Is your goal to provoke? Inspire? Challenge? Fall in love or into disgust? I know I've read books where I've absolutely HATED the character but I had to finish reading to see if that character met his karmic end. I feel that it takes a good writer to create a character that makes its readers feel so strongly about. Do you think about reader's response when you write? I never really thought about this; I just write what I feel. I started thinking about it a few moments ago after the second draft of a letter to management was emailed to staff. The first draft felt like it was challenging the reader, and provoking a response. The second edit was softer, more inspiring reader response. It took these 2 versions of the same letter to get me thinking about how the choices I make in my own work make people feel.
If we're talking about fiction, I want mine to connect with the reader emotionally and make them reflect. As well as challenge, of course. To do this well it has to keep them entertained. I try not to dwell on it too much; take it into consideration for a moment here or there, and move on.
It depends on the genre: 1. If I write a comedy then I want my audience to laugh and have a fun time reading what I wrote. 2. If I write Science Fiction then I want my audience to relate to my characters and seriously consider how what we are doing now, relates to the future that will come as a consequence. 3. If I write Fantasy then I want my audience to lose themselves in another world and forget about everything else. It's not something I think about obsessively, but it is in the back of my mind.
I'd be lucky if I have any readership to begin with. Once I do though, I'd want them to think to themselves, Wow, that book is fucking awesome. How'd they come up with this kind of shit? I'd also like it if they fell into a deep depression like I did after I watched Nymphomaniac Vol. 2.
I want my readers to understand my characters, from the first moment on, from so deep within that they feel yeah, this could have been me, given this situation. Because if they feel this way, they can't condemn and judge. And when my story rides with them, maybe they won't judge reality so harshly.
I would love my writing to inspire others. Perhaps, give them hope, as well, and help them take the necessary steps through their own lives. Give them courage when they're feeling afraid, give them passion when they're feeling blue. First and foremost, though, I hope my writing can introduce a fresh perspective on things. Help them consider something they didn't want to before, and open their eyes on things they thought they understood. I aspire to write in a way that makes the work just escapist enough to get lost in, but grounded enough to encourage taking action in one's life. That said, I don't think much about reader's response while writing. I just write what's meaningful to me and, more often than not, it's moving to someone else, too.
I wouldn't mind a cult following. I don't need to be rich or famous either one, but I'd love for some folks out there to love my stories as intensely as I do.
This. Even if it means becoming the Tommy Wiseau of the literary world and people are using spoons as their bookmarkers.
I have no idea. Shake them up a bit? I like to be controversial but I don't want to be aimless about it. I also like a bit of humor. As grungy as I can get there's always a laugh. My WIP has been my hardest project. It deals with creative jealous and Hollywood and stars and directors, and fantasy and reality. Endless theme possibilities -- and therein lies part of my problem how to focus on just one. It will be as surprising to me what I leave the reader with -- as the reader of the final draft.
I would love to make my readers think up their own questions with no real answer. How would whatever thoughts they come up with actually work? After all, only so much can be hand-waved. If you create a basis and the reader has to figure things out that there is no real answer to, the conversations that arise are golden, because they are genuine curiosity. And that's really hard to find today.
My writing is very different from regular fiction or non-fiction writing, so it has different purposes. The RPG I'm writing now has very specific objectives. These are less about conveying feeling, but showing (hopefully) clear-cut purpose: 1. Appeal to the academic audience. I want the systems I am creating to be complex enough to provide players an environment that encourages critical thinking alongside application of knowledge while still being playable. Very realistic systems for space travel, technology creation, injury, and a myriad of other things. 2. I want to generate a believable universe; something that is an actual future possibility. 3. A game that is not fun by design. The game will be a constant uphill battle that punishes bad decisions. 4. Give a universe for the game master and players to create complex, memorable stories with characters players will grow and remain attached to, with a true sense of loss when they perish. There will also be fiction within the game to provide players a sense of what the universe is designed to be like. This should give players examples of the kinds of escapades to expect. Most will try to convey feelings of dread and the seriousness of the universe.
“Do you think about reader's response when you write?” It is the last thing I bother with regarding fictitious work. Obviously if it’s non-fiction I tend to pay more attention to what I’m trying to convey. First and foremost I am my ‘audience’. What people get from my own musing/imagination is not my priority when writing. That doesn’t mean I don’t intend to write something I wish others to read it’s just that doing so inhibits my exploration of a given topic. Essentially I write to see what I’m thinking and whether or not I can improve on my process. I’d say I’ certainly more interested in conveying thoughts on topics that are either very specific or a mishmash of several apparently unrelated areas. I also enjoy words for the sake of words: the euphonic quality matters to me.
Hmm. Interesting question. If I was writing non-fiction, my goals would be different. But as somebody who writes novel(s) I want my audience to feel the way I feel when I read (or remember) a novel that I love. I want to be immersed in another world for a while, and forget my present surroundings. I want to feel kinship with characters, experience setting, and I want to worry about the problems the characters face because I don't see an easy solution to them. I want to feel temporarily bereft when I close the book at the final page. I want to feel tempted to read it again. I want the story to stick with me. And I want to think about all aspects of the story afterwards, maybe for my lifetime—as my favourite novels still make me do. I might draw parallels as the story sinks in, or suddenly recognise some connection that I missed while reading the story, because I was too engulfed in the story's 'moment.' I want to remember certain characters as real people because they have become so, for me. I don't find myself particularly interested in fancy word choices, etc. Specificity is important because of the picture it creates, but I don't want to notice it while I'm reading. For me, it's all about immersion and 'story.' And afterwards, lessons and insights. Always great storytelling. I have read—and sometimes enjoyed—novels that didn't produce this intense, lasting reaction in me. I was able to be more dispassionate about them, enjoy the word choices, appreciate the craft the author used to create these novels, zeroed in on the themes, etc. I liked them, but didn't love them. What was lacking, for me, was immersion.
Entertain. Be it in a "make them laugh"-way or an action filled trip... to me books, movies and video games are just entertainment and so that would be my goal if I wrote and published a book.
IDK, but I suppose if I find an audience for my brand of madness then I will know what I want for my writing. Though I guess to be amusing, and hit the notes of tone that each scene is meant to. Again I won't know until multi-peoples read anything I have ever written and let me know just how shit I am as a writer in general
Even if the scene takes place in: The Kitchen Washroom/Laundry Room Living Room Movie Theater Restaurant Basement/Attic Broom Closet or Dungeon/Play Room? Though if it is that good they will hide it in their sock drawer.
