I have always LOVED to write. To create. I live a LOT in my head, processing the stuff of my life, and the experiences of people around me. At one point in time, I really REALLY wanted to write novels or romances. But as I have gotten older, and read more of this genre, it all feels very formulaic, and contrived.
Imagine with me a typical story line - a young woman runs away from home to meet with huge success in a big city, but not in relationships. In frustration, she returns to her small hometown to be knocked head-over-heals by the young man who was there all along, and they live happily-ever-after. Formulaic. NOT realistic. Sometimes HE is more successful; sometimes she is a failure at something...still formulaic.
How many love stories ACTUALLY look like this?
Why don't authors write realistic love stories? Oh, yeah. They don't sell.
YUCK.
Why are real-life love stories not as attractive?
Oh, yeah...people don't want to face the fact that people FIGHT, and screw things up, and it can't be tied together with a pretty bow in 150 pages. The fact that real life is messy, and unfair, and painful. How do you sell books like that?
As time has passed, I have come to the conclusion that I need to write nonfiction...it is a better fit for who I am, and the direction I am headed. And yet, I procrastinate. It's not the right time. It's too much work. I don't know where to start.
Today, it dawned on me that real-life stories DO actually sell....sometimes. And people DO want to read them...SOME of them. Honestly, *I* read them. I don't read much "fluff" any more. Real life is more appealing to me. But not the ones that are easily scripted and tied up in a pretty bow. I want the raw, and rough, and the ones that make me look deeper at who I am, down deep.
Tell me....what do YOU want to read? Do you want the formulas? The fantasy? The real? The raw? What draws you in?
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