Mermaids

[TedtheThird]

Mermaids had a prominent role in the latest Pirates of the Caribbean move (if that's your thing).

While I agree that watching the market is important, I'm also a proponent of writing what you are passionate about. If Mermaids aren't a subject you have a passion for it will come through in the writing. I don't have a passion for Vampires or Werewolves. Regardless of how hot they were, I could not have produced high quality work in those subjects.

Then there is always the danger of mistiming the market and your book coming out just as a glut of Mermaid books comes out. I'd hate to be shopping a Werewolf/Vampire teen romance right now, regardless of how well written it might be.

[wilderness]

I've noticed the mermaid trend too! I haven't tried any of them yet -- waiting to find out which one becomes a hit. But I think there are a lot of cool things you can do with an under-water theme, a la 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and the LIttle Mermaid.

[CharleeVale]

I've noticed a trend within the trend also. There's no books where the person starts out a mermaid. Its mostly 'they felt the call of the sea and the land tearing them apart' type stuff.

I may have to write one where the whole thing takes place underwater.

CV

[polymath]

Is it time for mermaids, mermen, and sirens to come back? They come and go. It's been awhile since the Disney adaptation of Hans Christian Anderson's fairly tale "The Little Mermaid," 1989. And awhile since the Tom Hanks and Daryl Hannah movie Splash, 1984. Merpersons have been around a long time, though, since at least the sirens of Homer's Odyssey in Western culture, maybe earlier in Oriental cultures.

Ask also why they might be coming around again, and other questions, not just what's hot. For instance, what do merpersons represent in the collective human zeitgeist? One interpretation says they represent, like other creatures with part human, part animal features, humans' connection with nature and apartness from nature conjoined. As a theme, human and nature interacting is a longstanding tradition. Humans contending against nature, humans cooperating with nature, humans in coodeterminate relationship with nature, humans in confrontation and all out conflagration with nature. Codetermination, cooperation, coordination, contention, conflct, confrontation, conflagration, the seven degrees of interpersonal interaction.

Perhaps a human and nature themed narrative with merpersons central to the plot might be an effect-reaction to the overwhelming artifice technology has lately made of human existence. Causation. That might be new.

For age appropriate categories, perhaps middle grade indoctrination for understanding the impact technology has on human existence, black and white shading into gray, no technology versus total dependence on technology, contention and confrontation leading into codetermination.

For young adult, what, conflict? Therefore conflict resolution. Romance perhaps. Sympathetic merpersons or villains or both.

For early adult, I don't know, maybe merpersons representing initiation into full adult lives, from tadpoles to permanent land dwellers.

Middle adult? Late adult?

One of my most important questions asked, what does any given fantastical motif mean? Merpersons are certainly products of the human subconscious. In order for them to appeal to readers, they ought best touch upon their subconscious meanings to readers.

[maybegenius]

I've noticed a trend within the trend also. There's no books where the person starts out a mermaid. Its mostly 'they felt the call of the sea and the land tearing them apart' type stuff.

I may have to write one where the whole thing takes place underwater.

CV

Jackson Pearce (author of Sisters Red) just sold one Like, yesterday, lol. The premise is a soulless mermaid who is tasked to gain a soul by having a mortal boy fall in love with her so she can steal his. Kind of a riff on The Little Mermaid (the original tale, not the Disney movie). DUN DUN DUN.

When I went to the big SCBWI con last summer, lit agent Ginger Clark was specifically requesting mermaid/siren books, so it doesn't really surprise me that they're trending right now. Agents were snapping them up 1-2 years ago, and now here they are! That's generally how you can tell which "trends" are going to start appearing in a year or so... look at the patterns in what agents are specifically requesting to see.

Although I 100% agree that no one should intentionally write to trends... it's usually a bad idea.

[JustAnotherJen]

I am intrigued by this thread... Writing trends terrify me because I know I'll never fit in them. And while I love the idea of mermaids and look forward to reading some of these new books, it's definitely not the kind of thing I could write about. So I guess I agree that you have to write about whatever you're passionate about. But what if you're passionate about something that went out of style ages ago? I suppose I'll take hope from polymath. If mermaids keep coming and going, maybe other things do as well.

[Quill]

Do mermaids have enough going on with them to fuel an entire new trend? A year ago somebody said they thought pirates would be the next hot thing, and I wondered the same thing. I said why not combine them.

Then again I never would have thought vampires could provide enough storyline for as many books as have been produced in the last ten years. Wow.

[Ellen Faith]

I love the idea of mermaids! The Little Mermaid was definitely one of my favourite movies as a kid.

Though I have to admit, I would hate to see the genre of book I'm writing suddenly become a trend. *shivers*

[MysticFiddler]

I hope they're the next trend! I'm currently ghosting a book for a couple with a pirate/mermaid theme.