I find this attitude a little strange. What's wrong with writing what you want to write? My assumption is that a decent-sized audience exists that wants to read what I like to read, and that means they want to read the sort of thing I write. My target audience is me and people like me. I know there's a huge audience for YA vampire stories (for example), but I don't want to read them and I certainly don't want to write them, so that's an audience I won't target. Why would a writer target an audience he is not part of himself? You don't want to write about your character running, shooting, and blowing things up, so why are you targeting an audience that wants to read that? Aren't you making yourself miserable as a writer by spending time writing what you don't want to read?
Because, like all businesses, you need to know what your audience you're targeting is. Do you honestly think that all YA enjoy one block set of writing? If you do I have ocean front property in Arizona to sell you. Finding you niche is all about knowing WHO you audience is and what they want. That's marketing 101. It's not about WHAT you want to read it's about WHAT the reader wants to read. Frankly, to be brutally honest, if you can't determine the difference then that's on you.
captain, Maybe this is where the intersection of art and commerce meet. You're talking about "business", but I'd like to think a lot of the time even the financially successful writers are writing for themselves and not aiming at a target market. Maybe they wrote what they loved and the audience found them, and not the other way around. Plausible?
Not really. People who truly write only for themselves don't share their writing. They write in a private journal. The truth is, every writer who is at all honest with himself or herself wants other people to appreciate his or her writing. And that is your market. Yes, even a commercial writer wants to be able to look at her or his work with pride. So writers balance market appeal with self-fulfillment. It's a waste of energy to pretend not to care what your readers will like. Also, it's dishonest, and if you cannot be honest with yourself, it will taint your writing.
Hi captainkate. I agree that one should NEVER forget her target audience. Honestly, I've tried that before, but after quite some time, I realized I cannot even drag myself to write. Simply because Ive already worn out the passion I have, the reason I was writing in the first place. I am not saying that I am right, or somebody else's opinion is wrong. Maybe it worked for you, maybe it just didn't go well with me. I believe though that when you write what you want to write, you tend to pour a lot of extra effort in it. You want to write what you want to read. And when uou do that, you don't lose your audience -- you actually gain them. Because for me, you're first fan should be your self. My idea of writing is not primarily targeting my audience, but creating my audience. In terms of marketing, that imho, is actually a good form of investment. When you find this audience who reads what you write, they have the greatest tendency to grow with you, not outgrow you after some time. Writing what you want to write does not necessarily mean you will get stuck on that level. Time will come you will try new angles, new ideas. When you stick on what you think you think you should be writing, your once-targeted audience will outgrow you, and that's inevitable. But when you create your own audience, you bring your readers with you. Long term investment? Most probably. In the end I think it all goes down what motivates you as a writer. cheers!
Absolutely not. They co-exist, that is if one wants any success (of whatever measure) in publishing. I would disagree that the target audience should be the primary focus. The primary focus should be writing down a story you want to tell, and writing it in a way which will also please your audience.
Urgh, first drafts... they tend to come out awfully for me unless I have a written plan for every detail. Which sucks, because planning it is horribly meticulous and I have all the details in my head anyways; why I need this written plan is beyond me.
Of course. And, as I said, the audience I'm targeting is people like me. No, I don't think that (if "one block set of writing" means what I think it means). That's why I included the phrase "for example." That means I do NOT think all YA enjoy "one block set of writing." As I've already said more than once, I know who my audience is and what they want. They are me and people like me, and they want what I want. Of course it's about what the reader wants to read - and because that reader is me and those like me, it is very much about what I want to read. What my reader wants to read is what I want to read and is therefore what I want to write - they are all the same thing. There is no difference. (end of threadjack)
Fair enough...makes sense. I guess I have a lot to learn in terms of the business side. Another great reason to participate in this forum.
I agree a little with both from everyone. Write what you feel like you should, but keep in mind who will be reading it but now not focus on it entirely. With that said, your book could be something people actually enjoy, even if you did not focus on the readers. Not likely I assume, but you never know what may trigger someone interest or you bay ride a wave of a new fad in the future.
Yes, get yourself some sticky notes, tape them to your mirror and write on them in bold letters - YOU ARE A WRITER , YOUR WRITING IMPROVES EVERYDAY, RELAX! Writing is hard work, but it should also be fun. You're creating something. Not everything looks like a gem when it starts out. A birthday cake doesn't look so impressive when it's a glop of flour, eggs, and sugar. Everything has a process. To the write with your target audience in mind - always good to keep them in mind, so long as you don't cliche your target audience. I'm a fan of 80's ya series - which was a big boom at the time - there was over 100 series to choose from - out of the hundred only about ten were truly successful. Out of those ten only four or five made it to reprints. A lot of them were ditched after six books. If the goal is get published - go with whats in style. If you want to be remembered write from the heart ( whose not to say the two won't meet up! )
Exactly, write, write, write and write some more. Writing is actually as much of a job as anything else; it takes discipline, knowledge of your market, and flexibility to move with it. I HIGHLY recommend people read the blogs from editors and agents to know what they're looking for. I know I've taken heat from harping the first three paragraphs, but it came directly from several blogs by authors, editors and agents. But remember: each novel you write, you learn something and get better at them. Of course, make sure you learn the rules also, which will allow you leeway to break them when necessary. Otherwise, don't pay too much attention to how "good" your first draft is, because you'll end up cutting, rewriting and changing/polishing in the first edit.
