How to be a reader: Author responsibility

Well, I think the last post and the comments that followed were a perfect example to illustrate what I was talking about. We had over 100 comments (many were deleted due to their inflammatory nature) presenting many diverse opinions. Some said they'd never read my books but based on that post were going to now. At least one former fan said he/she was a fan no more based on the same thing. Some said they loved the post, some said it was boring and pointless. Some agreed vehemently, others disagreed just as vehemently. And everyone was responding to the exact same words. That's the power of personal interpretation.

And on to part 2, which many of you vigilante readers have guessed, is about the author's responsibility. Hopefully glimpsing my side of the equation will edify and enrich your own reading experience.I'm going to lay out my own opinion. Feel free to agree or disagree, but I ask you do so respectfully and without attacking me, other commenters, or any other party. If you have loads to say, it might work best to post it on your own blog and put a briefer comment here with a link to your blog. And please remember, no spoilers, though I don't know why that would come up in this topic.

So, does an author have a responsibility to her fans?

First off, in my opinion, a writer/reader relationship cannot and should not be subject to the same kinds of rules in a business relationship. In business, you are always thinking about the client, trying to figure out what the market wants and needs, working to keep the customer happy. This is smart business. But in any creative art, trying to follow that model would not only be quixotic but dishonest. Does anyone really want art that is created purely to please the masses? I think about Dark Knight, a movie hugely popular with both fans and critics. That was made from a unique vision. It was written and directed by an artist and went against many movie conventions of that genre. It worked not because it was designed to please the masses, following previous conventions, but because it followed the writer/director’s unique vision. We've all seen movies that are make with a board room mentality, and they stink. In creative arts, we don’t want to be pandered to by someone trying desperately to please us in order to get our money.

I think I have talked about this before, but there is no way that I can think about fans when I write. I don't write for my fans. I would be absolutely terrified of putting down a single word if I tried to think about what my fans wanted or what I owe them as an author. I cannot write to anyone outside myself--if I tried, it would be a horrible story, flat and lifeless. I write to myself. That's the only person I'm trying to please. And if that sounds like a cop-out, please understand that I am my own toughest critic. No one could be harder on me, my writing style, my storytelling ability, my ideas, anything, than I am on myself. I am ruthless (often painfully so--ask my husband). And I have a tough editor and others who read for me. I take their feedback extremely seriously and I rewrite myself to death. It's the only insurance I have against the inevitable criticism that follows any book publication.

Every professional novelist I know feels the same way--we have to write to ourselves and shut off the outside voices. If any writer claims to write to her fans first, I would be first, skeptical, and second, wary. We've probably all read books that aren't written to the author's internal reader, and they have that board room feel, more like an advertisement than true story. Books like that just don't work.

Now that doesn't mean I don't hope that I please my fans. I do. Desperately. Embarrassingly so, perhaps. And if I was really sure what my fans wanted out of a story, even if it wasn't what I wanted, I'd be tempted to write it to them. I've learned, however, that you can never know. As a writer, you have to trust yourself. That is so hard to do, but an absolute necessity. On example: when I wrote Princess Academy, I was pretty sure no one would like it, especially the ending. But I worked very hard to turn off those fears and the desire to second guess what readers want, and I wrote it to my internal reader. I remember doing book signings when it first came out and trying to talk people out of buying it, suggesting they read Goose Girl instead. Now, as I mentioned last post, Princess Academy has turned out to be my most popularly successful, as well as critically lauded, book. If I'd tried to write to the fans, or to what I thought the fans wanted, that book would have fallen flat on its face and disappeared. And it was also possible that the story that pleased my internal reader wouldn't please anyone else. But that was the risk I had to take.

I owe it to myself to write the very best story possible. If I mess up, it's my name on the book, not my fans'. I'm the one who has to live with my mistakes and regret them every day and cringe at the thought of people reading them. It will be my humiliation.

Besides the humiliation factor, there is profound motivation for an author to always do her best. Say I publish a book that I rush through, that I don't feel good about but I think, well, I'm feeling lazy this year, it's good enough. Ack! (Really, even the thought of that makes sensations of cold run down my legs.) Then my fans will be disappointed and won't buy any more of my books. If I have a hope in maintaining a career, I need to keep doing my best, never taking it for granted, working just as hard on each book, and trying to live as best I can, being a genuine person, opening myself up to people and to new ideas, reading good books, and in every way nurturing my internal reader so I can keep telling good stories. Other professional novelists I know feel the same way.

