Accidental Trends

Cyia · Jul 10, 2009

I think everyone can understand chasing trends. XX is the "hot" genre of the moment, so everyone thinks they need to write a book about it if they want a shot at publication (not literally everyone of course, but enough to make it annoying).

But what about the accidental trends?

I've seen Blog posts, website mentions, and Tweets about how - at the moment - it seems like merpeople and angels are the next "thing". Agents were hit with a deluge of queries about them at the same time and a ton got picked up (so much so that many of those agents roll their eyes and groan when another mermaid or angel story hits their inbox). I've seen a bunch of ideas, queries, beta requests, etc here for those same subjects, so it seems to be holding true.

Since there hasn't been a breakout merperson or angel book yet, what do you suppose makes so many people write on the same subject without knowledge that hundreds or thousands of others are doing the same? Is an unintentional progression from the current market?

Aggy B. · Jul 10, 2009

Collective consciousness?

I dunno. But I don't like talking about my ideas out loud because somehow "someone" always comes up with the same thing like a year later. Well, that's really just a borderline superstitious paranoia on my part.

But there aren't any new ideas, just new spins on old ones. Every now and then there has to be a random surge.

Alternately. A bunch of people/writers could be looking at what IS the big thing and deliberately trying to pursue something different yet related. (Supernatural is in. Vampires, werewolves and magic schools have already been done. What's left? Oh, I know. Mermaids.)

ChristineR · Jul 10, 2009

Because people get their ideas from the same places, and they build on one another. The more people who think, write, and talk about merpeople, the more people will think about writing about merpeople.

It really only takes one big moment to reach the critical mass where a trend creates more trend. For merpeople I kind of think we can blame Jo Rowling. She used 'em, but so much as to call them a major feature, and they were sort of at a low point post Disney Little Mermaid.

Vampires, werewolves and magic schools have already been done. What's left? Oh, I know--that scary scene in the fourth movie!

Angels, though, I really can't say, other than there's a very general trend for religious imagery and concepts, and the angel has never really gone out of style.

lm728 · Jul 10, 2009

Most writers read agent blogs, so I guess that's where they get their inspiration.
It's the same with names. After E. Lockhart wrote The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks (got honors at the N.B.A., as well as Printz), every contemp. writer left and right had girls with guy names. The deluge of Frankies is making me sick.

Kitty Pryde · Jul 10, 2009

Interesting question. Maybe Jim C. Hines will stick his head in here and tell us: his new book The Mermaid's Madness is coming out this fall I think. http://www.jimchines.com/Files/MM.pdf

I predict that a few years from now, when Neil Gaiman's book about the Monkey King comes out, there will be a minor surge in Chinese mythology novels. Well, a girl can hope, anyway...

ccarver30 · Jul 10, 2009

I just write about what inspires me/what my characters tell me. I don't set out to write about what is popular. Maybe a dumb move on my part, but I have to stay true to myself first.

NeuroFizz · Jul 10, 2009

Trend chasing is a dog who does too much butt sniffing. Why not go for new, unique smells? Let all the other dogs shove their noses in your backside for a while.

Accidental trends? Somehow, I doubt it's that random.

Fokker Aeroplanbau · Jul 10, 2009

However it goes, I will never buy a book on Merpeople.

MsGneiss · Jul 10, 2009

Fokker Aeroplanbau said:
However it goes, I will never buy a book on Merpeople.

However it goes, I will never buy a book on Merpeople... unless it's written by Neil Gaiman. I'll read a fishing catalog if he had anything to do with it.

bagels · Jul 10, 2009

Personally, I think the angel trend is in direct response to vampires, werewolves, etc.

And never say never ... I always said I had no interest in wizards, and I have a whole series about a boy wizard sitting on my book shelves.

Salis · Jul 10, 2009

Haha, mermaids. God, if that goes mainstream, I am cutting myself. :|

Stunted · Jul 10, 2009

I actually unconsciously wound up in a wave. Having never read an agent's blog or a book about vampires and having never consciously read a young adult novel, I started writing a young adult vampire novel. About two years into the process, Twilight hit, along with all of the other unsuspecting vampire writers. And--even more annoying--my MC's name was Jasper, which was the name of some minor Twilight character. I had to change it. fml.

