August 3 question – When you set out to write a story, do you try to be more original or do you try to give readers what they want?
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The awesome co-hosts for the August 3 posting of the IWSG are Tara Tyler,Lisa Buie Collard,Loni Townsend, and Lee Lowery!
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3 Things I Write Towards
There’s no right or wrong reason to write a novel. One side of the coin is to write to a market that sells. When you write because a genre’s hot and you’re writing to create sales readers can tell. You’re providing a familiar product. Your readers are investing in the comfortable predictability expected from beginning, middle to end.
The other side of the coin is writing as a form of protest. A confession of sorrow, loss and desperation word-smithed into cherished tales of a hero’s journey. Margaret Atwood put aside A Handmaids Tale a few times during it’s conception. She never thought it would take, let alone be popular. I enjoyed Voltaire’s thinly veiled social commentary of his time to hard boiled detective novels that just take care of me. There’s room for everything.
Below are 3 things I write towards –
1. Real Relatable Characters
Growing up I moved around a lot. My books kept me in the same space and time as the characters I loved and could take with me anywhere. Readers want fictional friends they can relate to.
2. Anticipation
Curiosity builds a need to find out what’s going to happen next. A bird’s eye view of a character’s adventure related to my own personal struggles opened me up to new complex concepts that helped me navigate the terrain of my own life. As I’m writing I’m thinking, does this satisfy the reader’s ever present, “Why do I care?” question.
3. Vulnerability
This circles back to the desire for relatable characters. For me to get emotionally invested I need to see struggle I can relate to. When the character’s freedom and stability are taken away my empathy puts me in their shoes. The device I use to reveal a characters virtues to the reader is simple. I take all their stuff away and see how they react.
When you write a story do you go for a voice that challenges? Do you carefully color between the lines and try to give your readers what they want? Do you do both?
I’ll be out of reception until tomorrow evening on a Mendocino camping retreat. I will return everyone’s comments the moment I’m back unless captured by Sasquatch. Happy IWSG Day!