Writing Trends
or
The Literary Bandwagon Syndrome
by J. Brian Clarke

A couple of items of literary wisdom:

1. If there is a current trend, avoid it!
2. If you see a trend coming, avoid it!

Some years ago, I wrote a science fiction story about dinosaurs I called "Dinoshift." It did not seem a big deal at the time. After all, those endearing monsters are a popular staple of both SF and fantasy fiction.

Unfortunately, just before the story was dispatched to Analog, an inconsiderate genius by the name of Steven Spielberg chose to release his film Jurassic Park. The result was I received a polite rejection letter from Stan Schmidt in which he informed me that although he liked the piece, he had already selected a dinosaur story from a veritable stack of similar stories which had arrived on his desk. Everyone was into dinosaurs!

Not that this little anecdote has an unhappy ending. I eventually resubmitted the story to Stan, who accepted it. Happily, the trend was over. The little people had put away their dinosaur dolls and returned to their Barbies and G.I. Joes, just as the Master of the Universe always intended.

If there is a lesson to be learned from this experience, it is that I was careless. When I started writing "Dinoshift," the rumblings were already in the wind about Spielberg's film. Press articles, advance publicity, it was all there, except I could never be bothered with such media fluff. It did not occur to me that the man who captivated the world with Jaws and E.T., might do the same thing with a movie about dinosaurs, thereby launching a frenzy of palaeontological submissions to every editor on the planet.

There is also such a thing as an "anti-trend" trend, in which either by some mysterious alchemy of psychic communication, or perhaps because they read the same critics, writers abruptly abandon one bandwagon in favour of another.

Remember when heroes were young, good-looking, good-intentioned and irritatingly perfect? When (in fiction anyway) the human race stopped procreating because men and women rarely progressed beyond the first kiss? So what happened to turn the protagonists into older, boozing, oversexed slobs who subscribe only to the Commandment  (# 11,  I believe),  "Thou shall not get found out"? Is the anti-hero truly a reflection of our times, or is he/she a creation of lazy writers who figure it is easier to write about characters their readers have been media-conditioned to think are a reflection of our times? Sadly, I suspect it is the latter. On the other hand, I also suspect (and hope) increasing numbers of writers are vacating that particular wagon on their own.

I have a confession.

I do not mind writing about fat people, bald people, old people, sick people, "imperfect'" people. Nevertheless, I prefer my protagonists to be reasonably decent types with enough character flaws to be just as interesting as, for instance, a fictional killer who happens to love his mother.

Years ago, in my capacity as a member of the editorial advisory board of OnSpec, I reviewed a collection of manuscripts submitted for a proposed high-school issue. The stories, which were about evenly split between science fiction and fantasy, displayed a common and dismaying characteristic; they were excessively downbeat. The submissions included characters who were stomped on (by a twenty-foot giant), torn apart, burned to a crisp, swallowed into the Pit and so on. Needless to say I was somewhat depressed, especially because the writing was generally of high calibre, and because I recognized these youthful story tellers were reflecting their own downbeat view of the world.

They were young and inexperienced, so they had an excuse. Those of us who have even limited experience, do not have that excuse. To be successful, a writer must be original as well as creative.

Finally, if you still insist on being part of a trend, you can of course follow the example of Tolkien with The Lord of the Rings, Salinger with The Catcher in the Rye, James Joyce with Ulysses, and so on.

In other words, start your own trend!