Welcome back, my fellow creatives!

Spring dumps a lot on my family.

The children’s school year is wrapping up, so there are concerts and exams and gatherings to keep track of. Blondie’s birthday is in May, which means hosting family and perhaps a friend or two at some point. My university is already looking ahead to the coming academic year, which means I’ve got to work out goals with my service work for Neurodiverse students and scholarship with conferences and such.

Hopefully spend time with my husband in all that, too.

And then there are the creative goals. I’ve been managing 1,000-1,500 words a week on my WIP; that may not sound like much, but in the midst of life’s obligations, I’m pretty damn proud.

I have a short story I would LOVE to submit for a contest, but it’s too long for most short story word counts. Hmmm, maybe I could expand it into a novella…

ANYWAY.

The past month or so I’ve pondered the risk of bucking trends. We see trends in publishing all the time: the rise of the fairy-tale re-telling. The rise of the myth re-telling. The rise of romantasy. The rise of the “spicy” label. Out of curiosity, I tried Googling romantasy publications 2025. I stopped counting after 200.

I tried Googling romantasy publications 2020. Nothing.

It doesn’t take much time for a trend to evolve. And while I have no problems with folks enjoying what they enjoy, it is a bit disheartening when a few subgenres spawn like gremlins and storm the bookshelves, crowding out the possibility that other subgenres can survive to reach other kinds of audiences.

Audiences in particular are on my mind, mainly because of my mom-status. Were Blondie to read the trendy fiction, she’d have a feast of options out there. But Blondie prefers manga, and in that, finds it much more economical to request copies from the local library because manga volumes are quick reads. What about teen boys like Biff and Bash? Even a quick Google search will acknowledge that the number of female-centric books out there buries any sort of fiction catering to males. That’s what makes a series like Dungeon Crawler Carl almost an anomaly in the current publishing sphere. A dude-series doing well? Imagine that!

Now this isn’t about writing for dudes vs. dudettes; I already blogged about that a while ago. No, this little pondering is about jumping into the popular sphere vs. trekking out into the unknown.

Trendy tropes, settings, and character archetypes are seen as safe marketing bets. They’re easy to reference in a pitch to agent or publisher, and make for quick marketing leads on social media (“If you liked G, you’ll loooove R!”). I get it–my first novel, Fallen Princeborn: Stolen, wove into the hip-at-the-time fairy-tale retelling trend, as Beauty and the Beast was a big influence on that novel. Dark fantasy, too, was a popular subgenre thanks to the likes of Holly Black’s The Cruel Prince. I saw the popularity of the storytelling and the subgenre, and went for it.

There’s nothing wrong with taking advantage of a trend if it fits your story. Doing so aids your marketing and helps you connect with more potential readers. Forcing your story to fit a trend is another matter.

I look at my WIP which, thanks to fellow Story Empire resident C.S. Boyack, I can now happily classify as Dieselpunk. A Google search of Dieselpunk titles published in 2025 reveals…four books, one of which focuses on the subgenre itself.

Not exactly trending.

Does that mean I should force a “spicy” element into my story? Equip a common folktale or myth into the plotline for easy recognizability?

Well…it’s a story about twin brothers, so, um, no. No spice. I don’t know of a particular folktale or myth, though I suppose Man in the Iron Mask could be considered an influence. Anyone remember that Leonard DiCaprio installment?

Seriously, it’s okay not to jump into the trends.

It’s easy to get lost in a sea of choices. How does one make their title or series stand out in a trend of hundreds of options? As an indie writer with little time on her hands, I don’t have the mental bandwidth to unpuzzle that puzzle.

I have found the subgenre that fits this story’s vision. It’s a subgenre that still carries some expectations like any popular trend, but doesn’t require an aircraft carrier of resources to traverse the ocean of other titles, either.

Please don’t feel like you have to warp your story’s vision for the sake of a trend. If it fits, great! If it doesn’t, great! Why can’t YOU be the trend-setter? Revel in knowing you, my friends, can set your own expectations.

Trends may ebb and flow, and there will be times you wish to wade through their waters. But don’t be afraid to venture out, out beyond the Safe Known, where readers and writers alike can experience wonders no trend could ever predict.

Do you consider trends as you develop WIPs? Why or why not? I’d love to hear!

Coming up, I’ve got another author interview, thoughts from Blondie, adventurous music, and more. Stay tuned!

Read on, share on, and write on, and my friends!