Ramblings and I mean ramblings about reading and writing...:)

So, I do enjoy reading this blog on occasion called Pub Rants, from the point of view of an agent who has some bestselling author clients. She's very blunt and to the point about trends in publishing and what she/editors want and don't want. Anyway, I spent like 2 hours reading through the blog last night, because I hadn't really looked at it in a few years. To tell you the truth, usually reading these kinds of sites makes me a bit twitchy and uncomfortable, but yet I can't turn away.

For example, she makes all these lists of things that editors roll their eyes at as far as plot points in fantasy stories.

One of the reasons listed for why a SF&F book will get rejected at the query level is this:

Reason 2: SF&F stereotypical archetypes as the “hook”
--the mysterious object
--the unexpected birthright
--the quest
--the villain that has risen again
--exiled to another planet
--mayhem on spaceship to new planet
--Androids with heart of gold
--The main character as the key to saving the world or species
--the just discovered talisman

Um....isn't that not so much stereotypical archetype but Hero of a Thousand Faces archetype? What about that whole there are no new plots in the world? Isn't that what a lot of fantasy readers who fell in love with LOTR and Harry Potter and all its imitation fic really want? I know I am a SUCKER for a great quest story with mysterious objects and the main character who is sort of vulnerable needing to save the world plot device. I could read that scenario over and over. Now what's true is that there is a lot of poorly written crap that uses the above scenarios, both published and not. I would imagine that editors keep seeing the same soulless crap. AND this pubrants agent is also very quick to point out that ALL OF THE ABOVE would be accepted and sold if the story blew them away. For young adult novels, editors are rolling their eyes and rejecting stuff left and right because the market for vampires, zombies, werewolves, angels, and especially paranormal romance etc. is so over-saturated. Dystopian stories as well.

HOWEVER, at the same time these same editors acknowledge that teenagers (and middle-aged women, haha) are still buying these paranormal romance books like crazy. So if they KNOW that these plots are still selling like hotcakes, why on earth should their own weariness of seeing it stop them from publishing the ones that are decent (if not that original)? Most people, if they have a kink or plot point interest, are insatiable (like me with a good vulnerable main character and quest and mysterious object plot). AND don't all of us who read fan fic read and reread the same scenarios over and over again, as long as it hits our particular kinks? (like in LOTR -- fluff, mpreg, slave fic, Frood in trouble, Frodo/Sam romance, hurt/comfort, healing in the Undying Lands). And wouldn't you agree that if the fic hits your kink in the right way, that it doesn't have to be particularly brilliant as far as the writing goes? Now for me to read a kink/scenario/pairing I'm not as interested in, the writing needs to blow me away. That's a different issue. But if there's purple prose or a few annoying things in a fic that hits my kinks, I'm willing to look past it. Anyway, I've heard people say, "NO YOU CAN'T USE THAT MANY ADJECTIVES OMG BAD" or "NO PASSIVE VOICE EVER!!!" or whatever other things we learned in English grammar/writing class in high school/college about what is "bad writing" -- but then those same people might read Twilight and love it just because the story itself satisfies something in them.

Now I'm hearing whispers of this Fifty Shades of Gray, which this Pubrants person mentions on the first entry that you can see when you click on the link. I know NOTHING about it aside from it's supposed to be erotic and the book club ladies are eating it up. Have any of you read it? Someone on my flist posted a rant about it, how she's read way better fan fic erotica than that. Somehow I think that most of us here would agree with that. Anyway, apparently it's an example of writing that isn't that great hitting a particular kink that appeals to a lot of people and thus being wildly successful. And yes, the more you try to ban it from libraries, the more appealing it gets to people, I would think.

Anyway, this whole thing of seeing lists of plot trends on the way out and trends on the way in always puts me into a tiny bit of a tailspin because it's often stuff that I like or would like to write or am writing on the way out or oversaturated. Yes, of course I know you're not supposed to pay attention to trends and just write from your heart. So whatever, I'm not really worried about it. But it's still discouraging to hear that dystopian is on the way out, when I happen to enjoy that genre. I still want some more to be published so I can be blown away. Hunger Games ALMOST did that for me, but just not quite. I don't want the editors to stop publishing a certain trend just because they're bored with it.

Things I would want to read/write:

Modern day quest with mysterious object, mysterious birthright, vulnerable main character who must save the world (HEY, I did mention I'm insatiable with this plot, yes?)

A really awesome mermaid story

Horror but not with the gore, more just creepy and building in terror and somehow related to international travel, ala The Ruins by Scott Smith

Dystopian done really well.

Sorry, this was a bit of a disorganized ramble. Any thoughts to add?