A long time ago, in the mid-90s, I was seriously getting ready to start my first novel (The Magister’s Mask, 2004), but I was a little bit stuck on what it should be about. It wasn’t so much that there was a specific story burning a hole in my brain. More like, every book I was seeing on the shelves sounded exactly like something I had already read.
By that point, I had already been reading fantasy voraciously for around 25 years. Maybe I’m slow on the uptake if it took me that long to notice how market forces encouraged writers to produce work that was similar to what had already been successful. Anyhow, in my youthful arrogance, I decided that if other writers were going to write the same old thing, I should be the one to write something different.
As part of my planning and exploration, I literally made a list of things that I was not going to write about. I was already seeing those too often, and remember, my goal was to distinguish myself by writing something nobody else was writing.
Among the things on my “no-write list:” vampires, werewolves, elves/fairies, quests against Ancient Evil, lost princes, chosen ones. Not that I’m knocking any of these ideas. If people still like them, more power to you. However, I wasn’t going to go there. Although eventually I did write a quest novel (Too Many Princes, 2007) and a werewolf novel (The Grimhold Wolf, 2015), I mostly stuck to my list.
I have lost that original list, but every so often, I look at the bookshelves and do an update. Now aren’t you curious what’s on it? (Or maybe you think you can guess.) Well, lucky you — next time, I’ll tell you what’s on my current No-Write List.
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Wyrmflight 