How to Avoid Failing Your Audience

[Story_Marc]

This is a small concept that, while I feel it's fundamental to understand, is constantly overlooked by many. So, here is me spelling this simple thing out.

 

[Ed.Spain]

This is a small concept that, while I feel it's fundamental to understand, is constantly overlooked by many. So, here is me spelling this simple thing out.

Just wanna say thank you! This video is really timely, since I'm currently re-writing one of my works.

 

[Story_Marc]

Just wanna say thank you! This video is really timely, since I'm currently re-writing one of my works.

Glad it could pop up just when you needed it then!

 

[Ed.Spain]

Glad it could pop up just when you needed it then!

Aye. You have no idea how much time I've spent looking for content like this. I've seen similar videos, but I prefer your explanations; easy to understand, see?

 

[Aader]

Or... don't write for them. Write for you.

 

[fcures]

Or... don't write for them. Write for you.

you are too old for this shit

 

[Aader]

you are too old for this shit

Yes. I am.

 

[Story_Marc]

Or... don't write for them. Write for you.

Yes, do this... if you're doing things like a hobbyist. Which I'm 100% for, I think writing is a great hobby.

If you wish to be a professional, this attitude has issues. But before anybody thinks I'm saying you must conform to the audience, no, that's not the lesson. This comes to something I've brought up in other videos: you must write for others, not just yourself.

This is the 1st Law of Writing for Strangers from The Secrets of Story.

The primary focus of a writer should be to write for an audience, not just for themselves. The audience seeks to be emotionally engaged and wants the writer to control their experience, setting and resetting their expectations throughout the story.

Successful writing involves aligning one's personal creative vision with the needs and desires of the audience. Writing solely for oneself or purely for an audience without considering personal integrity leads to subpar work. Think of things as a golden mean of doing both.

And yes, you can't please everybody. But you can please your intended audience. If you only write for yourself, your only audience is you. Do you know who else's audience was just themselves? Lesyle Headland. And look how well that went.

 

[LightNovelNovice]

This is a small concept that, while I feel it's fundamental to understand, is constantly overlooked by many. So, here is me spelling this simple thing out.

For me I like to re-read my story regularly to ensure the characters and setting line up with my original vision for them!
That way you don't have the character's personalities straying from their original selves.

 

[Story_Marc]

Aye. You have no idea how much time I've spent looking for content like this. I've seen similar videos, but I prefer your explanations; easy to understand, see?

That's what I aim for. It's also one reason I try to keep my videos shorter if I can.

 

[Ed.Spain]

That's what I aim for. It's also one reason I try to keep my videos shorter if I can.

Keep it up, bro!

 

[PancakesWitch]

I think the general idea to balance both things is to first write something you enjoy writing, and have fun doing so, an idea that isn't born from what an audience is asking for, but something born from your heart and creativity. Then, slowly shape it to become something for a wider audience by adding people's favorite tropes, expanding the world building and adding charismatic characters, fitting popular genres, like making your ideal fantasy story a LitRPG/Isekai after you've thoguht of everything and fitting it in to make it more popular for today's web novel audiences, etc
When you purely write for the audience you're only going to write the most inspid shit imaginable, something like all the copy pasted korean and chinese stories out there, which are all the same, have the same characters, the same storylines, the same progression, the same world setting, and everything.
I am also an avid reader and consumer of media, and I immediately tell when a story is written for an audience without the author adding any flavor or personal passion to it, it comes out very dry, dull, and terrible, and I drop them immediately. I also have experience trying to write stories for others rather than myself, and it always bored me to death, making me hate what I write.
If you hate what you're writing but you're doing it to be beloved by an audience, don't do it, the writing will ultimately come out as terrible and the audience will KNOW you're not enjoying what you're writing.
There's no "easy trick" or "follow these ten steps" to become a best selling author, NEVER. You will never find an easy trick, every person is different and every person's writing will ultimately come out differently, the audience is constantly changing, the algoritm is also annoying, and sales will constantly vary, what's popular now might not be what's popular tomorrow either.
If you start writing while trying to please someone it will ultimately fail, you need to first begin loving what you're doing. You need to be having fun, you need to even be OBSSESSED with your writing to finally start building a living and breathing world. Love your world, love your characters, love your story, only when you're writing what you absolutely love is when it will shine the brightest.

