Writing for Pleasure, Profit, and Posterity

Part Ten: Now, What Was The Question?

The art of being a creative writer is to identify a need in your audience, and then fill it. If the weather’s terrible, then some readers will be crying out for escape in the form of a sun-drenched romance. If they are going through a bad patch in their lives, then a novel in which the protagonist triumphs over similar circumstances will help give them hope for the future.

Most of us read for pleasure, and to leave everyday life behind for a while. You can show your readers that an improvement in circumstances, character growth and change is possible by the way you design your story. As well as a satisfying read, you’ll also give them a subtle boost to their spirits.

While every writer should aim to satisfy reader expectation, don’t forget that writers have needs, too! Make sure you’re writing what you want to write, but tailor it to your readership. That way both sides will get what they want. You’ll enjoy the experience of writing, and your audience will experience a great read.

Identifying what your audience spends time thinking about is a good way to kick-start your imagination. In Part Nine of Writing for Pleasure, Profit, and Posterity, we saw that conflict is vital within a book . One of the common causes of inner conflict can be summed up in an exchange that everyone in England has several times each week—in fact, it’s often a daily occurence:

“Hi, how are you?” “I’m fine. How are you?” “I’m fine, too!”

Many people have turned this ritual into a verbal tic. You ask the question, and respond in approved fashion because that is what is expected. Generations of English people have been brought up to say I’m fine, because it’s easier to repeat that old lie than it is to say I’m having a terrible time out loud.

Armed with the information that everyone is worried and needs help to see they are not the only ones, you then need to decide what is likely to be the most popular way to torture your central characters.

There are several ways to discover themes relevant to readers. The most obvious is to burgle your own life and experiences. The theme of many of my books and short stories get out of a rut by setting a goal and working toward it. I’m keen to promote this idea as it’s worked so well for me in real life. I came from very humble beginnings, left school at sixteen with hardly any qualifications, then had a series of dead-end jobs until I met my husband. He believed in me, encouraged me to follow my dream as a writer, and supported me until my career took off.

If you were born into the life of the idle rich and, unlike me, you’ve led a blameless life since childhood, there are still plenty of places to research popular concerns. The problem pages of magazines and agony aunts in newspapers used to be a rich seam of inspiration, but like the rest of us these have largely migrated online.

Mumsnet and Quora are both great places to look for inspiration, but never forget two golden rules of Creative Writing:  DON’T plagiarise by copying the juicy details word for word, and DON’T use the names of real people. You must also bear in mind that not everything you read online is legal, decent, honest, or truthful, to use the Advertising Standards Authority’s motto. Not everyone tells the truth online. Whether you are research for a book, a good lesson for life is whenever you read anything bear in mind the famous ABC of criminal investigation: Accept nothing, Believe nobody, and Check everything!  

You can also use a general search engine. I googled “what do people worry about?” and this site helpfully lists the top twenty concerns (pre-Covid).

The worries quoted there can be broken down into seven broad groups. Six of these (getting old, money worries, health, work, emotional problems, and family strife) involve individuals worrying about things that affect them directly. Only one of the Top Twenty worries was concerned with the wider world. That was nervousness about the level of crime in the respondents’ local area, and it was right at the bottom of the list.

This is why internal conflict is such a powerful force in Creative Writing. If you ever worry about whether you’re projecting the right image to other people, relax—the chances are they are far too busy worrying about what you’re thinking about them. Use your experience of this feeling of uncertainty, which is almost universal, to bring conflicts within your characters to life.

To engage your readers you need to write about characters they can relate to, and give those characters easily recognisable problems. Deciding what to inflict on your fictional cast is part of the fun of creative writing.

Next time, I’ll be using the ten parts of Writing for Pleasure, Profit, and Posterity to illustrate the path from motivation to submission, and eventual publication. Follow this blog to make sure you don’t miss it!