This is a Good Book Thursday: Audience

Now that my brain is still back in place and I’m writing and rewriting, I’m starting to think more about things like audience. In particular, what the difference is between pandering to your audience (all those damn tropes) and serving them. Because let’s face it, writing and reading are collaborative acts (even without Bob). What I write, you add your own assumptions, dreams, taste, and needs to. It’s part of the reason why I try to leave so much white space in the narrative. If I describe every character down to the freckles, that doesn’t leave you any room to design your own version. So I don’t dwell in description, which came back to bite me now as I rewrite “Getting Carter” because I keep forgetting whether Nadine is blonde or dark. I think she’s blonde, I think she had on a dark wig once, but I am still not completely sure. The first time I ran into this was back on my first novel, Manhunting. For some reason, I gave the hero, Jake, a mustache. And then got several letters from fans that started, “In my version of Manhunting, Jake doesn’t have a mustache.” Yeah, won’t do that again.

And then I hit this in an essay by Adam Gopnik in The New Yorker on musical theater: That regular audience is theatre’s condition of existence. Great art can emerge from a garden cottage in Massachusetts or a madhouse in the South of France and find its audience generations later. Theatre needs its audience tonight. Even the highest tragedies, from “King Lear” to “Death of a Salesman,” must first of all offer their customers the prospect of a nice night out. Even as common rituals dwindle, the shared passion persists: people still want that night out. The show must go on because someone wants to see it.”

And I thought, “That’s fiction, too.” Readers want that night out, they just cast in the terms of a comfortable seat, a tasty beverage, possibly a snack, and a story that delivers. And the people who write fiction need that audience, need to make sure they have that night off from the real world, and then probably to find somebody to talk about it, call up the Good Parts, bemoan where the author went off the rails, and just generally revisit that experience again. People call reading solitary, and it isn’t. You’re never alone in a book, the author is always right there beside you.

So what did you read with the author beside you this week?

Watching Wednesday: Be Safe Out There

My favorite PSA ever:

Admin Help, Please

So AI has evidently entered WordPress spam. Usually the spam is pretty blatant and occasionally pretty funny, but lately some of the spam that gets through the filter has taken words from the posts and responded to them so it takes me a minute. I think I’ve caught all of it, and of course if I see your names I pass those right through, but if one of the spam posts finally snookers me–which is inevitable–would you please let me know? I try to keep this place as clean as possible, but at this point, I’m gonna need a little community help.

And I thank you for your support.

Good Sunday: Seasons

God, I love seasons. When I’m screaming about cold and ice, here comes spring, balmy and full of promise. About the time I’m wanting more warmth, spring slides into summer and the world just explodes with color and soft sunny yellow light. And when I’ve had enough heat, fall comes along with all that crispness and sharp light. What really surprises me right now is much I’m looking forward to winter, not my favorite season. But I want all that white light, and the difference between indoor and out, and how great I feel bundled up against the cold in the cold. I’m actually looking forward to winter, although I’m still enjoying the fall. Seasons. Those were a good idea.

What good things happened to you this week?

This is a Good Book Friday: The Apology

Sorry. Finished Arresting Anna only a year late. Spent three hours in a dentist’s chair. Now loopy on pain meds.

What did you read this week?