OVERSATURATION

I was recently on a thread in one of my Facebook groups and a participant asked if anyone else though their fantasy genre was oversaturated.

Whatever genre or non-genre you write, have you ever felt that way? When you delve into your interest, do you feel overwhelmed by the amount of material out there? Do you feel like your swimming upstream?

THINK ABOUT IT

Say you’re a romance writer. Your focus is (naturally) on romance, so you concentrate on romance groups, other romance writers and romance novels. Ah, duhh. What do you think you’re going to find? Of course, you’re going to see hundreds, maybe thousands of novels in your genre.

What if you’re a literary author. Your focus is literary fiction. Guess what you’re going to find. “Literally” thousands of examples of what you’re up against.

Of course your field of focus is crowded.

OVERSATURATED?

There’s no such thing.

Since everyone has a unique voice, I go back to the Agatha Christie thing I like to use. Murder. There are so many ways you can kill someone with a gun. There are so many ways you can kill someone with a knife…poison…garrotte…polonium…what have you. They’ve all been done before.

The princess has been rescued a million ways before.

The bad guys have been headed off at the pass.

Folks. Everything has been done before.

VOICE VOICE VOICE

Why do these same stories keep getting told over and over again? Why do these supposedly “oversaturated” genres and non-genres keep getting more books published?

Simple.

Voice.

A unique voice and an unique way of telling the same old thing with a unique blend to make it that author’s own take is what makes every one of these stories different. Each individual author puts their own personality and voice into the same old same old and makes it something fresh and different. They add twists and turns and make them fun.

This is where you, the author, come in.

FORGET OVERSATURATION – PAY IT NO MIND

If you’re writing for market trends, or what you think will be hot, find another passion!

You need to follow your muse, follow your passion!

Forget about what you think might be oversaturated. Write what you feel and put your voice into it. You are what makes the story unique.

Happy writing!