Not picking on you in particular, ck, but this always bugs me. There's no reason a first draft can't be good, even excellent. Many writers edit as they go, and have only minor edits/polishing to do when they finish. It doesn't work for everyone, but it's just as viable an option as editing and rewriting after the thing is done. I couldn't possibly write any other way.
I respect your opinion completely on that matter. Each writer is different. I will scan check my stuff with writer's digest when I do my paragraphs of description. However, I do enough typos, wrong word in place on accident (then when I meant they for example) that'd I never go forward. But, the biggest reason I don't mess with my first draft when I'm going through is that I'm too emotionally invested in it. PR has been sitting, detoxing from my mind, as I write DAD. Once I complete DAD, then I'm hitting PR for editing and polishing. It allows me to look at it objectively instead of falling in love with my words.
Well, while it isn't certain for writing, it's writer's block that's definitely not going to take you anywhere. But I know that just saying this won't help, I get the same thing too sometimes.
I find it hard to get into this magical state of mind I heard of where you're too drunk/sleepy to realize what you're writing is complete garbage. So, the first draft is always a torture for me, and it comes out as a sort of 1.5 draft because I'm constantly looking back and making small changes while trying to stop myself from throwing out what I wrote and starting all over again.
If I had my way, my books would never be complete. I'm constantly looking over them and rewriting them--and truth be told whole paragraphs can change based on my current mood alone. I might be in for something more descriptive. Or I might be looking for comedy. That's why I can never just revise certain paragraphs. If I did that, bits and pieces of the story would be happy, some would be sad, or exciting, or calm, and they would all mix and the mood changes would be too much for my readers! Back to the subject of writer's block, though. Although I don't write to get fans and I don't write for money, I've never known a time when I just wrote for the sake of writing. There was never a time I didn't want to be published. I never wrote short stories. Always books that I fully expected to one day publish. The only thing that I'm afraid of when it comes to the quality of my writing is that it won't be good enough to be published, or I won't be able to finish it, and my ideas won't be shared, the characters I enjoy won't be able to be enjoyed by others. I'm in it for the exchange of thoughts. Discussion is what I'm all about. The worst thing I could possibly imagine is an unused story--because stories that never get to see the light of day end up dying without even getting a chance!
The worst is when you have so many ideas that you don't know what to write down first and then after sitting at your keyboard for hours on end you manage to write nothing at all.
I keep all of my writing in a fancy 8GB flash drive. It is all sorted by the writing format, genre, etc... There is also a folder full of Blogger templates in there that I've yet to dive into, but that's a different story. I feel like I'm at a pivotal point in my life because the other day I read everything on that flash drive, even my old high school term papers, and came to the conclusion that it all sucked. I felt like some of it was too pretentious, or too choppy, or too boring. There was nothing in there I wanted to expand upon. I have a whole folder filled with in-depth character sketches, all done in interview style, and I hated all of my characters! I felt like they were two-dimensional with no clear goals. I like writing character heavy fiction so this was a total blow to my ego. Has anyone else had this happen? What does this mean? Should I just give up as a writer? I feel like reformatting my flash drive and starting over again, but what if I want to retrieve that crap later?
I'd never give up, giving up means you're accepting failure as an option. If you truly want to be a writer, you'll learn from them, read the 50 best novels of all time, seeing what makes them tick, and keep writing over and over and over until you've mastered it the best way you can.
Just keep writing, and reading stories that you enjoy. It's good that you recognise your weaknesses, better than thinking your high school term papers were flawless. You don't have to go back and expand on old work, move forward- if there are ideas you like use them again in a different way. In-depth character interviews don't necessarily result in deep characters, sometimes you just end up with a bunch of trivia or, worse, rigidly designed characters that have no room to grow as you write. Perhaps instead of doing these sketches you could try briefly establishing your characters and their goals and obstacles, and then just start writing and see if your characters come to life that way.
I agree with the above comments. I think means that you can look at your work objectively, and that's good. I have had similar experiences. I have written something, thinking it was my best work yet, put it away and forgot about it and then found it later, read it and realized that it was AWFUL! It's sometimes frustrating but I see it as an indicator that I am growing as a writer. Keep at it. Writing in my opinion is a mix of determination, dedication and practicing/honing the craft. Don't get discouraged and good luck.
Hey, the fact that you can recognize a flaw is great! It's the ones that strut around thinking they're Hemmingway or the next JK Rowling that are doomed. Not to say you shouldn't believe in yourself, but you should be as Luna Claire said, objective. Now that you know your weak point is characters - start working from there. A good way to get away from two demential characterization is don't think in terms of labels - think in terms or action & speech. Get away from labeling your character say - a hero - focus on what he does that makes him heroic - keeping in mind that each act a person does has a flip side. Hero's usually happen when the hero is afraid to react but charges through anyway.
