clear. I was sort of skimming through my thoughts and posting them without checking them for confusing phrases. But yes, it doesnât have to be about those things.
Yes, you can have a diverse cast, and you can have certain things you want to mention, but you can do it in an entertaining way without shoving the agenda down peopleâs throats. I see this in modern TV shows a lot as well. It sucks, for the consumer and puts them off when itâs just all political and forced agenda shoving with boring, unlikeable characters who are mouthpieces for the agenda.
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Itâs all good! I have a tendency to go with my first interpretation and thatâs not always the correct interpretation. Which youâd think would encourage me to sit on the thought for longer, but no Iâve been in the middle of debates with people and only realized halfway through that I didnât actually disagree with what they were saying, I read it wrong. Admitting that is so funny. With a healthy dose of embarrassment but⌠Anyways, Iâm rambling LMAO
I think media gets so caught up in this idea of making sure they look like theyâre appealing to certain audiences because, even though itâs not even the bare minimum, they know theyâll have people backing them up and defending them so long as they look like theyâre trying. Itâs weird. Theyâre not actually representing anything or, most of the time, countering the issue. They donât care about sort of message theyâre actually sending. Theyâre just playing into it.
It would be nice to see media that tackles it from a natural angle, aka maybe they could try explaining why the character has an issue with it beyond saying that itâs an issue LMAO. Or even something that works against the problem by just⌠not including it and showing that things can be done in other ways.
As much as Iâm aware that not everything a writer includes in a story is reflective of their own beliefs, I do firmly believe that the things we write are based on our experiences and we even unintentionally slip our own viewpoints into it to some extent. And by that, I mean⌠itâs like they donât realize itâs painfully obvious to an audience when something is very forced and not actually understood by the people putting it out there.
I also still very much agree that people are neck deep in the idea that something needs to appeal to the masses. The issue with it too is that it tends to simplify the original story being told. Take Hunger Games for example â the stories that came after, like Divergent, tried really hard to be the next Hunger Games but instead they just ended up playing into the issue that the story was even pointing out.
It doesnât leave much wiggle room for people to find something new in the genre. Itâs just waiting for someone else to defy the expectation and then it randomly becomes popular, and suddenly itâs another trend.
I hope Iâm not still misunderstanding because that would just be sad. LMAO
(stop this did not take me an hour to write⌠goodnight- /j)
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To be frank, I donât do well without a minimal structure. Not that my work has to have it, but without some but of formula to it, itâs not going to be finished.
And itâs not a lot. Lord, too rigid and Iâll run shrieking out the room.
But conventional is to keep the unconventional on-track.
Where it gets people in trouble is when they think they are unconventional. Sorry if there are 40 people writing, 30 of them will be more alike than not, easily. (Honestly, that small a group, all of them are similar enough to be ignored, quite often.)
The other issue is being an intellectual by inclination. Thatâs naturally pedantic (hence some of my long posts that donât keep succinct). It doesnât automatically mean youâre smart, it means youâre obsessed with details and thinking, and you run the risk of wanting people to cheer on your intelligence instead of cheering on your aptitude. Now, I freely admit to being a borderline genius, but that doesnât mean everything I do is intelligent. Brilliant people fail spectacularly. In fact itâs better to have people think youâre stupid and surprise them on occasion. So, this should be mentioned as âover-engineeringâ a novel? In this, yes, the OP is a good plea to have. You donât want to be so formulaic that you ruin the story. Recipes change according to altitude and ambient temperate, novels change due to the details of the writer and the intended audience. Formulas shoehorn against that.
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I thought I was always like this
Medium also has a paywall that can be conqured if you make money from editing services
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Hagrid has a booktube channel and he talked about really dumb lit fic like Gravityâs Rainbow
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Not if they want to get published. Write your passion projects because you love them, but thereâs genuinely no hope for you if you think it will be published. If you want to publish your work, you canât write what you want to write. You have to write what the industry wants. Itâs hopeless honestly and itâs better to just give up. The only message the industry or writing sites or readers have for you to learn is that your passions are worthless and so are you as a writer. Itâs just not worth it. Itâs better to just write what you want to write and then keep it to yourself. Because only then are you allowed to truly do what you want.
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Not if you want to be published because even if you donât write for this to happen, someone will translate it that way. There is no way to win, especially not now that everything is offensive
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I write how I see it in my head, and no less. I write characters as they come to me, and evolve their characteristics as the story unfolds, not to appease the âDiffering Communitiesâ of this world. If I write something that may seem off to someone, itâs because they have not understood what Iâm writing, and the context.
This may sound quite blunt, but so be itâŚ
SD
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