I know it's a risk reading a book. You're being asked to trust an author in order to fall into a story. In the hands of a good writer, that can be an amazing experience. In the hands of a lousy writer, that can feel violating. (And by "good" I mean "good for your own internal reader" and "bad" I mean "bad for your own internal reader". There is no way I could brand any book or writer as good or bad in any absolute terms.) But happily in our world we have libraries, and the reader can sample for free most any book without having to pay for it. No one is obligated to buy in order to read. That alone, I think, hugely affects the writer/reader dynamic. (FYI--if your library doesn’t have a book you want to read, you can request that they order it.)

In the reading relationship, the reader has as much power as the writer, I believe. You choose the stories you want to read, you choose how quickly you read, when you read, if you keep reading, if you reread. You visualize the characters, the story, the sounds and smells and feelings. You take lifeless words and bring them to life. You're like the director of the movie, taking the raw words of a script and blowing them up into full color on the screen. To a large extent, a movie viewer is merely a witness to the story, but a reader is a participant in the story. This is what makes reading such a profoundly intimate experience, so unique reader-to-reader, and also so powerful.

Now I can only speak for myself, but I can tell you I never publish a book that hasn't gone through the ringer until it absolutely pleases my internal reader. That's the only guarantee I can give you--that I am happy with this book. I have no idea if you will be. When a reader doesn't like a book from an author whose previous books they adored, often speculation ensues: well, she must have cut corners, she must have been lazy, she worked hard on those other books but this one she let flop. I think these speculations are only natural, but they are also fundamentally flawed. If the author says this too is a book born from her internal reader and the best one she could create, then I think it wise to accept that. She's done her part, she's done her best. And the readers don't have to like it or ever buy another book of hers again. But in my opinion, that relationship has been fulfilled. It's very sad for both parties when the fan is dissatisfied, but that's how it works in the creative arts. (More on speculation next post in part 3…)

As writers, we take frightening risks in writing something people might despise, but we put it out there and hope for the best. Readers too take risks whenever we turn ourselves over to an artist's vision. Sometimes we’re disappointed, but in my opinion, it's worth the risk.

So, I write to my internal reader--you read to see if my internal reader and your internal reader are kindred spirits. If they're not, we go our separate ways. If they are, then what connection, what serendipity, what joy! We get to tell a story together.

Comments

[Dawn]

I too am a writer. I understand the adage "if you can't please yourself, then you can't please anyone else." My only issue with what SM is doing is its intrinsic unfairness to her rabidly loyal fans. I understand her heart's not in it right now. But,there's also the adage of making promises and then not keeping them. The next time you "promise" something, folks are going to be less inclined to believe you. She promised her fans she would finish this book. Got us all excited about it, gave us progress updates on it, and now.... That,to me, is the sticky point. I guess if she hand't have done that, I would feel differently. You don't promise things and then go back on it because one person, whom you thought you could trust, ended up being untrustworthy. She should be angry with that person -banish them from her inner circle; don't punish the fans. It's like throwing out the baby with the bathwater. We didn't do anything wrong. (I count myself as a huge fan) Now we're left twisting in the wind, with a partial draft of a novel, waiting to see if she ever decides to finish it. For me, it would've been better if she just had it taken off the web period and not published what she did on her web site. It's like we're being teased. What she has posted of Midnight Sun is wonderful. I love hearing Edward's perspective on things. His internal struggle of what he should/shouldn't do. Watching him fall in love and not realize that's what he's doing until Alice points it out to him because he never thought that experience would come his way. I'm really sad that's all we're going to get for who knows how long. The only hope we have is that she's often said her characters speak to her, sometimes demandingly, about what "they want." I'm hoping Edward bugs the life out of her and shouts at her to finish his story.

[pens]

Longtime lurker but first time poster :) Really interesting posts-thank you for sharing your perspective. I thought your comment about "There is no way I could brand any book or writer as good or bad in any absolute terms." was interesting. I don't necessarily think that I am qualified to make those kind of judgments simply because I have not read enough and am not an expert on literature, but I do think it is possible to objectively assess the quality of a novel. There is an absolute quality difference in something like John Steinbeck or Shakespeare versus, idk, a Harlequin Romance, regardless of how my internal reader perceives it.

