The first in an irregular series of posts on what advice and tips I can give out based on my own experience in writing stories and novels.

This first one concerns the dilemma of write the market or write your own. My own take on it is this: if you write what the market currently demands, you will always be behind it, never in front, and never doing your best.

Write what you love, write what you know yourself to be best in, write where your soul lies. Only then will you be doing your best and writing something worthwhile. Write something that you love, and you will enjoy it, do your best, and not get bogged down by depressive “it’s just another job” thoughts; the sort of things that will always get in the way of your best. And what’s wrong with enjoying yourself? Have fun with the work and it will shine through into something people will enjoy reading and remember for long after.

But write the market, and you may not be doing something that you like, which will show in the decreased quality of your work, and you risk the current fad changing by the time you get that book out. Or you’ll have to rush something out to keep up with said current trend, and a rushed work is a bad work. Though ironically, if you’re writing what you love instead of the trends, then you may find yourself working harder and faster, getting a really good book out in half the time than if you tried something you didn’t like nearly as much.

No, best to write what you love and try and start a trend of your own, or at least a little following. Follow a trend and you’ll always be compared to that which started it, but follow your own self, and you’ll ony be compared to… yourself.