Each and every day I see the same thing, writers like myself scrambling to adjust their stories or forcing rewrites to accommodate the new 'swing' in what is perceived to sell quicker. If I had a dime for every tweet I've seen in the past year stating: 'Change your lead character to 'X' or make the story about 'Y', I'd be able to fund a screen adaptation of one of my stories.
Now, I understand why they do what they do, but the reason I don't is simply because it taints the energy and inspiration that pushed me to write the story in the first place.
Initially a screenwriter in my youth (not a career, more so a hobby), I have numerous scripts from the early 90s to present day with strong female characters, diverse characters and whatnot... I have since day one. But I wrote those characters because I was inspired to write them. If I just willy-nilly take a completed story with a male lead and just suddenly swap him out for a female, not only does that change the entire essence of the energy I've put into the story, I feel like I'm trying to pull a swerve on my reader. I went into this world with an idea and a hero, the hero's gender, sexual orientation, or whatever other facet you can name is a non-issue for me because when I created said hero in my demented little mind, it was a complete honest package, and that means something to me.
Have I been tempted to jump on the 'hype' train and change a few characters in my completed works? Of course. Did I succumb? I hate to admit it, but a friend of mine convinced me to give it a go -- and it was a disaster -- not story-wise, I just felt like I was walking away from a lamp post counting the cash in my garter belt. All I needed was a public defender to complete the scene.
I don't write for market simply because I write for what's inside me -- what moves me and for the heroes that I've created... those gutsy protagonists just waiting for a cause to fight for, waiting for an adventure to experience, waiting to inspire a reader. A lot of folks will write me off as a grumpy ole curmudgeon who just can handle change, or label me that typical male between 40 - 75.
Well, for what it's worth, I'm just a writer -- a wordsmith who follows the instinct and emotion deep within my artistic soul. I create heroes and villains, I write comedies and tragedies -- and if the literary gods of chance look down and favour me one day, one of these heroes I've created may just fit the current trend and... boom!
I'm back on the road to bountiful.
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