How many of you write for yourselves, not the reader?

[BeautyInTheStruggle]

I began writing because before we married, my husband was a seafarer. We were apart for months at a time, and ships are usually without internet or telephone connections for weeks at a time, so letter writing remained a major part of our lives. Over time, the letters became longer and more explicit until I began writing lengthy stories with detailed descriptions of places, feelings and of course, the sex acts we were both focused on.

I joined an online writers forum because I wanted to improve my writing, and got hooked on trying to win best story of the week, month, etc. I thought that I was a good writer, but I made several friends on that forum who persuaded me that there was more to writing than plots that you could fit on the back of a bus ticket, and finding ever more obscure synonyms to describe fucking and sucking.

One evening, I chatted with an American guy who told me that he was a retired newspaper editor, and from the few details I told him that night, plus some things he discovered from my stories, he wrote a short story about meeting me in a London park and buying me a coffee on a cold morning. It was just a simple description written in the third person of two strangers meeting in a public place, but it was so good that it unnerved me. Perhaps I gave away more than I intended to, or he was just good at psychology, but he captured the feeling of the place and the emotions of the couple perfectly.

I've been trying to write like this for the last decade and never got anywhere near equalling his description of meeting me in a park. These days, I usually write stories about wayward middle-class Filipinas set in our rather complicated culture. In our society, no one cares if you're a lesbian or in a poly relationship, but a degree of subtlety is required if you want to keep your friends. It's not Lit material unless I put in a lot more physical sex than I want to, so I don't post it on here.

Comparison is the thief of joy - something I try to remind myself often! But no matter what you do with them, as long as you enjoy writing them or rereading them than that's enough surely?

 

[Five_Inch_Heels]

What are these .... 'readers'?

 

[LydaMarbanks]

I basically write what I would like to read.

THIS, a thousand times this. I began writing as a very young girl, because I couldn't find the stories I wanted to read. Being a teacher's kid meant I was never allowed to have poor grammar or spelling, which I resented at the time but which I now very much value.

Despite the fact that I literally have been writing as long as I can read, I didn't screw up the courage to share anything until I was an adult. I was gobsmacked when people actually liked it. That was when I got serious about craft, because I wanted to keep writing things people would like.

I'm Gen X, which means I'm a little over halfway through the movie now. The perspective that comes with being this age has actually been liberating. It doesn't bother me anymore if only a handful of people like my stories. But I keep getting positive feedback, so I'm going to keep writing. And even if the feedback disappears, I'm way too far down the road of being a writer to stop now.

 

[TheRedChamber]

Whoops, wrong thread.

 

[UnexpectedLuggage]

I, predominantly, write for myself. I write to get specific fantasies out of my head, down somewhere permanent that I can refer back to when I wanna relive it.

That said, I publish because I think other people may enjoy them as well. I certainly add some more details for the sake of readers, but for the most part the reason I'm writing the story at all is for me. If other people read them an enjoy, then great! If not, it's not a big deal to me.

 

[Ciceri]

I write for myself. 90% of the writers here are unsophisticated and I imagine they don’t recognize good writing when they see it.

 

[MrHereWriting]

How many of you write for yourselves, not the reader?

Sometimes what you write is popular, and sometimes it isn't, regardless, writing for yourself is the same as writing for your readers because they want to read what you write.

Or, if you change something in your writing because you think the readers will like it more, then you're kind of doing both if you're mostly following your original vision.

Or, if you inherit someone's work, let's, say, for example, Kathleen Kennedy inheriting Lucas Film on behalf of Disney after George Lucas sold Luca Film, then you decide to hire writers that don't give a shit about lore and do whatever they want (especially, if what they want is to turn every hero into a dark-haired version of Kathleen Kennedy) then it's more than possible to write for yourself and fuck the readers, or in this case, watchers, aka, the fans.

Or, you could be Brian Sanderson, who inherited the Wheel of Time, and from what I'm told, he didn't go off the rails and shit on everything Robert Jordan created, so you could say he wrote the final books to please the audience (followed Jordan's notes) so there's a guy who wrote for Jordan's readers.

Or, if you're being paid to write something specific, then you're writing for whoever paid you.

Or....whatever.

