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On writing

My writing crystal ball

After reading the recent tweets from #MSWL—Manuscript wish list hashtag—on Twitter I did my own non-scientific analysis of the results and came up the following list of potential future trends.

  • Historicals in different eras (MG, YA, NA, adult)
  • Male protagonist who’s not beautiful/perfect or who is deeply flawed
  • Lots of YA science fiction and fantasy
  • Lonely kids
  • Sassy contemporaries. If they’re YA, not too much angst
  • Retelling of fables, fairy tales
  • LGBQT and POC
  • Space opera
  • Epic fantasy
  • YA horror
  • Con/heists/mysteries/capers

If I had to pick a single trend I’d say it was historical fiction, particularly for eras that haven’t been written about before. Regency is out, Victorian, Renaissance and middle ages are in. The trend crosses over to science fiction and fantasy as well as mainstream historical.

There were a few requests for stories about lonely kids, some for non-perfect heroes, and others for sassy contemporaries without too much angst. Quite a lot for lesbian, gay, transsexual and bi-gender (LGBQT) and people of colour (POC).

I got the impression that people were looking for more uplifting stories than they have for a while.

There were lots of requests for YA horror, science fiction and fantasy. I think this is fantastic, as it means this next generation will grow up thinking of these genres as automatic ‘to reads’. Bring it on.

There was also a bigger demand for mysteries and capers than I have seen for a while.

What’s really good for us is that quite a few people are looking for space operas.

Now that’s a trend I like.

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