How do authors decide what to write? What made Stephen King choose horror...

How do authors decide what to write? What made Stephen King choose horror? Why did Hemingway decide to write about the war? Why did Orwell or Dickens choose social commentary? Why did Philip K Dick write sci fi? Has anyone got some anecdotes on answering that question from popular authors which they can share?

King was doing a lot of drugs and was seeing shit
Dick was doing a lot of drugs and it made him /pol/-tier paranoid
Orwell was involved in political life
Hemingway went through war, go figure
Dickens wrote for money and entertainment, also he was a schizophrenic

To be more precise, Orwell fought in the Spanish Civil War. He fought for the minor communist Trotskyist branch (may misremember) while the bigger communist branch was Stalinist. Orwell saw how these guys declared untruths to be truths, how the newspaper at 'home' were reporting on battles that never happened while leaving out battles that did happen - how important players were imprisoned away and purged from historical records so that almost nobody remembers them nowadays, etc. So when he came back he wrote about what he saw in Spain.

Read Homage to Catalonia, 1984 and Animal Farm is contained therein.

For literally years I wanted to write a realistic and nitty-gritty zombie novel with lots of real elements of survivalism, and firearm handling in which proper terminology is used along. Also the firearms would be handled in a realistic manner and the way in which they are used would be very descriptive so that the reader could hopefully visualize everything. I wrote that book and self-published it last October.

I like sex, I wanted to explore a bit of a messed-up relationship that involved a rape fetish and perhaps PSAS/PGAD (Persistent Sexual Arousal Syndrome/Persistent Genital Arousal Disorder), so I wrote that book too and self-published it last November.

After several months of editing the first book because I had some issues with my grammar as well as exploring different ideas on what to write next, I decided to try an action book. In short, gun porn, and I LOVE me some gun porn. That one was self-published in early March.

Then I took a basic idea I had cooked up around December, just started writing to see where it would take me, and it took me to a drama with a very fucked up marriage and an ending that isn't particularly good. Not in the sense that I think it's bad, certainly not, but it doesn't quite seem like a particularly happy ending to me. Still, I like it, and in this book I also had an interesting scene that was both comedic and tragic at the same time, mostly tragic but still a little bit of both. That one was self-published around mid-March.

Now after writing the first book in August, before doing ANY editing, I went STRAIGHT into writing a sequel. Stopped after around 64,000 words or so because I had to get around to editing the first book for self-publishing which would come about in later October. After hearing some great stuff about my first book I decided to dust off that sequel, edited it in about a week (I hate editing...), and the day I finished editing I pumped out several thousand words which ultimately came about in an ending that I wasn't anticipating. Self-published in late March, and it's making me a respectable bit of money.

Wanting to keep up my momentum, I am working on the third in the series and have written over 6500 words thus far over the span of around 4 days. Sadly I've been sick and haven't been able to dedicate myself to my writing as much as I'd like, because I can write that much in a single day without much trouble when I'm healthy and determined. After this sixth book? I honestly don't know, maybe I'll make this budding trilogy a quadrilogy, or maybe I'll tackle another book. Writing is an adventure, and I'm fucking loving it. The fact people are buying my books and reading them on Kindle Unlimited is absolute Heaven. I've gotten six ratings thus far; three 5-stars, then one 4, 3, and 2. No 1-star reviews yet thankfully, and the 2-star is from someone who hasn't even read the entirety of the book they rated.

tl;dr

Just write whatever you want! Have fun!

Did this help, OP?

Should have used a semicolon instead of a comma at the end there, user.

nobody cares about your opinion

>OP asks "How do authors decide what to write?"
>Provide an answer
>No actual opinions provided
>"nobody cares about your opinion"
Having a bad day, user? You can talk to us about it, we're here for you.

I just derped fucking hard; thought it was a reply to my other comment. I redact my assessment and instead state...

Fair enough.

all good my friend :)

I guess a more important question is how to you write somethng that isn't trite. I don't know what to write but I know what I don't want to write which is basically I know I don't want to write about trite characters, ie. "a gender confused cancer patient", "a bipolar stripper"

I know I don't want to write about trite situations, ie. "a girl with cancer meets a boy who has OCD", "a experimental artist meets a trangender werewolf"

And I know I don't want to write in trite genres whether that is the "murder mystery set on the English coast", "thrilling/gripping crime drama" or "teenage romance with magic"

I know I don't like fantasy, science fiction or anything that is particularly speculative at the expense of plot

But the question remains what to write?

his not 1984 & animal farm work is actually really good & underrated

write about a hack writer that turns out to be *shocker* you

>hahahahaha drumpf BTFO

Life experiences and their personal interests. I know Hemingway was a soldier and reported on war for newspapers, while Dickens wrote about poverty and the underclasses.

Just pick a genre and write, forcing yourself into a genre and following its rules is a good way to exercise your creativity I guess

Ouch...

Well, at least, when I wrote my book, I based my character in me in a way. Tho it's a fantasy novel, i used more or less traits in my life and change them. After writing the first few pages, the rest of the story simply flow.
Then on the proofreading/rewriting process, more appeared in mind while reading and fixing.

its trite if its insincere

Are you the writer with a shitload of novels, being offended by me the person who has never written shit? Lol no sweat buddy

>He fought for the minor communist Trotskyist branch (may misremember)
IIRC he fought for anarchist Catalonia.

I try to humanize my character by giving them one of my flaws or quirks

>IIRC he fought for anarchist Catalonia.
Anarchists were allied with communists under the republic banner. Orwell fought for the POUM, a little communist party (I can't recall if it was trotskyist or not) but in the very same book he talks about how he wished to have joined the anarchists instead of the communists.

Well, not offended. Just didn't much like how you were all "So far all I know is I don't want to write like him (me)." Thanks for the compliment though, didn't know 5 books with a 6th on the way could be considered a shitload, but then again considering I've written them all since last August I guess you could call it a shitload. I started off a bit slow, but I think by the time August rolls around I'll have a solid 12 books out or at least close to it. I think I can maintain a book a month if I can keep myself motivated and/or determined. Anyways, good luck with the writing, user. I'm sure you'll figure things out eventually. If you have any questions about self-publishing then go ahead. I've learned a lot over the months. There's a HUGE learning curve to self-publishing, but that doesn't necessarily mean that it's hard. Pretty cool to think I've got about 233,000 words self-published though. Thereabouts I think, if I did the math properly. I also have almost 9000 words written for this new book. Don't know how long it'll be, but probably at least 70,000 words. Maybe up to 90,000 words. Only time will tell.

Oh I see. Thanks senpai

>I write schlock, but it's ok because I'm writing what I like!

I assume 'schlock' is bad, but essentially, yes. From what I hear, 50 Shades of Gray is terribly written. I also have zero interest whatsoever in reading Twilight which is apparently nothing more than a butchering of 'vampires' with werewolves mixed in, and an emotionless girl shell of a girl for readers to step into, who keeps putting herself in danger so that she can be rescued. It sounds like shit, or as you say, 'schlock', but... if the females who write it ENJOY writing it, then power to them. Sucks that vampires have been pussified, but let them do what they want. Since people are buying it and they're making money, then all the better. Even though those books get a lot of flack, there are undoubtedly people (mostly women, more than likely) out there who get joy in their lives from it.

So yes, I believe writing 'schlock' is ok as long as it's what the writer enjoys. If people wish to look down on me and/or judge me harshly based on writing what I like, then that is perfectly fine.

There is LITERALLY nothing wrong with that, kill yourself

>Women are this stupid.