Any writer has at some point been told “You can’t write in a genre you don’t know” to tell them that they need to write. Frankly, I feel like this is a lie, or at least has very little truth in it. While, yes, reading is important for structure and pacing and narration reasons, it’s not the end-all-be-all of good writing.
The truth is that, while many novelists don’t seem to want to admit, you can learn a lot of these things from other forms of media, like plays, movies, and tv. For me, I have difficulty reading because of accessibility reasons, but I’m not here to say books don’t have any value to your writing.
In fact, reading and keeping up with trends is incredibly important when it comes to defining your book. Whether you’re shopping your book to agents or self-publishing, you need to be able to clearly define where your book would sit on shelves. I started my journey with this by reading books I liked with elements that mirrored my own story. This was when I read Winter’s Orbit and Ocean’s Echo by Everina Maxwell for the queer romance focus.
Winter's Orbit. Everina Maxwell. 2021. Ocean's Echo. Everina Maxwell. 2022.
I tore through these two novels in about four days (which considering the fact that, up until this point, the last novel I read was for school, that’s pretty good). This pushed me to dive more into both my shelved TBR (To Be Read) and my wish list over my winter break. Kicking it off with Heartstopper: Volume 5 by Alice Oseman and Chosen Ones by Veronica Roth, I managed to read four more breaks in the last two weeks of my break. One of which was a Booktok favorite when it was released: These Violent Delights by Chloe Gong.
I’m not an enemies-to-lovers girlie, but I wanted to see what the hype was about AND I’m a sucker for a good Shakespeare retelling. I enjoyed it so much I read it in two days. It was probably the first “trending” book to hold my attention and actually keep me ready for the sequel in a while (the sequel is going to be a summer read for me).
The thing about TikTok and, subsequently, Booktok, is the reliance on tropes and flagging words to sell books. It often oversimplifies plots and promotes books that check all the boxes. This is where I moved away from Booktok and went towards doing my own genre research.
These Violent Delights. Chloe Gong. 2020.
The first thing I turned to was the genre categories on Barnes and Noble. This is where I discovered the Gaslamp Fantasy subgenre and after some research, I decided this was the genre my book fit into and this would be the genre I would read in next. This search led me to A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab (and the rest of the series) and A Marvellous Light by Freya Marske.
A Darker Shade of Magic. V.E. Schwab. 2023. A Marvellous Light. Freya Marske. 2021. A Gathering of Shadows. V.E. Schwab. 2023.
Both of these books had me turning every page and waiting for more. While I don’t know for sure if I’m going to finish Marske’s series, I know for certain that I will finish Schwab’s. I’ve already read A Gathering of Shadows as of writing this post. Both of these were incredible novels and perfectly fit the boundaries of what my own novel had set. It was an urban fantasy set in the Georgian or Regency eras in England. There was a hint of romance that wasn’t the whole story and the plot focused on someone with a chosen one trope thrust upon them and a deep set of moral values. If I hadn’t read these books, I would still be marketing it as an alternate London urban fantasy with an obscure timeline.
I encourage reading when you’re able, but I want to also note that if you don’t have time to read that’s okay. That doesn’t make you any less of a writer. You still have other avenues for learning about structure and narration. It is a valuable marketing tool, though, and that’s what I hope gets across. Reading will help you see trends and what books are marketable and which ones aren’t (but don’t let that hold you back).
A final thing I urge you to do is get on to Black Booktok, especially if you’re sick of seeing the same three authors. This was probably the best thing I could’ve done for my reading because now my TBR is growing with books I actually think I’ll enjoy instead of books with harmful tropes and problematic authors.
Before you go, check out my bi-weekly Writing Tip Round Up page for a brief list of tips from this post and all my others!
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