So, you want to write genre fiction?
You’ve always loved to read, but your tastes tend toward Clancy or Asimov or Rowling, rather than toward Hemingway, Faulkner, or Melville.
Nothing wrong with that.
But if you want to write in the genres, here are three things that you can do to make sure you have a good shot at getting published.
1. Know the genre inside and out, and don’t repeat what’s already been done, sometimes to death. Nothing will upset a book editor more quickly than seeing a 300-page manuscript that starts off with a young wizard attending Blogwartz. Been there. Done that.
2. Do your research. If you’re writing about, say, space travel, know everything there is to know about the subject before you begin. Genre fiction readers are smart, and so are the book editors. Get your facts right.
3. Show the protagonist at work. You’d be amazed at the number of stories about, say, spies, that cut away just when there is about to be a scene that shows the spy at work. Nothing gives away your lack of knowledge more quickly than not showing the protagonist doing what he or she does.
If you follow these three rules, you’ll be sitting at the head of the class.
–Dr. Doug, www.edit911.com