May 10, 2016 
mhoogland 
I admit that sometimes I grow frustrated with the seemingly endless homogeneity of submissions. Then I ask myself what it is that I want to see. The easy answer is that I want to see something that hasn’t been done a million and one times before. But are there any underrepresented subjects in fiction?
Well, this was actually the topic of a recent NYTBR “Bookends” piece, and it’s one I’ve been considering for a while because, honestly, not that many come to mind. Sure, it would be nice if fiction had a smidge more joy, but I wouldn’t go so far as to say it’s underrepresented. Novels need conflict after all. Deb’s desire to see fiction about finding a place to live gave me some interesting ideas though.
Where are the novels about the exorbitant cost of high education in America, and the average college student’s struggle to pay off student loan debts while working a low-paying job for which they’re overqualified? Or the ones about aging baby boomers sequestered in nursing homes, forced to adapt to a new way of living? Those novels likely exist already, but not in the same abundance as those about dysfunctional families.
Can our readers come up with some more underrepresented subjects? What would you like to see more of in contemporary fiction?
Well, you can expect a query from me in a few months! My YA novel is about two teenage girls whose differences stem from their parents’ different financial status. The twist is that the wealthier family loses its money and their daughter suddenly finds herself unable to go to college (at least not right away). The sequel is about the gap year she spends working in retail and how both girls eventually get through college and launch their careers. With no dystopian setting or vampires involved, I’ve been wondering if anyone would be interested, so I’m awfully glad you wrote this post. Thanks for the gift of hope!
Well, although I feel your pain about all the wallpaper and air-guitar fan fiction coming across your desk, you have to realize that writers tend to scan the buzz for whatever is most likely to get an agent to throw them a fish; by and large, (and I say this with no intent to smack anyone) reps and eds tend to dislike innovation and spend much of their time looking over their shoulder waiting for Somebody Else to break the next big thing. See Jane\’s latest post for some intel on this-and writers just try to follow along. One of my stranger scores some years back was spoof-fairytale short story I tossed off out of sheer boredom to a national kid\’s magazine famous for their bland sameness for 90 or so years; it happened to hit an editor who was sick of the same old stuff and I ended up making about 10K over the next couple of years from this outfit until the powers that be told my editor she\’d probably be happier somewhere else and painted over my flying saucer\’s parking space. (They needed to concentrate on important stuff like checking the shrubbery for lurking gay scoutmasters, bless their hearts) Anyway, with that tedious sidebar out of the way, I don\’t think that chasing readers around with a bottle of nasty-tasting patent medicine like Tom Sawyer\’s Aunt Polly is the way to a prosperous future in this field; you can use all the problems you mentioned in a darkly comic mix and make more of an impression. Takes talent, though-can\’t help you there…………………………
Personally, as a reader, I would have NO sympathy for anyone in a story about paying off student loan debts, unless maybe the collections officer. Ooh, wait, there’s an idea: all the adventures the collector has while trying to track down and shake down three delinquent borrowers, who band together to do him in and — let me work on this and get back to you.
Similarly, “aging baby boomers sequestered in nursing homes”? Maybe as a horror story or whodunit. Otherwise, the last thing I’d choose to read.
Stories about dysfunctional families are popular, I believe, because either a) they make our own families look normal, or b) they are so extreme as to not be taken seriously and thus serve as escapism. If they don’t achieve either of these ends, I don’t want them.
Life is hard enough. I don’t want to read what I’m living, because that’s a tale I can tell better than anyone else. Problem is, I don’t think it would interest anyone else, because he has his own tale to tell.