For me, my writing isn't complete until it's read by someone else, and they bring their own experiences to it. I don't have to know what they bring to it, just that they're reading it and bring something.
For me, the writing is complete when it's a book because at that point, it is literally out of my hands. I can respond to people who've read it, and I'm happy when they do, and I admit I'm nervous because their reaction defines success or failure, since in the end, writing is communication. But the book is out of my hands because I can't take it back or revise it or argue about covers or copy or anything else. I can't bring their perception to the story, or somehow make it mine, and reading is very individual.
Anything I can do has already been done. Anything anyone else does, I have no control over.
Honestly? At this stage, I just want anyone to read it. When I first got to the beta reader stage, it was like a miracle that anyone was reading what I'd written. But that's not enough anymore. I want to touch strangers' lives, even if for just a few hours. That's all.
I think, at base, this is part of what motivates any of us. It's the hope of affecting readers in the same ways that we were affected by books that moved us.
But... having said that, what we write in some ways defines who might read us. I write fantasy. That means that I'm already not going to be read by a large, large number of readers who simply don't care about fantasy. My novels are sometimes too dense, and the density will also pare down audience, even among readers of fantasy. I'm sometimes considered a bit grim, which is also a choice that will affect readers.
But I write about the things that move me, first. I try different things, in different novels, but there are some stories that, while I can read, I can't write.
So I have control over the text to a certain point.
I think there's an arrogance involved in writing, that balances the edge of the insecurity involved -- and the insecurities are legion. At some level, I have to believe that the stories I'm telling are stories that will move people. It's possible that I'm not yet at the stage where my story is clear enough, or accessible enough -- but to write, I need to find the place in which the belief is strong.
And then... I have to let it go out into the world, to find ways in which I can fix mistakes and make it stronger, until the point where it's a book, and there's nothing at all that I can do.
At that point, I'm working on something else in my little corner of the office.
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branchandroot
no subject
Date: 2008-05-13 11:42 pm (UTC)For me, the writing is complete when it's a book because at that point, it is literally out of my hands. I can respond to people who've read it, and I'm happy when they do, and I admit I'm nervous because their reaction defines success or failure, since in the end, writing is communication. But the book is out of my hands because I can't take it back or revise it or argue about covers or copy or anything else. I can't bring their perception to the story, or somehow make it mine, and reading is very individual.
Anything I can do has already been done. Anything anyone else does, I have no control over.
Honestly? At this stage, I just want anyone to read it. When I first got to the beta reader stage, it was like a miracle that anyone was reading what I'd written. But that's not enough anymore. I want to touch strangers' lives, even if for just a few hours. That's all.
I think, at base, this is part of what motivates any of us. It's the hope of affecting readers in the same ways that we were affected by books that moved us.
But... having said that, what we write in some ways defines who might read us. I write fantasy. That means that I'm already not going to be read by a large, large number of readers who simply don't care about fantasy. My novels are sometimes too dense, and the density will also pare down audience, even among readers of fantasy. I'm sometimes considered a bit grim, which is also a choice that will affect readers.
But I write about the things that move me, first. I try different things, in different novels, but there are some stories that, while I can read, I can't write.
So I have control over the text to a certain point.
I think there's an arrogance involved in writing, that balances the edge of the insecurity involved -- and the insecurities are legion. At some level, I have to believe that the stories I'm telling are stories that will move people. It's possible that I'm not yet at the stage where my story is clear enough, or accessible enough -- but to write, I need to find the place in which the belief is strong.
And then... I have to let it go out into the world, to find ways in which I can fix mistakes and make it stronger, until the point where it's a book, and there's nothing at all that I can do.
At that point, I'm working on something else in my little corner of the office.