Are You Ready To Take Over The Family Business?

A Trope Question - Come On A Journey With Me

I have a plot question and I’ve wondered if it actually happens in real life. Do parents really expect their children to taking over “the family business”? It’s something I’ve been seeing on screen and in books forever. The earliest example I can think of encountering is While You Were Sleeping with Sandra Bullock and Bill Pullman and the most reason is Book Lovers, by Emily Henry. I understand the idea of wanting to build something for your family, so support and sustain them. I understand the pride of creating something to pass down to your children. Yet surely a mature adult will understand that their children grow to be their own people, and might have hopes and dreams that differ from theirs. 

Do I understand parents putting pressure on their children? Of course. That’s a different talking. 

I think it’s time to search for the “Family Business” trope.

Okay, Googling “the family business trope” led me to some mafia movies. Not what I was looking for…

Searching “taking over the family business trope” led me to tvtropes.org and this link: tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/FamilyBusiness which I think explains it pretty well. It’s a relatively common trope used in all genres, not just the romantic comedy.

I also found an interesting article in the Harvard Business review about family businesses and how from large to small, families stay in the business, even if some lines of logic think eventually the “family” should be taken out of the business and led by professional management: https://hbr.org/1976/07/transferring-power-in-the-family-business

From my brief dip into researching the “family business trope”, I’ve learned that it’s something that happens now and has been happening for a long time. How many families pressure children into taking over a business they don’t want? I guess there’s no way of knowing how often that happens in real life. It does happen though. Searching “people who don't want to take over the family business” led me to these top two results: https://www.thomasnet.com/insights/10-reasons-why-your-kids-don-t-want-to-take-over-the-family-business/ and https://www.rbcwealthmanagement.com/en-us/insights/business-succession-when-your-kids-dont-want-to-take-the-reins. So, it happens. Often enough that resources exist to help people whose children do not want to take over their business.

I learned something about the real life inspiration for a popular trope. I have resources if this ever becomes a part of one of my stories. Hopefully, this helps someone else out there too. 

Some Thoughts on Procrastination

Is Substack a new way for me to procrastinate? I have a blog I started way back in 2006, and I wrote a lot. I used to post all the time. What if I had spent that time writing a novel or short stories? 

Maybe I wasn't ready for that. 

The year I started my blog, I got married. Soon after, I had children. Work, responsibilities, busy, busy, busy. Blogging was a fun break.

I think I’ve decided… When I have something non-fiction-esque to say, I can say it here, on Substack. 

Why not on the blog anymore? Well, I will cross-post there, but this platform offers something different. It's like a blog, MailChimp and Twitter (old Twitter) rolled into one. So far, I like it. Will that change? Well see.

It's also done a good job of enabling my procrastination. I need to create a limit for myself, since querying my fantasy novel and writing my gothic novel are my priorities. I don't want my new Substack to whither and die, therefore I think I should also set a minimum for myself. Three posts/articles/letters per month. I don't want to get districted: maximum six. I'd like to average four posts per month / once per week. That's reasonable, right? Will that change? Probably.

Does this count? It's just me thinking out loud (on fake paper).

It probably counts.

How do you procrastinate?

First appeared on my Substack

I started a Substack

I thought I would cross-post here since I still have love for my blog.

On my writing journey, I’ve learned a lot. I’ve gone to conferences and festivals, taken courses and gone to workshops. The most recent of them from the WCYR (I’m a member of the WCYR - Writer’s Community of York Region) and the FOLD (Festival of Literary Diversity).

What is my first Substack going to be about? Query letters! That’s not only what’s on my mind, it’s also important to any writer who wants to be traditionally published. In simple terms, a query letter is a writer’s introduction to an agent who they want to represent them. (They can also be sent to some publishers directly, typically small presses, who do not require writers to be represented by an agent, but we’re going to focus on agents.)

On the first day of the FOLD, my query letter was presented on the panel “The Sh*t No One Tells You About Writing” based on the popular podcast. It was an exciting moment for me. Each agent (Kelvin Kong, CeCe Lyra, Carly Watters, Léonicka Valcius) presented a query letter. They then discussed the letter, what worked and didn't work, then talked about the author’s first five pages. Not only was the feedback for my query letter valuable, but so was the feedback the agents gave the other writers.

How did I get to that point? How did I create a query letter I was ready to give to agents? I went to workshops. So many. I did research. (I’ve included a few links below). The best information I got about how to write a query letter was attending presentations. Before “The Sh*t No One Tells You About Writing”, I attended presentations given by Farah Heron, Greg Ioannou, and MJ Moores, among others. I attended workshops where I could submit my letter and get personal feedback. There are free workshops out there. I've gone to ones put on by local libraries and writers groups. If time is an issue, listen to a podcast like The Sh*t No One Tells You About Writing. There are others out there.

Remember, the letter needs to entice an agent to want to read your work and give them a sense of who you are. I hope we can all get our query letters right.

Check me out here: https://lonicameron.substack.com/

Non-exhaustive references and resources: 

https://www.theshitaboutwriting.com/

https://thefoldcanada.org

https://wcyork.ca

https://www.carlywatters.com/2013/11/04/how-to-write-a-book-synopsis/

https://www.writerswrite.co.za/how-to-write-a-query-letter-in-12-easy-steps/

https://www.writersdigest.com/getting-published/tips-on-writing-query-letters-to-publishers-and-literary-agents

https://www.writersdigest.com/publishing-insights/how-to-write-successful-queries-for-any-genre-of-writing

https://thefoldcanada.org/festival-events/the-festival-of-literary-diversity/schedule/3-the-sht-no-one-tells-you-about-writing/

https://www.ericsmithrocks.com/perfect-pitch

https://farahheron.com/

https://mjmoores.com/