The Art of Sims Storytelling

"CitizenErased14;14343777" wrote:
@MedleyMisty My response to the "insecurity" question is very similar to @CathyTea 's

What makes me insecure is when I "lose" a reader partway through. What can make this especially awkward is that (obviously I won't name names!) at least one of my readers who seemingly stopped reading my story still posts here on the forums from time to time, so I know they're around. I keep wanting to message them and be like "Pssst. Remember my story?" but that would be both annoying and awkward (especially if their answer is "yeah, I don't like it anymore.")

Another thing that bothers me/makes me feel insecure is when readers don't react to things the way I intended them to. Especially my characters. CathyTea will remember the day I got super defensive about that in the Writers' Lounge haha. I know not everyone will like every character, but when people say they don't like a character who's supposed to be likeable/sympathetic it really makes me wonder "what did I do wrong?!"

I feel you on both of these points! I always want to ask, "Hey. How come you stopped reading? Don't you like my story anymore?" But that's just so weird and sort of rude!

I also think that it's connected with blogging. I keep thinking back on the solitary writers of the 19th Century, who didn't know their readers, except for a few that they got letters from, and with whom they always fell promptly in love!

There is something beautiful about being a solitary reader whom the writer doesn't know but yet who still feels this intimacy with the writer. I feel intimately connected to Jane Austen, a little bit to George Eliot, not much to D.ickens, very much to Alexander McCall Smith (just jumped centuries on you)--but how weird if I had a relationship with them, the way bloggers and readers have relationships. McCall Smith to me: "Um. Cathy. Do you realize I've put out about seven books since you last read? And why did you stop mid-way through?"

Me: "Oh, Alexander! Do you like to go by Alex, Xander, or Sasha? Mr. Smith? You see, I had to read all of D.ickens. And then I got stuck in Shakespeare tragedies--I just finished them, so now I'm on the histories, and those should go faster, right? And there's this awesome Bulgarian novel I'm slowly reading, and I'm reading ALL this SimLit--what, you haven't heard of it? So, I've got yours waiting for me to binge on when the time is right, but before that comes Anne of Green Gables!"

Anyway. Awkward.

With the readers acting differently than we expect: this happens a lot. I think, Citizen, I might be one of those who reacts differently. I usually am!

And I know that other writers can get really touchy about this!

It's another aspect of weirdness that enters in when readers and writers are in relationship! I'm trying to learn not to blurt out my first responses, while still sharing enthusiasm.

With my work, it's a lot like what @MedleyMisty says--friends or people I'm close to here read it and say, "Huh. Can't connect."

But I am learning to see this as awesomeness!

Here's why: it means that we are reaching in deep and writing from heart and soul, our own deepest core of experience. That's how I feel about Surreal Darkness, Misty. It's also how I feel about D2D, Citizen--D2D also is built around a plot, so that even if readers don't connect with the deepness of meaning, they'll still be engaged by the plot.

With my fanfic, and with Goofy Love, I've started just writing out my soul--going into that deepest experience and perception and expressing it.

And, yes, many others can't connect. I'm learning that doesn't need to interrupt a friendship or feeling of closeness and appreciation! And it also makes it all that much sweeter when the rare reader says, "Wow! This is exactly what I experienced and didn't know how to express!"

It happens rarely--and when it does, it is so sweet.

I guess--here's the thing. All of us, we're incredibly vulnerable when we write, for we're really sharing deep, deep stuff. We're not hiding it all behind fluff and sarcasm. So we then need to be brave, too. If we're going to decide to share this writing, we need to also be brave and realize that it's our work--it's us. We can protect ourselves, too, so that we remember the value that lies in our work, rather than getting hooked by that reader/writer relationship.