I’ve heard Stephen King say that the question he’s asked most often is “where do you get your ideas?”. That makes perfect sense… the guy seems to produce another novel every time he goes to the loo.
Now, I’m not one of the two or three best-selling authors of all time (yet) so I don’t get that question. But I do have a twenty-five year history of working with professional writers, and so I get a slightly different question.
“What should I write?”
The answer is easy, if not exactly simple. Write what you’re passionate about. The mindset of most of the writers I meet is “I need to write something commercial” or “I need to write something that will sell” or “I need to write what the market is looking for.” I call this “writing to the market” and it’s exactly the wrong way to think about that question.
If you consider yourself a writer, then I hope that you have at least ONE story that is figuratively clawing its way out of your head each and every day. It’s that story you just can’t stop thinking about. The one the universe is DEMANDING that you tell.
Write that.
I don’t care if it’s the story of two blind penguins trapped in a shoe box on Easter Island… your Harry Potter knock-off won’t be as commercial as that blind Penguin story because it’s not the story that’s DEMANDING TO BE TOLD. Writing the story that’s DEMANDING TO BE TOLD will be the book that shows the world your true voice, and it’s your voice that is going to sell your work. Yes, the story is important too, but it’s your voice that matters most.
And as far as writing something that will sell… something that the market wants? Well that’s a fool’s errand. What the market wants will change next week, and then it will change again the week after that, and again the week after that.
Write your passion… the rest will take care of itself.