8d • General discussion
Chasing Trends - Part 2
StoryTellers, let's get tactical on trend-chasing. You'll hear those in the industry say: "We need something like Backrooms. Liminal. Viral. Franchise-able." So should you drop your passion project to write a liminal-horror spec?
Here's my honest Pros & Cons breakdown:
PRO: Market Validation A trending subgenre means there's proven audience appetite. You're not guessing. That lowers risk for buyers and for you.
CON: The Lag Problem Film/TV development moves slow. The "Backrooms" wave peaked online in 2022-2023. By the time your spec is written, read, and shopped, the trend may be saturated or dead.
PRO: Skill Building Even if it doesn't sell, writing a tight trend-piece teaches pacing, tone control, and genre mechanics. You level up as a craftsperson.
CON: The Clone Trap If you're just remixing what's already out there, you're competing with 500 other writers doing the exact same thing. Differentiation becomes nearly impossible.
PRO: Door-Opening Potential A well-timed spec can get you meetings, reps, or staffing — even if the project itself dies. The opportunity is sometimes worth more than the script.
CON: Creative Drift Chase too many trends and you wake up with a portfolio of scripts you don't care about. No passion = no persistence = no career longevity.
My take? The writers who win don't chase trends, they anticipate them. They write what genuinely obsesses them, and sometimes that obsession happens to overlap with the market.
StoryTellers, where do you land? Are you writing to the market right now, or staying in your lane?
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Chasing Trends - Part 2
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