IWSG August Version

It's that time again for Insecure Writers Support Group, the ever evolving child of Alex J. Cavanaugh. Every first Wednesday the group shares encouragement and concerns. Join the group and find a list of all the participants here and don't forget to join the IWSG blog and the IWSG Facebook Page where there have been some changes in what the days bring. Now we have Friday News and Promotion.  And in a special tease of really cool things to come, the IWSG anniversary is coming up and something really, really cool and special is going to take place. More on that next month.

Today I'm going to share what I learned about trending from my fellow local writers who went to the RWA National Conference. Trying to write in anticipation of a trend or write quick enough to catch the benefit of a trend is usually a fruitless endeavor. There is no doubt that trends are real but the idea that someone can predict them ahead of time is unlikely.

So what did the editors and agents have to say (guess) about coming trends and things that are out of favor? Remember this was a romance writers conference so they only discussed related genres. First of all in the romance industry contemporary novels are always popular. The industry professionals declared the 'paranormal' genre dead. When pinned to specifics, they admitted that authors have been doing well in the paranormal genre continue to do so but new writers shouldn't try to break in there. Another thing they admitted was that 'dead' label might not apply equally to sub-categories of the big umbrella of paranormal. They said no more vampires for sure though shape-changers are still in vogue. In the YA genre, the professionals claimed the popular dystopian genre is morphing into something more like science fiction. (Isn't dystopian actually science fiction?) So what does any of this tell authors?

As I mentioned, no one really knows. Some book about blue-skinned aliens could break out like some of those early vampire books did and start a new trend. Perhaps the TV world will fall in love with FX's The Strain and evil vampires will become popular. Maybe the Starz's Outlander will inspire a grand upswing in time-travel stories. It all comes back to not trying to catch those trends.

Don't forget to visit the other participants in IWSG. Do you have a guess about the next big thing and please share if you do? Do you agree with what they shared about the waning popularity of paranormal? Is dystopian going away?