Should You Write Something Different?

By G. Miki Hayden
Instructor at Writer's Digest University online and private writing coach
firstwriter.com – Sunday October 22, 2023
The obvious answer to that simple question would seem to be yes, but it’s not the answer I’m going to give you—since I care about the outcome for you. I’ll, instead, give you a qualified yes and tell you to write something different than everything that’s out there if you can’t help yourself—if the urge is too strong to resist.
Rather a while back I wrote a wholly different novel about Jesus the Christ. Quite different, in fact. That is to say an actually spiritual novel based on my training in a secret spiritual lineage: an original novel. (Which you can find currently on Smashwords—Jesus of Nazareth.) I knew I had only a few publishing houses I might approach and very few agents, but I was impelled to produce this rather different novel due to the materialistic understandings offered in a few contemporary novels. Jesus starting out as an anti-Roman revolutionary? Seriously? I had to utter a resounding no to something missing the mark by that far. Or a Jesus so fully human that not a touch of the divine might be found within his suffering. Puzzling. From a Christian publisher, I got “If we want a book about Jesus, we’ll have one of our own people write it.” So then, forget about originality and creativity. Apparently people only want their own opinions played back. Yeah, no surprises there.
Or picture me hunting down an agent amid the negatives directed at my latest production of human wisdom (if I may say so myself). An agent I knew through other means told me, “You write well, but I don’t like the book.” Yes, I’m quoting. Never mind “Not for my list. Best of luck.” You know, the typical phrases that agents use to convey a pinch of faux humility. This guy had none of that.
The book my agent acquaintance hated (though he probably read no more than a page or two), is Rescued, now out on Amazon from an honest-to-goodness publisher, having been rejected by the very few agents willing to even have a peek. And all would no doubt have thrust book two in the Rebirth series, Re-Live, aside as well—a wholly different book from what is being published these days, certainly suited to follow Rescued, both presenting transforming protagonists who are deep into the martial arts and have some appearance of contemporary heroes. Are you, like me, the victim of your own inspiration and what an editor I listened to recently called the flatness of our culture?
These two different novels of mine put out by a thoroughly professional, traditional publishing house, traditional, not a self-publisher or a vanity press. The line was started by a man whose brother was writing different and wasn’t having any luck in publishing. Now the publishing house is picking up books/novels that are both different and genre, but all well written and that have a following. That’s why I wanted to take a pause here and actually encourage you.
Just as we have a choice as writers between seeking a traditional publisher and self-publishing as I pointed out on this site a couple of months ago, so too do we have a choice between swinging at the fences with either different or predictable (mostly genre).
Yes, here comes the subject of genre, which is pretty much what is allowed to publish out there. I’ve published mystery, science fiction, fantasy, young adult, and action-adventure—and enjoyed all that. These were supposedly different, but not so different as my non-genre different such as Rescued and Re-live. I love them all and feel chuffed that I have reached that far into the literary world.
But what a delight to give the world something that aspires to innovation and inspiration. And what a downer that no one listens when we burst out with different. Think of John Kennedy Toole, author of the Pulitzer-Prize-winning A Confederacy of Dunces (1981), published after his death with the help of author Walker Percy and Toole’s mother. The book’s title derives from a Jonathan Swift essay that advises, “When a true genius appears in the world, you may know him by this sign, that the dunces are all in confederacy against him."
So, should we write different? If we can’t help ourselves. Not an easy choice, is it? Publishing is a tough business whether we write “different” or by forcing ourselves into publication by writing something more conventional. Producing an ordinary work that might bring you into the world of the usual isn’t a bad thing. That takes you closer to the one million words said to result in a credible writer. So then, if you write “different,” you may do it in better style. Will the world pay attention? The best I can say is, I wish you good luck.
About the Author
G. Miki Hayden is a short story Edgar winner. She teaches a mystery writing and a thriller writing and other writing classes at Writer's Digest online university. The third edition of her Writing the Mystery is available through Amazon and other good bookshops. She is also the author of The Naked Writer, a comprehensive, easy-to-read style and composition guide for all levels of writers.
Miki's most recent novel out is Respiration, the third book in her Rebirth Series. The New York Times gave her Pacific Empire a rave and listed it on that year's Summer Reading List. Miki is a short story Edgar winner for "The Maids," about the poisoning of French slave holders in Haiti.
"Holder, Oklahoma Senior Police Officer Aaron Clement is out for justice above all, even if he irritates the local hierarchy. Hayden in Dry Bones gives us nothing-barred investigation and plenty of nitty-gritty police procedure—which makes for a real page turner." — Marianna Ramondetta, author of The Barber from Palermo