The next big thing

Polenth said:

No racism would also impact things like cultural beauty standards. The prevalence of hair straightening is due to straight European hair being set as the beauty standard. It means in certain areas, like business, hair that isn't straight is expected to be straightened or it's not deemed professional. In your class-based world, this'd be irrelevant as long as the hair was well-maintained.

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This is true and an important point, but I also want to point out the flip side: there is a tendency to assume that if a non-Western culture happens to have standards of beauty or use cosmetics in a way that remotely resemble Caucasian features, then clearly that means they want to be Caucasian, even if those practices predate European contact and have nothing whatsoever to do with Europeans.

No, if a culture happens to use white make-up for some purpose, that does not mean they want to be white.

Polenth said:

The issue that usually arises with this one is the world doesn't have racism, but the author lives in one that does. So this anti-racist other place just happens to have mostly white characters in the important roles, and it just happens that brown people get to be villains.

In a world divided by class, for example, you'd expect an even mix of races between the classes. You wouldn't expect the poor inner-city areas to be dominated by a certain race. Or for the rich and powerful to mostly be one race. But as you live in a world where this is the case, it's easy to fall back on that in your fictional world.

No racism would also impact things like cultural beauty standards. The prevalence of hair straightening is due to straight European hair being set as the beauty standard. It means in certain areas, like business, hair that isn't straight is expected to be straightened or it's not deemed professional. In your class-based world, this'd be irrelevant as long as the hair was well-maintained.

Basically, it's about thinking through what removing racism would really do. And acknowledging that neither you or your readers live in that world.

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Considering most of the population seem to be some mix of native/white/black and curly hair somehow became the norm I am not sure if this is much of a problem. A decent number of people do bleach their hair but like Kuwis said this does not mean that they want to be "white", or in this case, naturally "blond". I think there may be only one character with naturally blond hair but he also has naturally dark skin, shrug. The characters who actually bleach their hair are both women, both somewhat wealthy, and both somewhat eccentric -- it might be similar to how women dye their hair red or wear striking lipstick, kind of a "look at me" thing. However because light hair is uncommon and seems unrelated to hair texture or skin color in this population I wouldn't think it's associated with "wanting to be white."

Then again a problem is that I do not describe any of the character's appearances much (we know that Ceci has short dark hair, we know one character dresses very eccentrically, we know another character has long hair, etc). I should probably describe these characters more to make it clear that they're not "default white" but I'm not very sure how to fit all this in.

This project is currently paused but I am still thinking about things.

Maybe I'm just used to reading work where whether they are going to be stomped on by a dinosaur is more of a danger, they don't really have time to reflect exactly on what they look like. (Unless they are looking at a mirror.) And then in my own poems, the fairy only sees her reflection in the lake. But how she looks isn't really important, other than a bad complexion.

I think fairies could be any race though, unless your writing like Medieval Europe or something.

Windcutter said:

I think maybe it's the enemy image they have. Those giant serpents and Asian flying dragons are something like spirits or deities, or magical beings that can be benevolent or neutral or chaotic as they please. Yet the typical European legend involving a dragon says kill the thing, kill it until it's dead and take its treasure, oh noble knight.

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You're right. They're really different kinds of beings that come from very different cultural places.

An enemy of the people who can take a human form--that's pretty disturbing. And then a dragon also wouldn't need a grab a princess and eat her--he could seduce her. Even more of a threat.

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Which sounds like a great motivation for dramatic conflict!

Though most of the shape-shifting dragons I've seen transformed into girls... though this was anime, but these were European-inspired dragons...

I had an idea for European-style human-transforming dragons but the Doylist explanation was that I thought it would be difficult for a bunch of dragons to participate in organized crime otherwise considering their diet/shelter needs.

Well, I do think if you want to do shifting dragons, you gotta do it for a more interesting reason than "well how else can I explain this inconveniently dragon-less world?"

I think the in-universe reason was that it was a curse because killing humans is so much easier than killing giant fire breathing monsters. However the wizard or whoever made the curse forgot that making them human sometimes might make them better organized and faster to reproduce. Oops.

I was briefly going to do a dragon story, then my W.I.P sort of shifted into a more 19th century horror/dark fantasy direction. I may go back to dragons when it's not hot stuff. (I wasn't going to anything with live dragons though.)

Well it would be dark fantasy, if there weren't a total absence of magic.

tooloo said:

I’ve come across a few novels about sirens. I thought those, or mermaids, could possibly be the next big thing but it seems that they haven’t caught on as quickly as zombies or vampires.​

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Mermaids are one of those things where there's always some demand, but they haven't become huge. Which isn't bad news for someone with a mermaid story, because there's a niche there.

I have no idea (obviously, or I'd be off writing it right now), but I think aliens and space and such could get big.

There's supposed to be a lot of talk in the next few years about Mars and the possibility of living there, so that could pique people's interest, but who knows?

Aliens/space sci-fi has been tried already, for the most part, but never picked up speed. Last year some people thought it might be big because of the 5th wave (which is one part post apocalyptic and one part aliens) and that crazy hype, but even though I'm pretty sure it's sold well (I love it) it hasn't done what they were hoping for (the publisher put so much money into that book its sick.)

