To Market...To Market...

"I don't think there is a market for it."

"You know you can't write for a market. You have to write what you want and if there is a market for it, great, but if not you just write the next thing. Writing has to be done because you can't not write."

"That's great. I mean really. Good strong advice. If I want to work in an office for the rest of my life and write in the fifteen minutes I have free daily. If I want to make a living as a writer I need to write for a market."

"No, I'm saying you can't do that. Sure, yeah, to make a living you need to sell, but you can't write with that mindset. Your work will be, what is the word I'm looking for? Uninspired. Formulaic. Dull..."

"Profitable. There are reasons there are tropes. People like their work to fall into genres and to hit all the expected beats. I need to write something for them."

"Then I guess watch a lot of BookTok and write what they are reading."

"No. Once it's with the BookTok Girlies it's already saturated. And I don't think I want to write about how toxic men are really fun and cool as long as they are in books and there's no harm to it if they're fiction but come on, in ten or twenty years we are going to look back at this and say, what the fuck? Like seriously what the fuck? Why did everyone get on board with a bunch of fiction telling women to date the embodiment of human red flags who then change into werewolves and get even MORE violent and possessive?"

"Okay...so tell me how you really feel."

"Sorry. It's just not for me. How is that? That's better right. But that's my problem. I want to write something that will sell, but a lot of what sell is just not for me."

"And that's my point. You cannot write something that isn't for you. It will be terrible. If you don't like it, how are you going to write something that someone else will like?"

"But there's no market for sweet, dull people just living their best lives at the Farmer's Market."

"Well you could put in a little drama, right? Or you could channel it all into like Hallmark Christmas movies type stuff. Sweet, dull people reuniting at the Farmer's Market after dating toxic red flags? Maybe there will be an exodus of BookTok Girlies wanting to detox? You could be leading edge."

"Books to detox with. A new genre."

"Oh! Real Fiction. You could write fiction that feels real. But better. Like there is never a what did you just say about January 6th moment. Or no need to find out what their stance is on human rights because everyone in your book universe is decent."

"I think Schitt's Creek already did that, didn't they? Like wasn't that what he said he wanted, was a world where everyone was just decent and then he dropped their family into it?"

"Is that what it was? Oh. Okay, that makes sense. But see? There was a market for it! And Ted Lasso too! Like the decent people were the heroes. And even the drama wasn't all that dramatic. Write books like those TV shows."

"So my market is for people who unapologetically love drama free, boring people."

"Buying vegetables at the Farmer's Market."

"So that's who then? You and me, but I'll give you a copy for free so..."

"We'll figure it out. I'm telling you. Write what you want and the market will come later."

"So did you want to go to the Farmer's Market with me tomorrow?"

"What? No. How fucking boring would that be..."