I think it's actually happening again to me. fml again. (Not actually. Accidentally being in the wave can sometimes work out in your favor, I think.)

defcon6000 · Jul 10, 2009

Yeah, I think the angels trend is just opposing the vampire trend, since vampires are typically evil, blood lust creatures and angels are guardians, watching over/protecting humans.

Didn't realize merpeople was becoming a trend too. I guess centaurs will be next, haha.

TrixieLox · Jul 10, 2009

What's wrong with mermaids? Have you people not watched Splash?! ;-) And you left out zombies, the publishing world's going nutso for them right now!

Anyways, I think this is more to do with the fact that urban fantasy is SO hot right now. *peers down* okay I might be biased. But trust me, I betcha a whole host of other mythical creatures are going to be slinking out of the woodworks later this year. Just happens to be angels etc that are hogging the limelight right now.

gonovelgo · Jul 10, 2009

There seems to be a general (and very damn big) 'paranormal' trend at the moment, so I'm not surprised that angels are becoming popular. As several people have already pointed out, they're just as glamorous as vampires for a lot of people.

I did a bit of a double take when I heard about the mermaid thing, though, since I was recently tempted to start a YA novel about 'fish people' who were essentially mermaids by a different name. I got the idea from watching that movie The Abyss rather than anything I saw on an agent or writer's blog. Collective consciousness, indeed.

FOTSGreg · Jul 10, 2009

The publishing world's going nutso for zombie stories? Again? World War Z only came out a couple years or so ago. I would have thought that wave had crested already.

Kitty Pryde · Jul 10, 2009

I think the current wave of zombie lit/art/movies/knitting patterns was CAUSED by World War Z and its overall excellence.

MsGneiss · Jul 10, 2009

I am surprised there aren't that many Southern telepaths out there, considering the book and television success of Sookie Stackhouse.

Kitty Pryde · Jul 10, 2009

Give it time, give it time.

Ken · Jul 10, 2009

... actually read a good short story in SYW about a merperson, a few months back. So add another to the current trend ;-)

ChristineR · Jul 10, 2009

Merpeople have always seemed kind of old-fashioned to me. They make more sense in a society where people will be at sea for weeks at a time, away from home for years at a time, and where nobody understands much about fish biology. Do merwoman breast feed their babies? Do merpeople have sex, or does the merwoman lay eggs, which the merman sprays with his sperm? Once you get past the lovesick sailor jumping into the ocean to drown (which is pretty hard to pull off on modern ships), you kind of run into practical difficulties...although you can do pretty well with amphibian variants with feet. Both Splash! and The Little Mermaid had them losing the tails early on.

MsGneiss · Jul 10, 2009

I think Merpeople present a serious logistical problem when it comes to sex, and thus, may be quite difficult to pull off in adult fiction (even if sex is not the goal, a lot of adult fiction does depend heavily on at least some sexual tension). I can see them as minor characters, maybe in mythical type American Gods-ish sort of books.

Salis · Jul 10, 2009

sleepsheep said:
I think Merpeople present a serious logistical problem when it comes to sex, and thus, may be quite difficult to pull off in adult fiction (even if sex is not the goal, a lot of adult fiction does depend heavily on at least some sexual tension). I can see them as minor characters, maybe in mythical type American Gods-ish sort of books.

Man, people will get it on with anything. Having a fish tail is no obstacle!

Cyia · Jul 10, 2009

Salis said:
Man, people will get it on with anything. Having a fish tail is no obstacle!

Please tell me this thread isn't going the way of the dolphin porn discussion a while back.

Miguelito · Jul 10, 2009

Cyia said:
Please tell me this thread isn't going the way of the dolphin porn discussion a while back.

Sounds like somebody is trying to derail this thread on porpoise.

Trends are trends. While watching them can be informative, by the time it takes to identify a trend and write a novel based on it, get it accepted by an agent and then accepted by a publisher, we're talking years before it hits the market. By then, the trend can be easily dead and buried.

I guess the lesson, to me, is to watch and avoid things terribly cliched. Or at least be significantly different, what agents and publishers are always telling us to do anyways. If that can include mermaids, or dolphin porn, so be it. Just as long as it's original.

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