Searching through all the books that I have time and again, I really love my collection of Louisa May Alcott books. I have one that consists of the thrillers she began with. I haven't read them all. It's like wanting to keep a treat for awhile without using it all up. I also have Work, which was written around her time as a nurse in the Civil War. Of course I have Little Women, Little Men, and Jo's boys. Stories that started about her family and morphed into something great.
Alcott is someone that I value when I need some inspiration. She was a female writer in a time where many were published with male pseudonyms to get their words into the public. She started writing things that she truly felt great about. Alcott liked her thrillers. But of course, an editor that told her they wanted something more feminine and from her experience. Instead of giving up, instead of being stubborn, she looked at her life and wrote from her heart - her family. This led her to a fulfilling career and eventually gave her the opportunity to publish the thrillers that her writing career began with.
I keep trying to find my story, the one that has a background in what I know while still being fiction. I have a couple of promising things now, after years of writing my own sorts of thrillers. (More sappy romance though.) My mom keeps saying I'm going to have to write for the audience first if I truly want to get published, then I can write for me. That's still a tough one to get my head around.
Is that what Alcott did? In some ways it is. She wrote what the editor wanted rather than what she originally enjoyed. In the end she enjoyed the stories she got out of taking the advice. So I guess the moral of the story is, figure out what the audience likes and brainstorm something from what you know to give them what they want while still being happy with what you do. Easier said then done.