 

[Aader]

Yes, do this... if you're doing things like a hobbyist. Which I'm 100% for, I think writing is a great hobby.

If you wish to be a professional, this attitude has issues. But before anybody thinks I'm saying you must conform to the audience, no, that's not the lesson. This comes to something I've brought up in other videos: you must write for others, not just yourself.

This is the 1st Law of Writing for Strangers from The Secrets of Story.

The primary focus of a writer should be to write for an audience, not just for themselves. The audience seeks to be emotionally engaged and wants the writer to control their experience, setting and resetting their expectations throughout the story.

Successful writing involves aligning one's personal creative vision with the needs and desires of the audience. Writing solely for oneself or purely for an audience without considering personal integrity leads to subpar work. Think of things as a golden mean of doing both.

And yes, you can't please everybody. But you can please your intended audience. If you only write for yourself, your only audience is you. Do you know who else's audience was just themselves? Lesyle Headland. And look how well that went.

That was the Advice given me by best selling author John Ringo. I dunno what to tell you.

 

[Story_Marc]

That was the Advice given me by best selling author John Ringo. I dunno what to tell you.

His advice is his advice. I disagree with it for the reasons I stated, and I likewise pointed to people who succeed if we play the appeal to authority game.

It's why people need to learn to think for themselves and understand the logic behind it (and decide if they should reject it or not) instead of just parroting what others say. One should seek understanding, not advice.

That's also why I could give a detailed argument for what I said that explores the logic behind it and possible failings instead of just going, "This person said it."

 

[CharlesEBrown]

Nice. As someone who tends to mix genres regularly, I'm probably not very good with the "promise."

One thought though - the thing about the first chapter being the "grabber"; that absolutely applies to a traditional novel, but for serial novels, it may have to be more like television shows where you really need three episodes to get a feel for it. Maybe I'm mistaken, but it seems getting the reader's interest in one chapter is pretty easy, but keeping them there after the third seems to be a bit of a challenge.

 

[Story_Marc]

Nice. As someone who tends to mix genres regularly, I'm probably not very good with the "promise."

One thought though - the thing about the first chapter being the "grabber"; that absolutely applies to a traditional novel, but for serial novels, it may have to be more like television shows where you really need three episodes to get a feel for it. Maybe I'm mistaken, but it seems getting the reader's interest in one chapter is pretty easy, but keeping them there after the third seems to be a bit of a challenge.

Not really. While someone might get better as they go along (though this tends to be a cope), if they screw up early on, people most likely aren't going to be forgiving. If they are forgiving from the start, it's not because they're holding out hope it'll get better; it's because it's delivering enough on whatever they want that they'll turn a blind eye to the issues.

Also, chapter 1 interest isn't easy at all. I've touched on this in past videos, but nothing else matters if you fail within the earliest chapters. But yes, you need to keep it. It's easier if someone feels you are fulfilling the promise since satisfying what brought someone in the first place.

Finally, as I did say, genre-blending is possible. It's just riskier if done haphazardly.

 

[MajorKerina]

I love your emphasis on audience because that's something in popular media right now which has caused a lot of friction. If people don't like something then the creators say or allude to "Well, it wasn't for you". Then who is it for? If it's for a large audience then that was a miss. There's this big thing of big media writers being like they want to tell their OWN story in some established canon and it seems more often like it turns out not that great for most because they're pleasing a very limited audience that overlaps with their wish fulfillment and not the expected audience.

It's a great reminder for creators and authors to get outside themselves a little bit and consider different perspectives in presenting a work for people who may think/feel/take ideas/and respond differently.

I actually have internalized the chapter 1 thing as a personal mission previously. When I started a new project I knew every first chapter was going to be about some monumental proposition. Reality breaking book… Big thing hits in the first chapter. Family trip book… Complication arises first chapter. UFO encounter... UFO happens first chapter. Mystery in a dorm... mystery is out from the onset. Strange lake… Bad things happen first. The only time I didn't do this I was actually aware of what I was doing because I had a previous story in the flavor of an Isekai where I didn't set the normal for the characters and just jumped into the scenario. Since Isekai's don't give a lot of before and because of the nature of what I intended, I actually changed things up intentionally and gave about three chapters before big important things started happening so that normalcy could be set.

One of the best things that happened to me before I started on my most recent track of writing again was that I read about 240 books and picked up a lot of feelings good and bad about various narratives. What is established and what can be subverted.