Life is not a genre.
It’s not some star-soaked romance or some breath-taking thriller. It doesn’t have the straining violins of a horror flick or the plot intricacies of a mystery. It’s not an epic adventure or a miraculous fantasy.
It’s all of those things and more.
Life does not fit into a box.
It doesn’t come with a tagline.
Life doesn’t have its own website or a Twitter account or a fanpage on Facebook.
Life doesn’t go by rules.
Life doesn’t care.
In an instant world and an EVERYBODY IS A CELEBRITY environment, we need signposts to make sense.
A genre is a signpost. And in publishing, a world full of millions and millions of stories, signposts are necessary.
Publishing has rules and gatekeepers and procedures and protocol.
If you want to wade in its waters, you need to follow the rules.
You need to tell a story in a genre.
You need to fit into a box.
You need social networks and marketing copy and taglines.
But life as we know it laughs at this.
Because life knows that nobody can predict the next wave, the next bestseller, the next phenomenon. Life knows it’s trial and error and luck. Life knows that “it is all decided by chance, by being in the right place at the right time” (Ecclesiastes 9:11).
My goal as a writer has never been about building a brand. If that was the case, I’d be quite a failure.
My goal has never been about building a fanbase or having a cool marketing tagline or finding a formula that works.
My goal as a writer is to write about life.
And life is not and will never be a genre.
Well Said!!
Those words are at 8 seconds and still ridin' the wild beast named Life. Thanks for sharing.
Norman Vincent Peale: Inspirational and Motivational Quotes on Life
If you are not getting as much from life as you want to, then examine the state of your enthusiasm.
David Carradine: Inspirational and Motivational Quotes on Life
If you cannot be a poet, be the poem.
Very well said indeed!