Writing goals?

[SeaCat]

Hey all,

I have a bit of a question for you.

What are your goals as a writer when you write a story? Have you met them?

For me, my goal is to grab the reader by the gut and pull them into the story. To make them feel what my characters are feeling. To have the person reading the story sit back at the end and just feel what my characters are feeling. To make the reader say whoa shit!

No, I have not yet reached that goal, and somehow I don't think I ever will. I'm just not that good although I do strive for it.

Yes there are some here who have reached that spot, at least with me. Authors who have the ability to reach inside a person and grab them by the heartstrings. Is that your true goal? Or is it something different?

Cat

 

[cantdog]

Lookit, cat. I've read your stuff, some of it. You do drag 'em in. Don't be so self-deprecating. You have written some strong stuff.

 

[3113]

What are your goals as a writer when you write a story? Have you met them?

I remember a story I read in college--it was only about 4-5 pages long. When I was done, I was so moved by it, I couldn't do anything for several minutes. I just sat there, kinda stunned. There were just no words for what I was feeling. It was that powerful.

Now, mind you, I can't say if the story would hit me like that now--maybe it was just being 19 and all, but it was a total "Wow" moment. Emotional enlightment, if you like. And I'll certainly never forget it.

I remember saying to myself right there: "If I can write a story that gives just one person the same reaction, I'll have reached my goal."

I later added to this goal that I'd rather like a modest following of faithful readers, and enough money from my writing to live on...the first of which is a reasonable goal, the second, in this day and age, is an almost impossible goal. (There's a joke about St. Peter and a writer...I'll tell it in another post if you want to hear it).

But here's the funny thing...going back to that original goal: I *think* I have done it...and yet I don't feel like I've done it. I don't think we writers, critical as most of us are of our writing, ever feel that we've achieved that kind of goal--no matter how many people write to us and tell us otherwise.

There are rare moments when we go away long enough from a story, come back to it, and are able to read it almost as if we didn't write it, almost as if someone else did, and we can SEE exactly what we did. But that doesn't happen very often. We see, instead, all the little cracks and flaws and blemishes and we don't always know what we did so very right.

So even if we do it...we don't think we did. And so we keep chasing after that impossible dream, that holy grail. Good thing, too. It keeps us writing

 

[elsol]

Story in head.

Must get out.

Kill people, I will if not.

People may like.

People may not.

People prefer to being dead.

Sincerely,
ElSol

 

[S-Des]

And you did

I remember saying to myself right there: "If I can write a story that gives just one person the same reaction, I'll have reached my goal."

My favorite moment as an "author" (if I can call myself that), was Sunday when I looked on the top list of Romance stories and I was tied (but behind because of votes) with Seperate Lives Ch3 & 'Til Dawn (my two favorite stories on the site). Both stories affected me so much that I wanted to try writing myself. Even though I know intellectually that the scores don't mean anything (two angry people could take me out of the top 200 by themselves), it was cool beyond words.

As to the thread, in After The Fact, I wrote the first chapter to make the reader feel like they were punched in the gut. Most of the responses (good and bad) told me that I accomplished my goal. I knew that a Loving Wife story would be subject to a lot of criticism (and trust me, I got a lot of colorful comments and emails), so I was less worried about people telling me they loved it. I just wanted readers to feel the kind of pain I thought my characters would feel under those circumstances.

With Hero's Reward (my Romance one), I tried to write something that would express how I felt about a variety of things (love, redemption, and finding a way to stay in touch with people despite your own pain). I wrote that one for me and hoped that the readers would like it. Like SeaCat, I know there are authors that on the site that I could never touch, but if I can make readers feel something (and maybe even occasionally give one of them some pleasure after a rough day), then I feel great.

....S-Des

 

[togitc]

What are your goals as a writer when you write a story? Have you met them?

Someone should have warned you that I have to reply now, completely oblivious to those before me.

My goal when I write a story is to finish and make it worth reading. When I am finished, I want to be able to enjoy working on it and a nice feeling of accomplishment once I get the last word out of my head.

Met the goals?

Have to start something to finish it and I am a bit rusty.