Another suggestion/question Rock Star Assistant Meg and I commonly receive are specific writing requests. Sometimes a reader might have an idea for an entire book that they want me to write, or a specific character or theme they want me to include.
This is a sticky topic for a couple of reasons.
Books are copyrighted material–which means if I take someone else’s idea and write it, that’s copyright infringement, and legally things get complicated really fast.
Between plans for Angelique, additional Timeless Fairy Tale stories and spin offs, the second Elves of Lessa arc, expanding my urban fantasy world, finishing off Second Age of Retha, and circling back around to old projects like Life Reader, I’ve got over a decade of books stacked up and waiting for me to write. (And I’ve been planning a lot of these projects for years already.)
Of course I always love to hear what kinds of books and stories you’re excited about and what interests you–as a fellow reader I love talking about that, and sometimes it makes me adjust my planned books a bit!
But if you have an idea you really love, or a genre/trope you wish there was more of, I’d like to take this opportunity to really encourage you to write your own story!
Encouraging others to write is a topic I’m really passionate about. And okay, yes, it’s somewhat selfish because I’m just a huge reader so I will always advocate more books in the world–you can never have too many! But I also really want to encourage others who have a specific thing they want to see in books, because that’s how I got started writing.
In junior high/high school, I wanted to see more series with strong female protagonists in fun and vivid worlds! Since ebooks weren’t a thing yet, I could only check out whatever books my local library had, and their young adult section was pretty small, so I ran out of options pretty fast. My parents very wisely put me on a book budget, which meant I had limited abilities to buy everything I wanted to read. Instead…I wrote. As a result, Robyn Hood, Princess Ahira, and Life Reader were born! (And my first book–a terrible sci fi that we only talk about when NaNoWriMo rolls around, so SHHHH!)
Now, the books I wrote then and the books you see offered today are pretty different. They’ve been re-vamped and gone through major edits since I published them on Amazon–admittedly some of them could use another edit again. (Yes, I’m looking at you Robyn Hood) But even today I focus on writing what I really want to see–whether that’s funny urban fantasy novels, or fairy tales in sweeping worlds. And I have a lot of ideas I really want to see–I wasn’t exaggerating when I said I have over a decade of books stacked up and waiting for me, so don’t worry, there won’t be a lack of new KM Shea books anytime soon!
So, please allow me to repeat myself: If you have an idea, theme, story, or character you’d love to see as a book, write it! You can do it–I believe in you! And while it won’t be easy–writing a book is a lot like learning to play an instrument; it will take time and practice–when you finish you’ll have your story, and you will have created something you can be proud of!
This concludes today’s frequently-asked-questions-blog-thingie (I am SO GOOD at naming stuff, I know.) but before I bring it to a full close, I did want to mention that we have lots of writer/author-Champions, and some of them belong to the Champion Discord and/or the Champion Facebook Group. So if you’re interested in writing or talking about writing, you might want to plug in to those communities. (Here’s a link to the page that gives you directions on how to do that!) Thanks for reading, and have a lovely week!