Audience

[alanajoli]

One of the things I love about blogging is that it's writing tailored for a particular audience. That audience may grow and shift, but it's easy enough to touch base with who it is that's reading what you have to say. It's instant gratification writing.

One of the things I struggle with in writing my fiction is that, with a few exceptions, I'm the only one reading it. (Volunteer readers have busy lives; I've been in the volunteer reader position myself, and I acknowledge that I'm actually quite bad at responding in a timely fashion. Or at all.) While I certainly write to tell stories that I'm interested in, I don't write just for myself. I'm miserable at keeping a serious journal.

I'm interested in hearing how other people get over that hump--particularly any NaNo-ers who are on this list. How do you balance the writing process with the desire for an audience? I know some people like to play close to their chests when they're writing, not showing anyone any part of it until it's finished. If that's you--what benefit does that particular style of writing offer?

I've finally started "Good Company" (the vampire story) today, in snippets, and I'm considering sending it to people who are already familiar with the character via e-mail, as I write, to see if the idea of the serial actually works for my writing process. (banana_pants and niliphim, this means you, so if you think it's a horrible idea, please, by all means, stop me.) I'll let you know if I decide to do so (and if it works!).

For those of you keeping track, I haven't finished "Rodeo." I'm only a scene or two from the end. Somehow my momentum on that one took a nose dive--but I'm hoping to get back to it next week.

Comments

[alanajoli.livejournal.com]

You went to Clarion! I'm deliciously jealous. But yes, that kind of feedback sounds frightful--much more stressful than regular thesis meetings. (Those were some of my very favorite feedback sessions. I would have Jamie tell me what he thought I was saying in a story and then would take down all his notes, but not tell him what I was actually saying--because if it wasn't coming through, then I needed to fix it until it did, and telling him would defeat the whole process.)

I believe that you're in the midst of thesising right now (if I remember your year correctly)--do you think that is impacting the way you talk to people about your writing? Or is it an independent process?

[notadoor.livejournal.com]

I did! I had Kelly Link, Jim Kelly, Mary Anne Mohanraj, Neil Gaiman, Geoff Ryman and Nalo Hopkinson -- it was *amazing*. (And I think 5 out of my 17 classmates have already made their first pro sale, which is insane.)

I'm writing a psychology thesis, so it's a totally different process from my fiction writing. But I think it is making fiction more difficult in a lot of ways, which is probably influencing my talking/not talking to people about it. It's hard to sort out what's causing what at this point.

[alanajoli.livejournal.com]

My jealousy continues. :) When I found out that Neil Gaiman was teaching, I was sorely tempted to apply--but think I would have been late on it, anyway. It would have been fun to be your classmate! Maybe one of these years I'll take the plunge.

I suspect any time you're working on a large writing project that takes time away from fiction, it gets harder to focus on the fiction writing. I suspect that's a lot of what happens to me with my freelance work. I haven't yet discovered a remedy to that, but I'll keep trying!