Write What?

So you want to be a writer. You’re undertaking a journey that takes you through a series of gates. I call them gates because unlike a milestone you reach and pass-by, you have to get through a gate and in most cases you don’t control getting through. Each gate presents its own particular challenges. Fortunately the first one is the easiest and you do control it. It is also critical to your potential success. It is answers the question: what are you going to write?

The old saw goes: “Write what you know.” There is certainly truth to that. You have to be passionate about what you write. It’s also handy if what you know happens to be what sells. I love action adventure thrillers full of international intrigue, clandestine cabals, military black ops and covert intelligence operations. The trouble is, I don’t know enough about the inner-workings of those realities to be the next Vince Flynn or Brad Thor. I write historical fiction set in the west because I grew up on westerns. I’ve been an avid horseman since I was nine years old. I love history and I love the west. That may not make me the next Zane Grey, but I am passionate about the nineteenth century west.

The commercial reality hit me long after I made my decision to write historical western fiction. Westerns are a niche market. Tour your local Barnes & Nobel and see how much shelf-space they devote to westerns. Why couldn’t I have been passionate about young adult stories or romance novels? Fortunately you can cross genre today. I stumbled into that realization in time to cross-over in both. Commercial considerations shouldn’t dominate your decision on what to write, but don’t ignore them either if you plan to sell your work.

Hope that helps. Next week: So you think you can write.

https://www.amazon.com/author/paulcolt

Ride easy,
Paul