 

[Britva415]

I write for myself. 90% of the writers here are unsophisticated and I imagine they don’t recognize good writing when they see it.

Did you mean "readers?"

 

[Ciceri]

Did you mean "readers?"

Most of the writers are bad

 

[Britva415]

Most of the writers are bad

I was just confused, is all, because it kind of sounded like you thought the question was "do you write for yourself or for other writers."

 

[DeMont]

I began writing because before we married, my husband was a seafarer. We were apart for months at a time, and ships are usually without internet or telephone connections for weeks at a time, so letter writing remained a major part of our lives. Over time, the letters became longer and more explicit until I began writing lengthy stories with detailed descriptions of places, feelings and of course, the sex acts we were both focused on.

I joined an online writers forum because I wanted to improve my writing, and got hooked on trying to win best story of the week, month, etc. I thought that I was a good writer, but I made several friends on that forum who persuaded me that there was more to writing than plots that you could fit on the back of a bus ticket, and finding ever more obscure synonyms to describe fucking and sucking.

One evening, I chatted with an American guy who told me that he was a retired newspaper editor, and from the few details I told him that night, plus some things he discovered from my stories, he wrote a short story about meeting me in a London park and buying me a coffee on a cold morning. It was just a simple description written in the third person of two strangers meeting in a public place, but it was so good that it unnerved me. Perhaps I gave away more than I intended to, or he was just good at psychology, but he captured the feeling of the place and the emotions of the couple perfectly.

I've been trying to write like this for the last decade and never got anywhere near equalling his description of meeting me in a park. These days, I usually write stories about wayward middle-class Filipinas set in our rather complicated culture. In our society, no one cares if you're a lesbian or in a poly relationship, but a degree of subtlety is required if you want to keep your friends. It's not Lit material unless I put in a lot more physical sex than I want to, so I don't post it on here.

@ElvieG ,
Good evening ma'am, firstly allow me to say that your post tells a story in itself, the story of your "meeting in a London park". That could be expanded upon and include some "sexual" nature. The sexual content would not have to be, necessarily, described in intimate physical detail but rather hinted at thus leaving it to the reader's imagination. There is a lot of that around here.

Sex does not have to be minutely described. Using euphemisms, and metaphors, are quite acceptable writing tools so you would not have to write about sex directly.

For example, and I hope I will not offend you in writing this, a sexual story sentence can be written, of the same scene, in more than one way;

"He grabbed her around the waist and tossed her onto the bed. She was laughing and clawing at her skirt to free herself for his pleasure. He stripped off his shirt and pounced on her tearing her blouse free to expose her full, round breasts to his eager hands. She gasped at his fierce touch and pulled her skirt up to her waist to expose her naked sex for his attention."

Now, like this -

"He held her about the waist and laid her on the bed. She was laughing and moving to dislodge the barrier of clothing she wore. Their passion rose as he slid his hands beneath her blouse, as she nipped her lower lip with her top teeth and began to pull her skirt hem up eager to be available for his pleasure. He dragged his shirt over his head, sliding onto the bed also, they wound themselves around each other and she gasped softly at his touch. Her skirt reached her waist and she descended into a place of sheer bliss."

Forgive any grammatical errors I may have made but as you can see the examples treat the same scene differently. One with sexual specifics, the other without. I'll wager you could write some very good stories when you write about what you know. As I have mentioned in these forums before, when I write I write the story first and when it's finished I go back and add the sexual material. As much, or as little as I think the story needs.

Perhaps you might try something similar?
Deepest respects,
D

 

[Ciceri]

I was just confused, is all, because it kind of sounded like you thought the question was "do you write for yourself or for other writers."

I don’t ghost write either

 

[Britva415]

I don’t ghost write either

That wasn’t what I meant.

 

[DHerbert]

I write what I write, and hope that people like it enough to buy, or read, depending on where it is posted. I figure that in the old days it would have been hard to find that group of readers out there, being a bit niche, but these days with the web, there is a readership for pretty much anything that is readable.

 

[Dearelliot]

For both of us I hope

 

[ICantLeafYou]

I only write for myself. I have a fantasy, I want to put it down in words, I write it. People just happen to like my written out fantasies.