when the most important reader is you

My writing partner and I have spent the last two months working diligently on Why I Love Singlehood. Although I wish we could be working in the same room (and not just because it would speed up the process, but because it would be even more fun), I've enjoyed the conversations that have come out of it just as much as the revisions and improvements. We talk, among other things, about the writing process.

Every so often we run into a piece of text that we're not sure works, and we try to put ourselves into the shoes of the reader. How would they respond to or interpret it? As my former student, my partner-in-crime remembers how I used to seemingly contradict myself on a regular basis when teaching audience awareness: "There are times when you have to put your readers first," I'd say, "and there are times when you need to ignore your audience altogether, when the only reader that matters is you, the writer."

The trick is knowing when to to do either. And sometimes, it can indeed be tricky.

In one particular instance, my partner was concerned about a joke I had inserted, a question that comes out of the protagonist's mouth st a pivotal point. Although she found it funny, she questioned whether readers would find the joke uncomfortable, or whether the PC police might find it inappropriate.

If there's anything I've learned from my reader reviews, is that as a writer, you can't please everyone, and you never will. Readers complained about Andi's swearing. They complained that she grieved for too long. They complained that she treated David poorly. They complained that she was too pretentious (actually, I think that one was about me). And so on.

So, regarding the joke, I asked her a simple question:
"Did it make you uncomfortable?"

"If it bothers you or me," I said, "even the slightest bit, we lose it. Otherwise, if we laugh, and we like it, we keep it."

We decided to keep it for the time being, and to try it out on test readers. If they don't like it, then we'll reconsider. See what I mean? It's a tricky thing, a balancing act.

I've read books by authors who seem to be trying way too hard to please their audience, to deliver what they think their readers want, to write what they (or their publishers, perhaps) think will sell. But my mantra (and it's not original) still holds true: I write the books I want to read.

What would keep me turning the pages? In what direction do I want to see the characters go? Who do I want to see them with? (And even then, my characters have more control than I do regarding their fate, their truths.) What makes me laugh? What makes me cry? I have to write what I like and like what I write, otherwise I can't ask anyone else to.

Of course I care about my audience. Of course I want them to like what I write. But Fred Rogers had it right when he taped his television show Mr. Roger's Neighborhood. When he looked at the camera, he imagined talking to only one child, not thousands. And that's how he so successfully achieved that special connection between himself and each and every viewer. Even today, at 40 years old, when I watch re-runs of Neighborhood, I can still feel that connection. I still believe he's talking to me, to my inner child.

One reader at a time. And it starts with you.

Q&A with Aaron Sorkin

Elisa asks:

Aaron-
Do you write for yourself, or do you have a specific audience in mind, even if it's just one reader?
Elisa

Aaron Sorkin answers:

Elisa,
That's a good question. First, what I don't do is try to guess what the most amount of people will like and then give it to them. I don't think I'd guess right and I don't think I'd be able to give it to them but mostly I think it's a bad recipe for writing.

I write what I like and what I think my friends would like and then hope that enough other people like it that I can earn a living.

Also, and I don't mean this at all in the snooty way, I write for the least passive members of the audience. I write for people who love movies and love television and love plays. I write for the people who watch the DVDs over and over and notice that the coffee cup isn't full.
Aaron

So now, I ask you: Do you write for yourself, or do you have a specific audience in mind, even if it's just one reader?

a challenge

I'm working on a piece right now for a contest in which the object is to write a story using dialogue only -- no narration, no attribution tags (he said, she said), no direction of any kind. Maximum 3000 words.

I'm using a previously written scene from an unfinished manuscript. Took out all the narration and attribution. It was really interesting to see everything stripped away, leaving just two voices. I gained insight into these two characters and noticed things I hadn't previously noticed.

For one thing, these two characters don't listen to each other (this was pointed out by someone who read the dialogue). For another thing, they're reluctant to let the other person in, to be vulnerable. That's something I already knew about them, but it reveals itself in this scene.

But something is missing at this stage. In any story, characters have to want something. It's not clear yet what these characters want. In fact, they are more telling of what they don't want.

The challenge, then, is to balance showing with telling. The dialogue can't be forced ("telephone dialogue," I call it, which annoys the crap out of me -- a way to let the audience know what the person on the other line is saying, "Why yes, Mrs. Peterson, Scotty did leave thirty pizzas at my doorstep... No, I don't know who's going to pay for them.... Yes, he most certainly is a little shit." and so on), but it also needs to give the reader everything he/she needs: what's going on, who are these people, what do they want, and what's stopping them from getting it.

In this case, I need to approach it as if the reader is sitting in a diner, and this couple is in a booth behind her, and she's eavesdropping on them. She can't see them. I've got to show emotion by inflection, which means I've got to use stylistic tricks (italics, elipses, em-dashes, etc.). I've also got to make each voice so distinct that the reader knows who is saying what, just as the eavesdropper would. And this eavesdropper needs to be riveted. It can't just be another argument between a couple. Like I said before, these characters need to want something. That needs to be made clear to the reader. And the reader needs to root for them.

I'm not there yet.

But I hope to be. It's a fascinating exercise, really. I'm not sure if I'm gonna use the scene I've chosen. There's another scene that comes before it that is more exciting (and poses a bigger challenge) because it takes place at a dinner party with seven characters -- wouldn't it be cool to master that!

So, I'm posing some questions to you, dear reader. What would be compelling dialogue to you? What would you write about? How would you meet this challenge? And what would you, as "the eavesdropper" want or need to know?