Considered writing

[dr_mabeuse]

Audience is paramount for me. I am writing for women, specifically straight women. I want my descriptions to grab straight women by the gonads and make them helpless. Between sex scenes, though, I have a laid back feeling of being attended to by just the minds of my audience. I want them to be caught, intellectually. Then the sex is visceral, comes up from below.

I've always considered facetious to say things like "I write for myself."

It begs the questions: then why put in a place that people can read it, why get pleasure when someone thinks you're hot-shit, and why get angry when someone slams your 'great piece'.

This pretty much sums it up for me. I might write for myself in terms of content, but the only reason to write anything is to connect and communicate, and so I'm always looking for ways to better say what it is I want to say. Saying "I write for myself" is kind of like saying "I talk for myself." There are people who do it, but they're crazy. It's verbal masturbation.

I began my porn career writing stories by request, and I was very much aware that I was trying to verbally seduce the women I wrote for. I've kind of moved away from the goal of pure sexual arousal, because I think that emotional arousal is even hotter and more satisfying, but any kind of writing involves seduction of the reader. You're trying to get them to open their imagination and let you in. It's all very intimate.

I do have an idealized reader in mind when I write. It's usually a woman (but not always), and she's literate and smart enough that I don't have to spell everything out for her. She's looking for more than just a recounting of some event. She wants to know what me and my characters make of what happened, how we understand it and feel about it. That kind of story's not immensely popular on Lit, but that's what I want to write, and so that's what I do.

I have no problem with tailoring my language and style to a specific audience's preferences. Most publishers of romantica have lists of forbidden words--cunt, tits, prick, and bitch are often not allowed ("bitch" is okay if it's one woman referring to another, but that's all.) So okay, I know what they want: more emotion, less raw graphic detail. I can do that. I can write porn without having him ram his prick into the bitch's cunt.

 

[MichelleLovesTo]

My Answer

I write for an audience for a person but that audience or person may change depending on the story. And the audience is not always a big audience.

I believe that good writing takes intelligence and an understanding of your goals. In a practical sense it might be exhibited in giving fans of a genre what they want, but still managing to insert your own style and sensibilities.

I’m also a believer in stories finding their own direction. I might begin a story with a certain goal in mind, only to have it go off in a different direction. I believe that my job, at that point, becomes to allow it to evolve and not remain tied to the old ideas.

It’s possible to begin a story with one audience in mind, only to find out that the end result is suited for another audience entirely.

I want to craft good stories. I’m not opposed to writing good stroke, but that alone is no longer enough for me. Which means, in some cases, I’m not going to get a lot of votes. It’s enough for me to have a few people love the story a lot, than a lot of people like it enough to get off – and then forget it ever existed.

I’m not downing anyone for their chosen categories or styles, but I don’t want to write some ill-edited piece of fluff, in order to read some barely coherent praise in return. That’s not really the audience I want. (Although I’ll take those kudos when I get them.)

One of the benefits here is that you can write your story, whatever it is, and pick the category which will (hopefully) direct the right audience to you. I’m still learning about that, and I’m still not sure I always pick the right category.

All of this is a lot of words to say that it all depends on a writer’s goals. There is nothing wrong with writing the stuff that you think will get the most comments and 5s. And there is nothing wrong with writing for another audience. There’s also nothing wrong with writing mostly for yourself, just as long as you defer to the rest of the people who might read it by doing a spellcheck!

 

[SeaCat]

I think it all depends on what I'm writing. Occasionaly I have a very specific person in mind when I write a story. In that case I write it in a way I think they will enjoy it. I aim for that person or audience. (In one case I got feedback that made my feet miss the floor by several inches for the next couple of days.)

In most cases though I have a very vague idea of who is going to read it. I have a story I want to tell and I write it. It is only after I finish the story that I think about the audience.

We can take the story I am working on now as an example. I am writing it because I have the story in my head. I am writing it because there is a message I am trying to get across. I don't have a specific audience in mind with this one, hell I don't even know what catagory it will fall under. I do know that parts of it will anger some people, which can be good because it made them think. I also know that other parts will disgust other people, that too can be good. The most important thing for right now is that I am writing it and having a good time doing so. (Even though parts of it are harder than hell for me to write.)

Cat

 

[Penelope Street]

When writing documents or letters or a paper for a class, sure one ought to consider the audience in a big way, but I'm not sure the same applies to fiction. I think my best stories are the ones I wrote for me. When I have tried to write to a particular audience, I seem to have stumbled. I like to think I trust the reader will understand the subtleties of the story and I try not to hit them over the head with bricks. In the back of my mind I suppose I know some aren't going to get it. Nothing to be done about that. I can't say I've ever envisioned anyone listening as I tell the story.

As for the back-click triggers, I view these like little warning flags; I don't avoid them to appeal to the audience, I look at them as an indicator of an area that needs attention. True, I am more inclined to break up a paragraph rather than leave it, but this is more knowing the medium rather than knowing the audience, right?

 

[Penelope Street]

I've always considered facetious to say things like "I write for myself."
It begs the questions: then why put in a place that people can read it, why get pleasure when someone thinks you're hot-shit, and why get angry when someone slams your 'great piece'.

I may post stories for others, but I write them for myself. And I don't get angry when someone doesn't like them. I hope I don't imagine I'm hot shit either. Kind of an icky metaphor, don't you think?

I might write for myself in terms of content, but the only reason to write anything is to connect and communicate, and so I'm always looking for ways to better say what it is I want to say. Saying "I write for myself" is kind of like saying "I talk for myself." There are people who do it, but they're crazy. It's verbal masturbation.

I disagree that the only reason to write anything is to communicate. I've written things I never expected anyone else to read, things I didn't want anyone else to read. Maybe it is something like verbal masturbation. So what? I enjoy it and I don't imagine for a moment that I am crazy.


ETA:
To me, it boils down to a simple question: If you knew no one else was ever going to read your stories, would you still write them?

 

[rgraham666]

To me, it boils down to a simple question: If you knew no one else was ever going to read your stories, would you still write them?

I can answer 'yes' to that one. I wrote for years, never expecting anyone to see any of it.

When a story calls, I have to let it out.