Great article! I personally think that considering your audience before starting the writing process is important when embarking on a novel. People don’t have the time to read stuff that is not specifically geared to them. If you’re creative enough and a good writer, there’s no reason you can’t imagine something wonderful that fits any age/demographic/interest!
Yes. Since novels require a more significant time investment from the reader, I believe they need to follow a more predictable, audience-friendly structure. Reader expectations are so important! And I don't think it hinders the creative process. In my experience, adding a few audience-focused parameters helps corral ideas and organize thoughts. Short stories, on the other hand, can be sporadic and challenge conventional form because the reader knows the ending is right around the corner. Just my take, though!
Do you think that 'more predictable, audience-friendly structure' relates to authors who and books that may be classed as 'literary fiction' just as much as to those classed as 'genre fiction'?
Do you think that writers, such as for example Sebastian Faulks, who have written both literary and genre fiction likely have to adopt quite different mind sets and approaches when writing in 'literary' as compared to 'genre' vein?
I find myself inclining to the view that the writer's role is to let the story bring itself out... Dubliners, The Grapes of Wrath, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle... three of your mentions that I recall reading, and I recall sensing that the story (or the 15 stories in the case of Dubliners) was less a pre-designed and much more a liberated-in-the-writing creation.
Of course, as George Saunders has demonstrated so well in his posts over in Story Club, the writing emerges through what seems akin to a iron forging process, which is to say the iterative cycling from first drafting to reviewing, to marking-up for revising, to redrafting.
Of course also, there is no single 'best' way to bring a story out onto its pages and ready to be pushed forward in a bid for publication. When I ran courses, for example, one run I'd lead with theory and follow-up with practice; next run I'd go at it vice versa; always with some changes to what seems to get labelled 'content' these days (utter tech speak, IMHO).
Thank you for your comments, Rob! I agree. That process leads you in directions you didn't know you were going to go. Redrafting is always the most exciting time in the process.
Well, Michael, the artist decides how to interact with their readers. That can be after the fact and still work! This is rather my approach. I can't consider questions of audience until I'm in the final edit stages. Here you can definitely tweak for age group etc. because the work of getting the seed to germinate has already been done. I need the purity of No Outer Interferences to reach my goals in this sense. Once it's out, I don't mind thinking about these considerations, but only up to a point because if you start like you're consulting a cookbook, you might be less likely to do anything surprising. I could be wrong!
For me, the birth of a novel is a burst of mental and creative energy in terms of form and content. What comes afterwards is a continual struggle to substantiate that. I spend the whole first draft trying to understand what the story is about and what it means. Hopefully, by the time I'm ready to redraft, I do understand it, and then I can think about the audience , if at all.
Great article! I personally think that considering your audience before starting the writing process is important when embarking on a novel. People don’t have the time to read stuff that is not specifically geared to them. If you’re creative enough and a good writer, there’s no reason you can’t imagine something wonderful that fits any age/demographic/interest!
So Michael you come down on the side of writing as a form of project management (which can indeed be a highly creative activity)?
Do you think that this POV is more applicable to writing novels rather than shorts stories?
Yes. Since novels require a more significant time investment from the reader, I believe they need to follow a more predictable, audience-friendly structure. Reader expectations are so important! And I don't think it hinders the creative process. In my experience, adding a few audience-focused parameters helps corral ideas and organize thoughts. Short stories, on the other hand, can be sporadic and challenge conventional form because the reader knows the ending is right around the corner. Just my take, though!
Do you think that 'more predictable, audience-friendly structure' relates to authors who and books that may be classed as 'literary fiction' just as much as to those classed as 'genre fiction'?
Great question. I think my comment is more applicable to genre fiction.
I think so too.
Do you think that writers, such as for example Sebastian Faulks, who have written both literary and genre fiction likely have to adopt quite different mind sets and approaches when writing in 'literary' as compared to 'genre' vein?
Such an enjoyable read, so stimulating.
I find myself inclining to the view that the writer's role is to let the story bring itself out... Dubliners, The Grapes of Wrath, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle... three of your mentions that I recall reading, and I recall sensing that the story (or the 15 stories in the case of Dubliners) was less a pre-designed and much more a liberated-in-the-writing creation.
Of course, as George Saunders has demonstrated so well in his posts over in Story Club, the writing emerges through what seems akin to a iron forging process, which is to say the iterative cycling from first drafting to reviewing, to marking-up for revising, to redrafting.
Of course also, there is no single 'best' way to bring a story out onto its pages and ready to be pushed forward in a bid for publication. When I ran courses, for example, one run I'd lead with theory and follow-up with practice; next run I'd go at it vice versa; always with some changes to what seems to get labelled 'content' these days (utter tech speak, IMHO).
As always thanks for posting Camilla.
Thank you for your comments, Rob! I agree. That process leads you in directions you didn't know you were going to go. Redrafting is always the most exciting time in the process.
Well, Michael, the artist decides how to interact with their readers. That can be after the fact and still work! This is rather my approach. I can't consider questions of audience until I'm in the final edit stages. Here you can definitely tweak for age group etc. because the work of getting the seed to germinate has already been done. I need the purity of No Outer Interferences to reach my goals in this sense. Once it's out, I don't mind thinking about these considerations, but only up to a point because if you start like you're consulting a cookbook, you might be less likely to do anything surprising. I could be wrong!
For me, the birth of a novel is a burst of mental and creative energy in terms of form and content. What comes afterwards is a continual struggle to substantiate that. I spend the whole first draft trying to understand what the story is about and what it means. Hopefully, by the time I'm ready to redraft, I do understand it, and then I can think about the audience , if at all.
Bon chance^^
À vous de même :)