It’s news to me, but I guess my writing is “weird.” A reviewer of The Name and the Key stated that the book was so weird that she would not continue the series. A positive review of The Step and the Walk mentioned that “at first I thought this was a bit out there.” I always thought my writing was different, but I never pinned it on being weird. Then I did a definition refresh of the term and actually find this to be a compliment! So I’m going to run with it.

I just came across a recent article for Writer’s Digest called “The Space Between (the Shelves): The Importance of Writing Weird Stories for the Un-weird Marketplace” by Jonathon Edward Durham and thought maybe I should talk about writing weird stuff.

After all, weird is harder to sell.

Durham writes,

Write to market, make sure it’s pitchable, have good comps, put a hook on the first page, watch your word count, keep the pacing brisk, make sure the language isn’t overcomplicated, stay inside your genre, pick a demographic, and write to that audience. Maybe you’ve broken a few, or even every single one of those rules, and maybe you’ve even watched a bunch of people who followed all of that advice to the letter glide right on through to publication. And maybe you’re starting to regret writing that story altogether. Listen to me. Don’t. Because if any of this sounds familiar, then you’ve written something weird, and weird is good.

I remember thinking Son of the Siren was going to be a hugely difficult book to query and pitch given how different its storyline was, particularly the plot with the stepmother. I had a terrible time finding comps and my agent had to help me when it came to going on sub…just because there wasn’t a book out there quite like it.

I actually think The Name and the Key and The Step and the Walk are far more mainstream than Son of the Siren ever was! But if I think about it…I don’t have comps for these books, either, where you’re supposed to used published books and recent authors as your points of comparison. The best thing I could come up with for The Darkening Gate trilogy was “Bridgerton meets Fullmetal Alchemist,” except my books aren’t salaciously sexy like Bridgerton, and only like FMA in spirit. So that’s not even the best comp out there; just the best one I could figure out.

So…why does it matter if I write weird stuff? According to Durham,

Weird is good, especially right now. Weird is beautiful and necessary, and these days, it’s more valuable than it’s ever been. And if you don’t believe that, you need only take a trip to your local bookstore, because there’s more parity on the shelves than ever before. Social media has created something of a feedback loop in style and genre and even presentation, and the more things all start to look and sound and feel the same, the more the exceptions stand out. The weird becomes noticeable, and the different becomes refreshing.

This is encouraging for me to hear. The Name and the Key is only about four months old, and The Step and the Walk is seven days old! I hope people find the book and are attracted to its weirdness and how different it is from other stories they might read.

Durham continues,

[…] that’s what weird stories are. They’re a challenge. They’re pattern-breakers, and that’s why they’re so important. But it’s also why they’re hard to get published. Because there’s nothing more predictable than a pattern, and anything else is a gamble. And in any industry, that’s going to be a challenge too, and publishing is no different.

Weird stories take time to find their audience, and there’s no harm in understanding that from the get-go. It can be a long road […].

I can outright say that I think my agent and publisher have taken a gamble on me with my writing because it’s not as easily classifiable as other work. And my publisher has told me point-blank that my expectations for success have been too high, which I think is a gentle nudge for me to accept that my books may be on a longer journey to find readers who want something “outside the box.”

When I first discovered people thought my writing was “weird,” I didn’t know if I should be insulted or not. (I’ve also been called a “weird teacher” in my student evaluations at the colleges I’ve taught at). But a quick internet search has me reconsidering the term, and that has helped a lot. Sometimes a perspective check, and some really good articles, are all you need to get your head back on straight again!