Mini writing workshop: Who are you writing for?
Thank you for checking out the mini fiction writing workshop. In this series I share small, actionable tips for writing fiction. Whether you're a seasoned or developing writer, hopefully you will find some useful information.
The topic of this workshop is about who you are writing for.
As an aside, I realize I have ended that sentence with a preposition, and that offends some people. But I'd like to take the opportunity to help dispel the myth that it's not okay to do so. If you are in the camp that believes this is a rule, please look it up. The first page of Google results provides multiple reliable resources. For your convenience, here is the online Merriam-Webster dictionary answer to the question of whether it's okay to end a sentence with a preposition.
Okay, on to the topic of the day!
Source: Image by Seaq68, Pixabay
Who are you writing for?
I think this is a good question to ask yourself. It's important. Why? Because the effort you put into writing, editing and marketing your work will all be impacted by that singular question.
And honestly, I believe there is no wrong answer.
Perhaps it will help to think of it as the rungs of a ladder.
At the bottom of this ladder, you may just be writing for yourself. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that. There could be several reasons why you are not writing for an audience. Maybe you're all about enjoyment of the process and have no long-term goals. Or perhaps you are working through some painful life experiences, and the best way for you to process that right now is to write it. Maybe you're being so bold as to write the full story of your life with your abuser. If that is what serves you, then do it. Do you need to fuss about your plot? Or the mechanics of your writing, such as grammar and sentence structure? Probably not, if it's for your eyes only.
The next rung of the ladder is self-publishing for fun. Blogging and social media can fall into that camp, especially if you're really not expecting to ever work professionally as a writer. If you don't need to impress a publisher, then writing well and carefully editing your work may be a great goal, but are perhaps not critical.
The top rung of this ladder is writing for publication. Whether your goal is mainstream publishing or self-publishing work for Amazon, everything matters. As a fiction writer, you must fully master the craft. You must learn to build worlds, develop characters, write excellent openings and compelling scenes, and story arcs that take the story to a climactic close and make the ending satisfying. Every word counts. And grammatical perfection is imperative.
Taking the next step up the ladder
If you do aim for publication, learning the craft of writing is vitally important. You don't want anyone stumbling over poorly-crafted sentences, feeling like they can't quite grasp what is happening, scratching their heads over the motivations of your key characters, or possibly the worst outcome of all — setting your story down after the first few sentences because the opening just didn't grab them.
You want readers to love your work from the moment they read the first word until its beautifully-told ending. You want reviewers to love your book so you can get excellent reviews and build your readership. It's a whole different ballgame. You need to master every aspect of writing, from storytelling to the mechanics of sentence structure.
None of that will happen over night. It requires ongoing practice.
Reading great books, writing regularly, and hanging out with other writers who will give you honest feedback on your work will all make an enormous difference.
So, be certain you know who you're writing for. That will set the course for your development as a writer and support you in your journey.
Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed this mini writing workshop.
The writing workshop collection
You can browse my collection of writing workshop posts in the links below.
Mini workshop series
Short posts on specific writing topics:
- Mini writing workshop: What does "show, don't tell" mean?
- Mini writing workshop: Can you write if you don't have time? (Finding where you can fit writing into your life)
- Mini writing workshop: What should you write about? (Ideas for finding inspiration for your stories)
- Mini writing workshop: How do you start a story? (How to determine the starting point)
- Mini writing workshop: What is magical realism? (Exploring the magical realism genre)
- Mini writing workshop: Should you write in present tense or past tense?
- Mini writing workshop: Must your character do that? (About writing tics and character pet peeves)
- Mini writing workshop: What's it all about? (About story lines)
- Mini writing workshop: Must we fight? (About conflict in fiction writing)
- Mini writing workshop: What's the point? (About making things happen)
- Mini writing workshop: What prompted that? (About writing from prompts)
- Mini writing workshop: Who said that? (Tips for writing dialog)
Mini workshops in 50-word prompt posts
Brief workshops, typically 3-5 paragraphs, at the top of 50-word short story challenge posts:- Mini writing workshop on "tense"
- Mini writing workshop on the editing process (with a walkthrough example)
- Mini writing workshop on taking time to write
- Mini writing workshop on the power of editing
- Mini writing workshop on critique
- Mini writing workshop on fixing punctuation errors
- Mini writing workshop on mainstream publishing (with a resource for 50-word story authors)
- Mini writing workshop on voice and language (as compared to the importance of plot)
- Mini writing workshop about becoming a great writer
- Mini writing workshop on contests and challenges
- Mini writing workshop on what makes a story a story
- Mini writing workshop on demystifying story writing
- Mini writing workshop on 50-word short story writing process
- Mini writing workshop on the steps for writing 50-word stories
- Mini writing workshop on micro-fiction and writing succinctly
- Mini writing workshop on the "why" of writing
- Mini writing workshop on the challenge of micro-fiction
In-depth workshop posts
The original writing workshop series:- Writing workshop volume 1: The beginning
- Writing workshop volume 2: Exploring voice in writing
- Writing workshop volume 3: Say what you want to say
- Writing workshop volume 4: Serial fiction projects on Steemit
- Writing workshop volume 5: Getting organized and actually writing
- Writing workshop volume 6: Tips for writing anywhere, anytime
- Writing workshop volume 7: Should you write historical fiction?
- Writing workshop volume 8: Prompts, contests and challenges - oh my!
- Writing workshop volume 9: Pushing through insecurity and writing anyway
- Writing workshop volume 10: Perspective and POV in fiction writing
- Writing workshop volume 11: Second person point of view in fiction
- Writing workshop volume 12: How to write your character's background
- Writing workshop volume 13: What to do with all these voices in my head?
- Writing workshop volume 14: Write your story from a logline
- Writing workshop volume 15: Three tips for improving your fiction
- Writing workshop volume 16: How to accept criticism on your fiction writing
Note: The image is sourced from Pixabay.
Posted from my blog with SteemPress : https://jaynalocke.com/2019/03/11/mini-writing-workshop-who-are-you-writing-for/
Again an interesting post. I think for each book their will be an audience.
To be honest the biggest part of the books being published by mainstream publishers are not perfect at all nor free of type or grammatical failures. I wonder how that can be.
There are many stories/books I find boring or hard to read because there are so many difficult words are used it makes it hard to follow what the story is about.
I notice the same here at steem. I do find that a pity.
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I agree, @wakeupkitty. Even in the published world there are imperfect works. But the fact is, getting attention from a publisher is incredibly difficult to do. The odds are stacked against you. So, if your goal is to be published by a mainstream book publisher, it is important to make the work as close to perfect as possible. I'm honestly not sure why books that are not really well written get published, but I can imagine that publishers lower their standards from time to time out of desperation when they have not landed a really great title.
I read that they seem to care way less if the writer is a VIP... it will sell anyway..By now there are so many ways to publish yourself I doubt if mainstream publisher still will be able to survive.
Lately I read some books (translations) published by Bruna a famous publisher. I was shocked by the way the books looked like. It was translated in a poor way and full of mistakes. Hard to believe someone did read it before publishing.
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I worry about their survival too. But the fact is, I hang out with a lot of readers and there are wait lists at the libraries for the best books. Reviews and social media do help to keep the quality issues in check to a large degree. Also the fact that Audible is doing so well and that Amazon purchased them gives me hope. Self-publishing has flooded the market, but the big name publishers still hold the keys to the kingdom, I think. Great discussion!
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