ITA that the author can and should not cater to the wishes of fans, I think as you point out, it ceases to be art at that point at all. Obviously things get trickier when you are dealing with the highly anticipated final volume of a series though.

[shannon hale]

So many great comments, everyone. Thank you so much for respecting the tenets of this blog and speaking with kindness, regardless of your opinion.

Sasha--good question about the editor/publisher's responsibility. I'll have to answer that in another post.

Speed Reader--It's true, an author has no control over the marketing of a book or the age group booksellers or publicity folk target. An author writers a book, the decisions made after that are out of our hands.

Dawn--you're not the only one who feels as if Stephenie is punishing all her fans for what a few unscrupulous people did. However, I think that's absolutely not the case. It's not that she WON'T finish Midnight Sun, it's that she CAN'T finish it. I would feel absolutely the same way. It's not about money (the book would sell regardless), it's not about punishing anyone. It's that her unfinished book was ripped away from her and she's lost all those feelings about it that she needed in order to keep writing. What happened to her was a horrible violation. Every professional writer I've talked to about it has completely understood why she doesn't feel like she can finish it right now. Remember, this was not a leak of a finished book (as the Harry Potter books were)--this is a leak of a partial manuscript. She did in fact publish on her website the book as it is. She cares about her fans and I think feels horrible about disappointing them. But she is not capable right now of completing it. As for breaking promises...if you promised a friend you'd come over to her house and were hit by a car on the way, how would you feel if your friend called you in the hospital and said, "How dare you break your promise?" Okay, I admit, that's a clunky metaphor, but I mean to illustrate that a person in Stephenie's position deserves support in such circumstances and understanding, not blame. I think you mean well, Dawn, and truly are just eager to have a story you love continued, but it genuinely hurts me to see a friend be criticized and blamed for a shocking assault against her and her work. Fan disappointment is completely understandable, but blame and even anger is just cramming salt into that wound. I have utmost sympathy for her and think she is handling it all with grace and humanity.

[Calliope1of9]

Yeah, I feel so aweful for Stephenie Meyer right now! She must be so distraught about what happened with Midnight Sun. She must feel so violated as an author. I understand why she feels that she can't finish the book now. How sad!

[twiligher]

authors are not super human beings with super human qualities. [EDIT: This first sentence is so true! But your stuff in the middle, dear twiligher (sic) gets pretty finger-pointy and attack-y, and I'm pulling the plug. Feel free to disagree, but do so kindly.]

im sure my post wont last long. [EDIT: I'm glad you realized yourself that your comment crossed a line for this site. Perhaps next time you could express yourself more respectfully.]

[Rachel]

I've never read your books but I am going to now. Your take on writing is dead-on. I have recently been trying to write and it's been so much more than i expected in both a satisfying way and an exhausting way. It truly takes everything out of you. I too am my larget critic and i struggle with wanting to please others. When i go back to edit my work i always find that the parts where i was solely concerned with my internal reader get the fewest corrections.

[Rachel]

Also, I agree one hundred percent that it is her right to discontinue Midnight Sun right now. It breaks my heart to think about not gettting the rest of the book but there would be absolutely no way to finish at this point. As you said, it's been ripped away from her. She has been violated in a way i can hardly imagine.
That said-i think people should note that she said she can't finish it "right now". I think that if her fans give her some time to relax, be with her family, heal her wounds...maybe she'll be able to finish it. There's no guarantee, and if she doesn't that's fine, but give her some love, and some space. She's still the great author we all love.

[Molly]

With all this talk about inner readers, has anyone stopped to think about how Stephenie Meyer's inner reader is feeling right now? Stephenie--the writer--gets the rug pulled out from under her, and Stephenie--the reader--must feel the same way all of us do. I'm sure if it were up to Stephenie's inner reader, Midnight Sun wouldn't be on hold. But until Stephenie the writer has time to heal, we'll all have to wait. I hope someday she'll find enough peace about this whole thing to finish Midnight Sun. Not because her fans want it, but because her inner reader deserves to have that experience.

[Davina]

Good post.

[booklover]

I couldn't agree more. Published books must reveal what the writer wants to say, and not simply give what the readers want.

[Flirting Tips]

Change the way you read books? To what degree, and how? I can't imagine how you'd change the way you read books based solely on this...