Mermaids are kind of the same. There's been talk of that being the next thing but it never took off.

This very well could be a watched pot never boils type thing because so long as we're leaning over in our seat to find the next thing, it's not going to come. Things never come how you expect, so stop expecting! Lol

I've now seen two articles this week saying male MCs. Happy because that would be the one and only time I'm on trend ( )

tooloo said:

I’ve come across a few novels about sirens. I thought those, or mermaids, could possibly be the next big thing but it seems that they haven’t caught on as quickly as zombies or vampires.​

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I am debating a story about a Siren myself. I'd love to read more as they are not overexposed like Zombies, Werewolves and Vamps.

Maybe the next big thing is the absence of the next big thing. (Wishful thinking) In my dream world, good, interesting books get published in wide variety so that we all have something we like and nothing achieves super-megs-blockbuster status, but instead maintains a decent following and longevity. *cricket*cricket*

I've noticed a slight uptick in the number of retold fairy tales (usually darker and edgier) on the shelves. Although, there always seems to be a few of those floating around. Still, there were several in the new books section the last time I was at the store, enough that I noticed that it seemed to be more than usual.

bertrigby said:

I've now seen two articles this week saying male MCs. Happy because that would be the one and only time I'm on trend ( )

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I'd be happy with that. Most of my YA ideas feature male main characters.

I don't think spec writers should panic. Sure, there's a lot of talk of contemporary, but there's still a steady stream of spec fic (not to mention thriller/mystery and historical). If you check PM YA deals, it's not overwhelmingly contemporary at all. There's a nice mixture of genres.


Here's a six-figure, three-book deal announced this week and it IS a debut:

NYU Musical Theater Writing MFA Heidi Heilig's debut THE GIRL FROM EVERYWHERE, in which a 16-year-old, whose father uses vintage maps to time-travel the world, must determine whether to journey with him to 1868 Honolulu to save her mother's life, knowing that changing history risks her very existence

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bertrigby said:

I've now seen two articles this week saying male MCs. Happy because that would be the one and only time I'm on trend ( )

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Honestly? I don't mean to antagonize anyone but I'd much rather the next big thing, whatever genre, was with a female MC, by a female author. Like the previous two (Twilight and THG). The reason I love YA despite its flaws is because for once it's mostly books by women that revolve around a FEMALE protagonist-- she's the hero, not the MPGD or damsel or sidekick to some guy. She's the star of the story, it revolves around HER. SHE is the one choosing between two swooning love interests (I know everyone hates the love triangle but still, it's a perfect example).
For once, it's a hugely lucrative genre recognized by the industry-- and it's dominated by women authors and female MC's. That's a big deal. And if suddenly the next big thing is (again) a book by a dude about another dude, that's disappointing.

Just my $0.02

Nicole River said:

I don't mean to antagonize anyone but I'd much rather the next big thing, whatever genre, was with a female MC, by a female author. Like the previous two (Twilight and THG). The reason I love YA despite its flaws is because for once it's mostly books by women that revolve around a FEMALE protagonist-- she's the hero, not the MPGD or damsel or sidekick to some guy. She's the star of the story, it revolves around HER.

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I'm not at all antagonized by this - and all my WIPs save one have male protagonists...! I agree wholeheartedly with you, and cheer every time I come across a strong heroine who is independent.
(The one girl I have in mind is someone who takes matters into her own hands, so she'll be fierce once it's her turn. Must get rid of those boys' stories first, though)

Nicole River said:

Honestly? I don't mean to antagonize anyone but I'd much rather the next big thing, whatever genre, was with a female MC, by a female author. Like the previous two (Twilight and THG). The reason I love YA despite its flaws is because for once it's mostly books by women that revolve around a FEMALE protagonist-- she's the hero, not the MPGD or damsel or sidekick to some guy. She's the star of the story, it revolves around HER. SHE is the one choosing between two swooning love interests (I know everyone hates the love triangle but still, it's a perfect example).
For once, it's a hugely lucrative genre recognized by the industry-- and it's dominated by women authors and female MC's. That's a big deal. And if suddenly the next big thing is (again) a book by a dude about another dude, that's disappointing.

Just my $0.02

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I just discovered (quite by accident) a YA novel called Emma Tremendous which features strong female lead characters. I'm 3/4 of the way through it and it is, well, TREMENDOUS. The author is A.D. Goodman, if you want to Google it.

Incidentally, while I recognize the lead character of Twilight as female, she most certainly was NOT a powerful character. Always relying on male intervention - be it vampire or werewolf - made her kind of pathetic.

Barry Hoffman's Shamra Chronicles and Goodman's Emma Tremendous (at least up to the point where I am in the book - maybe it ends with Superman sweeping out of the clouds to save them, lol) are excellent examples of strong female leads in YA lit.

But to stay on topic: I think the next big thing will be were-creatures. Specifically, were-unicorns as appear in Emma Tremendous!