Thinking about writing: Write what you love

One of my most prized swords belonged to a notable British officer.  This blade has been all around the world.  

Most recently, the sword in my sword room has been to:  

Texas, Arkansas, Mississippi,Tennessee, and GA in the US...  

Since the 1890's, it was carried by its officer in:  

The China Expeditionary Force (and came back to China later)
The Second Boer War (in south Africa)
India, in the early 1900's
Japan (seriously)
On ships during the Russo-Japanese war
Battle of the Somme (France)
Battle of the Ancre (France)  
Battle of Arras, where the officer was buried a live and gassed (France)  
Attacking the Hindenberg Line (Germany)
British forces in Iraq  

The officer was:
-A companion of the Order of St. Michael and St. George...
-a Companion of the order of the Bath...
-and a Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire.  

I am absolutely honored to own this sword, and happy to remember the amazing man who carried it until at least 1924.  

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Why am I sharing this?
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Sometimes other authors, especially new authors, ask me why/how I write the actions scenes the way I do, or describe weapons the way I do.

The answer is really simple: passion.  I'd never claim to be the best writer in the world, but I believe my action and battle scenes can be solid.  This is one reason I began writing in the first place.  Too many fantasy books I was reading felt like the action was being written by someone who didn't know one end of a sword from the other.

I've been studying, playing with, and learning about martial...stuff...my entire life.  Even when I was like 9 years old, I was reading about the homemade and field expedient weapons that the Viet Cong used in the Vietnam war.

Now, this obviously doesn't mean that writers can't research things.  Research is always my friend, it's all writers' friend.  However, a story can suffer if the writer doesn't know anything about it the core of what makes the story fun.

Notable writers often have similar interests to things covered in their stories.  People who write the best horror and mysteries are often fascinated by unsolved mysteries and tales of killers, etc.

This writing fact is why so many write to market writers have a hard time writing GameLit or LitRPG.  Part of writing a true LitRPG book is designing a game within the story itself.  It's pretty much impossible to design an RPG game unless you've played a ton of them, or are at least familiar with them.

Some writers chase markets, looking for the trends, and this works in the short term.  However, writing something that at its foundation is unfamiliar can result in mistakes, which can poison a brand.

If a writer is wanting to establish a brand they can write under for a long time, if not the rest of their life, it's important not to screw the pooch too badly.  See, if you write a fun book, people might pick up your other books.  If you write a stinker, and someone picks it up, they likely won't pick up any of your other work.  Readers will tend to give you a pass on books they don't love as long as they've loved the majority of your stuff, but patience doesn't last forever.

In my opinion, if you are looking to establish a career under a single pen name, or even just a few, it's important to play to your strengths.  Writing is hard enough anyway, so why not make it easier for yourself?  Not only that, some genres have much higher barriers to entry than others.

Some examples here are hard sci-fi and military science fiction.  There is a reason almost every successful military science fiction writer is a veteran.  Anyone can write about being in love, because it's part of the human condition.  Not everyone can impart what it feels like to be a soldier.

Again, this is another reason why GameLit is hard for some people to write.

Everyone has their own hobbies and interests.  Part of making writing easier for yourself is figuring out what you know that other people might like to hear about, and that will help you differentiate yourself.  As hard as writing a book is, a heck of a lot of people still write them and put them up on Amazon every year.  Word of mouth is extremely powerful, so especially when you're starting out, it's important to write the most fun story you can...

...and writing about something that you think is fun, that you are passionate about, or a story that includes these things, will help lower that difficulty rating at least a little.

TL:DR:  Don't try to write The Devil Wears Prada if you don't know anything about designer brands. :)

*Note:  The more experienced (and successful) a writer is, the more they can fudge this line with experience.  But before publishing a million words or two first, my suggestion to newer writers is not to make things harder for themselves without a good reason.
 

-BC