I Just Can’t Do It

In the course of my writing it’s become clear to me that what I’m writing is probably just going to be a “novel”. I tried making it a mystery, but while I love reading mysteries I absolutely suck at writing them. I’m big on exploring motivation and explaining things and in order to create a true mystery/suspense novel you have to leave something out. I can’t do that, really.

One of the literary agents I’ve emailed suggested that I familiarise myself with several publishers to see which seemed like the best fit for my work. This sounds very official, but basically amounts to reading everything I can get my hands on. Since that’s something I’ve been doing since I was two years old, I didn’t think I’d find this task too onerous.

Until today. Of everything I’ve seen so far, Mira seems to be the best fit, specifically their General Fiction category, with some overlap into their Contemporary Women’s Fiction. You see, it turns out that what I write is like Romance in some ways but not in others. I found that out by picking up an older Mira book and realising that while I’m interested in what motivates people, I just can’t relate to a world where the ONLY thing motivating the characters is a quest for love. I know there’s a place for that in the book market, and I know that Romance is a popular genre. I have nothing against it, really. I just personally don’t enjoy reading a book where the entire aim of a woman character’s actions is to Get The Man.

Of all the books I’ve read which could be construed as a type of Romance, I’d have to say my favourite is still Gone With The Wind. I guess, now that I think about it, Scarlett does spend the majority of that book trying to get a man. The only problem is that that man is Ashley, when everyone who reads the thing knows that her true match is Rhett. I guess that’s why I like it–because it shows how much folly is involved in setting your cap for someone. You spend a lot of time overlooking the good things.

So anyway, I do think that I’ll try to get my work sold to Mira–that’d be my ideal home for it–but I don’t think it’ll fit in the same category as the one I tried to read (but failed) today.