Paul Whybrow
Full Member
I came across a throwaway statement in a writer’s blog recently, in which she said that, if she was being honest, she wrote for other writers rather than readers. She didn’t elaborate on it, but it set me thinking.
While it’s vital to be aware of who your likely readership will be, so that you can tailor your story accordingly, would contemplating one of your favourite authors enjoying your book alter what you write?
For example, with my Cornish Detective series, my likely audience will be mature women, aged 45+ with most of them over 60, as that demographic is the biggest fans of Crime genre stories. Thus, I’ve made my protagonist 50-years-old with various aches and pains and insecurities, including what to do with the rest of his life after a near death experience. Cornwall has a strong image, so I use that to capture the attention of local readers and also the thousands of holidaymakers who visit annually.
When it comes to thinking about how noted crime authors might think about my prose, I admit, it does happen. We discussed influences in an old thread and it’s impossible to escape them.
Jeffery Deaver - Wikipedia
I like how James Lee Burke and Henning Mankell incorporate the landscape and the weather as characters in their stories, so I do that. Jo Nesbø is unflinching in how he describes his hero Harry Hole’s neuroses and bad behaviour, so I reveal my main character’s anxiety and fixation on things. Michael Connelly, James Lee Burke and James Oswald make their detective haunted by the past communicating with supernatural presences. My Cornish Detective is more spiritual than religious, bonded to the land as a farmer’s son and keenly aware of whose footsteps he’s walking in.
Playwright Edward Albee said: “I write to find out what I’m talking about.” Gloria Steinem agreed:
When I realise that I’m writing in a way that my writing heroes might have expressed themselves, I wonder if they had the same sense of discovery about themselves as I’m having. It’s a strange connection to have.
Do you ever feel like you’re emulating one of the greats?
Can you imagine one of your writing heroes reading your book, thinking “I like how they put things – they remind me of me!”
Who is the writing ghost on your shoulder?
Roddy Doyle - Wikipedia
While it’s vital to be aware of who your likely readership will be, so that you can tailor your story accordingly, would contemplating one of your favourite authors enjoying your book alter what you write?
For example, with my Cornish Detective series, my likely audience will be mature women, aged 45+ with most of them over 60, as that demographic is the biggest fans of Crime genre stories. Thus, I’ve made my protagonist 50-years-old with various aches and pains and insecurities, including what to do with the rest of his life after a near death experience. Cornwall has a strong image, so I use that to capture the attention of local readers and also the thousands of holidaymakers who visit annually.
When it comes to thinking about how noted crime authors might think about my prose, I admit, it does happen. We discussed influences in an old thread and it’s impossible to escape them.
Jeffery Deaver - Wikipedia
I like how James Lee Burke and Henning Mankell incorporate the landscape and the weather as characters in their stories, so I do that. Jo Nesbø is unflinching in how he describes his hero Harry Hole’s neuroses and bad behaviour, so I reveal my main character’s anxiety and fixation on things. Michael Connelly, James Lee Burke and James Oswald make their detective haunted by the past communicating with supernatural presences. My Cornish Detective is more spiritual than religious, bonded to the land as a farmer’s son and keenly aware of whose footsteps he’s walking in.
Playwright Edward Albee said: “I write to find out what I’m talking about.” Gloria Steinem agreed:
When I realise that I’m writing in a way that my writing heroes might have expressed themselves, I wonder if they had the same sense of discovery about themselves as I’m having. It’s a strange connection to have.
Do you ever feel like you’re emulating one of the greats?
Can you imagine one of your writing heroes reading your book, thinking “I like how they put things – they remind me of me!”
Who is the writing ghost on your shoulder?
Roddy Doyle - Wikipedia
