This One's For You & Me (Or "Who Am I Writing For?")

"Don't try to figure out what other people want to hear from you; figure out what you have to say. It's the one and only thing you have to offer."

- Barbara Kingsolver

Barbara Kingsolver wrote my favorite book, The Poisonwood Bible. And therefore, she holds a special place in my heart as an author. She's extremely talented at constructing believable, redeemable, and wonderful characters, and her plots are always so rich in emotion with just the right balance of comedy and drama. And this quote above has now solidified its place as one of my favorites.

Writers write best when they write for themselves. Perhaps that sounds selfish, so let me attempt to qualify that statement throughout this post. I think that the main question a writer has to answer (regardless of if they are writing poetry, prose, screenplay, etc.) is who they are ultimately writing for. Audience is important, but it is not the end-all-be-all factor in writing. Let me explain.

There is a reason that I love to read the work of other people - other authors and poets, specifically. I love that my mind can be engaged in such a way that only they are able to do. Kingsolver, for example, wrote The Bean Trees, which is just a fantastic book about this young woman who goes on a cross-country road trip and finds herself traveling with a little Native American girl. And in all actuality, the book is nothing spectacular - and by spectacular, I mean that it's not a story that is revolutionary or ground-breaking. But it is real. Every emotion, every nuance is true to the story and to Kingsolver herself.

I suppose that it would be absurd to tell you that writing for an audience is futile and unnecessary. I'd be lying to both you and myself if that were the case. But there is a distinct line of difference that separates the realm of  knowing your audience and writing for them. Writing for an audience does not allow your characters the freedom to be who they should be and do what they ought to do. Writing for an audience means that you are writing to cater them, and them alone. It's this trap that writers fall into because we want so desperately for someone to love our work, to call us genuises and to embrace our stories. But at what cost do we do this? Sadly, we usually compromise what is best for the characters and the plot in an attempt to please everyone. And, as cliche as the old saying is, when you try to please everyone, you usually end up pleasing no one.

Truly, as writers, the only thing we have to offer is ourselves - our honesty, our stories, our characters. If we attempt to squish these things into molds that will be "accepted" by an audience, we ultimately lose sight of the art of writing. We lose the point of it all. It is good to know who you are writing for. It is bad when they are the only people who matter. It's beneficial to find a target audience. Obviously, if you are writing a book about a high school heroine who goes on an adventure with her close friends the summer before she graduates, chances are that your target audience will be people of the same age. Of course, there will always be outliers to this theory, but bear with me. So, you write this story about this girl - it is received moderately by that age group. You find yourself on Amazon.com, scrolling through user comments regarding the book, and note that some people think that your character shouldn't have ended up with Guy X and instead should be with Guy Y. They also don't like the character of her mother - they believe she should be more accepting and less demanding of her teenage daughter.

What do you do?

As a writer, here is what I would suggest: do nothing.

I am often tempted to change my writing based on the opinions of others. And if you are in stages where your writing needs to be edited, and your editor suggests that you tighten up your story by making changes then yes - change away. However, when you let your audience dictate your story, that is where you begin to have issues. Because see, while one lone reviewer on Amazon.com felt that the character's mother was too harsh, the audience member on Barnes and Noble's website felt that she was too lax. If you base a character's behavior on anything other than your own gut instinct, and knowing how that character behaves (because writers have significant relationships with their characters, I believe), you will cause that character to become erratic - they will begin to wobble in personality, wants and needs, etc. And then, you will end up pleasing no one - not even that lone reviewer on Amazon.

So I suppose that the moral of our lesson is that we should strive to accept criticisms of our work by our peers. We should write for ourselves - or rather, write for our characters - rather than our audience. It is significantly important to know who our audience is. But we should never cater them, or write for them alone.