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Here's a question:
How much do you think about the audience in your writing? If I let myself, I could be writing with one eye on the audience all the time; but that would be a rather cynical state to be in, I think. By 'thinking about the audience', I mean things like: Well, first chapter I have to make the audience sympathise with my main character. Or: No, I won't mention (say) Metallica here, I'll put in Abba instead because that will appeal to a wider audience. Things like that, if you get my drift. I guess I also mean writing with regard to what you think people want.

As for the title, 'writer as manipulator', it strikes me that that is what writers do (no offence to any intended!"> ). They take their main character and manipulate the audience into liking that character, or falling in love themselves with the love interest, or hating the villian too. The best books seem to be where this is done successfully; obviously if you like the villian and hate the hero, it's not going to work, is it!">
But this brings me back again to my first point. How much is this a conscious effort and how much coincidental or unconscious?

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Oooh...a very slippery question. Until I was published I didn't think about the audience at all. Not a bit. Betrayal was a book I wanted to read. By the next two I had the reader very much sitting beside me as I wrote. Now with Myrren, I have the audience breathing down my neck as well as reviewers. And I don't mean any of this in a cynical fashion.

I sincerely carry the readers with me now. I no longer think as me but we. My reactions to what the characters suddenly decide to do are no longer private, I feel. I now think of it as a collective reaction. It no longer matters what I think. But it really matters what the audience thinks because I am eager to please them with a story to capture their imagination.

And whilst you grow in confidence with the writing side, I personally feel more vulnerable with the release of each book and that's simply because there's an audience out there now with an expectancy and the thought of letting that readership down is terrifying. Even more terrifying than public speaking or huge hairy spiders threatening to fall off the ceiling onto your face whilst you sleep.

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"what the characters suddenly decide to do"

I have read many remarks by authors to this effect and I find it a bit hard to accept. (Sorry, I don't mean to sound like a smartarse. ) Why can't you just tell them what to do and that's it, and if they argue rewrite the earlier bits so that they do what they're told.

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Actually, Cerhis, sometimes you'll think that you control your characters and tell them what to do. When you write them, though, other thoughts and actions pop up in your mind you hadn't thought before, and while considering them you realize that they are much more consistent with the character's behavior you've been writing from the start. For some other writers, this doesn't happen at all. Before I started writing my own piece, I thought I would be have everything under control, but plot lines just kept popping up, and I had one character almost taking control of the story until I said: "hey you! This story's not about you, so buzz off!" Now, I understand when the writers say things like "I had no idea what this character would do about it..." It's all true.

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I think an author that wants to be published needs to think about the audience. That doesn't mean that it's the only thing I think about when writing. It's just one component. Certainly, the story has to ring true or you lose your audience because any trust you've built up with them is lost (Fiona puts this to words well: the trust that a writer and reader have together).

I don't really think about the itty bitty things that you mentioned--that is, decisions that might gain a smidgen of mass appeal. I let the story guide its own way there. I guess the places that it really comes into play during my stories are gore and sex. If the sex is too graphic, it may border too closely to erotica. With gore, it can be too graphic, and again they're turned off.

I'm sort of thinking of the editor's reactions during decisions like this, but really, the editor is the audience. They know how the public reacts to different types of things, so I just try to gauge my story on that. For me, the general rule is that the story takes precedence until it steps out of bounds. Then I need to bring it back a bit.

And really, even with sex, gore, and other similar hot topics, the *events* can still take place. It's the way its portrayed in my writing that I watch closely. It's very easy to abstract and still have things happen as you envisioned. You're just not going into sickening detail.

Cheers,

Brad.

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Some writer's consider that they are writing for an audience of ONE... there is someone in your life you want to please... this is your audience... and you have to write for IT.

I write for me.... I don't have an audience but iam sure my writing will improve when I do.

I enjoy Brad and Lisa's writing and encourage you all to have a read they are fantastic... they have both taught me heaps.