Author:
The lady has moved from True Romance and into Action. Not everyone is going to be pleased. However if she doesn't put the action into her action story she is going to lose those who would read and or purchase her story. Those who follow her romance stories may or may not like the inclusion of the reality of life, violence, murder, suffering in her story.
"IF" one wishes to appeal to the broadest readership then they must write to include the whole story not truncate parts which don't appeal to a few select readers.
Romeo and Juliet
Romeo met Juliet, they fell in love, had twelve kids. Three of the children died at infants, four died from childhood diseases, five fell into gangs who robbed and murdered and were hanged.
The End
All the pieces which someone might not like reading were left out of the story. No long time love, hot passionate romance. Yuck. No graphic detail of why the seven died. The lost five who associated with the wrong people, gone. End of a story where I hope no one found too much description of what they really didn't care to read. Of course it becomes a Best Seller because no one had to read or skip over any of the parts they didn't like.
Someone pinged me because I don't put PMS in my stories. None of the women I have known ever showed signs of PMS or that time of the month. Except for the Tampax or Kotex in the cabinet as a reminder there was a monthly cycle, it was a non event. Thus my life experience is I don't write about it. However the funniest PMS story I ever read was Nikky Haley the Elf by Miss Finson with lightning, thunder, storm clouds, and rain in the dorm. Even I can appreciate a good PMS story where a female goes ballistic.
Story telling is more kin to real life than most writers realize. I have read comments where readers have criticized The Professor, Morpheus, and many other great authors. I said criticized not made a comment. They didn't like the way the story went. The problem was, those stories weren't wrote for that person or a select few like minded individuals. They were wrote for a broad range of readers who had a wide range of what they liked in a story.
My point is, one can write True Romance for that select readership. I won't be reading the story as my taste doesn't flow in that direction. Whether it is romance, or action, mystery, try to imagine Sherlock Holmes without the details, it is the interlock of setting (scene) dialog, description that defines the story. The same as a good or poor movie.
I wish all our authors successful writing.
always,
Barb
Comments
On a somewhat related note...
On a somewhat related note... I had a story taken down twice on this site, because all it received was harsh criticism over a character's actions in the end. I don't think anything positive was said about the story in general. Someone even went as far as to make a "rebuttal" story, in which they killed off said character. So I revised the story, as I was trying to set up a bigger overall universe to create stories off of that initial story. However, it received more harsh criticism over a character having to wear glasses. In fact, I believe the first negative comment was from that same person who wrote their own story off of it. So I just gave up on the whole thing.
People say writers should write for themselves, and I believe that. Although that is true, they also try to appease their audience from time to time. Hence the rewrite. But it just proved that you can't please everyone. In that story's case, it obviously didn't please anyone. Except the person that requested it in the first place. There is constructive criticism, and then there is throwing the baby out with the bathwater.
~Taylor Ryan
My muse suffers from insomnia, and it keeps me up at night.
Hmmm
Isn't "throwing the baby out with the bathwater" a well known country song? Or is that the dog?
As a reader
As a reader, I have no problem with purchasing a story that I know in advance contains parts of which I will probably skim or even skip over completely. Just as no one story is going to be appealing to everyone due to different tastes, few stories are appealing in their entirety to me. That doesn't stop me from reading them or from buying them.
If you're writing for your own pleasure, then that's what you should get out of it. Write about subjects which you enjoy and if readers don't like it then they can read something else. If you're writing for recognition and/or income, then you have to balance what you enjoy writing against presenting something people are willing to read and buy, knowing that you can't please everyone. If you limit yourself to writing material that you know will sell, but hate writing it, you will be miserable. Fortunately, there are enough different tastes out there that most writers should be able to find readers whose tastes overlap their own.
As for me, I enjoy reading True Romance and Action both, and even more when they're both present in the same story. They don't need to be mutually exclusive. I'm more likely to read/buy a story if it has some action in it but it's not a requirement if the rest of the story appeals to me. So far, I haven't seen much "action" in Model Makers (defining "action" as fights, chase scenes, etc) but I look forward to each new chapter and will certainly purchase it if I see it listed on Amazon in the future. Huntress had a lot of action and I really enjoyed it, too.
I've enjoyed what you've published here so far, and I hope you can find a balance that works for you.
Model Makers is a Novel not a short story
The setting, dialog, action is not a nail biter from the get go. I would like for you to get back to me when you have read the whole thing and give me your honest truthful opinion. If there are such as professional critics who write book reviews for newspapers, book stores, I've received their critique which is not relevant here. I've been in their shoes as a critic and publisher and personally, we are all guessing which story will resonate with the reading public this week, this month, this year. I've read great stories which never made it past the manuscript and really bad ones which became published books. If I learned a couple things in this business it is no one can predict what the public will want to read. The other is authors are the hardest people in the world to handle. That story they wrote is their child and God forbid anyone say anything but praise for it or they will turn on you like a junk yard dog guarding their bone.
Writers, write to please one person, yourself. If others like what you have wrote then it is a bonus. And if they don't? Remember you didn't write the story to please them and you still have that fan club even if it is only one..., yourself. You'll never be disappointed.
hugs to all you authors and readers
always,
Barb
Oklahoma born and raised cowgirl
Romcombats
My neologism for action romance stories! Neat, eh?
Anyway...
I write largely for my own needs, and I don't mean financial (but please buy my books anyway!). I started writing as a way of straightening my thoughts out, and to a large extent it worked. I then found myself hooked on my characters, as I see them as people rather than components. That means I want to find out what happens to them, which means I have to write.
Some people like my stuff, because of or despite the fact that it consists almost entirely of love stories. The background may vary, although I do my best to make it real, and the gender and sexuality of my protagonists vary, even including straight men, who are foreign creatures. Well, all men are foreign creatures to me, but never mind.
My point here is that I can't write comfortably to someone else's requirements unless they remain broad enough for me to work within. Where BarbieLee speaks of "stories written for a broad range of readers" I agree with her absolutely. My trouble is that I dance to the tune of my characters rather than that of possible readers, but her point about people who criticise the direction of a story rather than its telling are right.
If you don't like the way a tale goes, you have a number of options:
Go away and read something else.
Make a polite suggestion to the author, preferably in private. Discussing and guessing at plot twists etc is DIFFERENT.
Write your own story that goes where you want it to.
re: Dancing to the tune...
My trouble is that I dance to the tune of my characters rather than that of possible readers,
That's what good authors should do. If you do the reverse, you can end up with something akin to fan fiction or worse.
Thy are your characters. you own them (within bounds of Universes naturally) and even created them so they live in your imagination and what we see on paper or the screen is just part of who they are. Only you can dictate how much of the real character is exposed.
This:-
Write your own story that goes where you want it to.
says it all actually.
Samantha
Thank you
I can think of a worse trap: ending up like one of those "choose your story" books. Done as a game between reader and writer, they are fun. Done as a default style.... No.
I never
Really have any clue where my characters are going to take things!
I've lost literally whole storylines sometimes because the characters reacted differently to how I expected. At other times the reverse is also true, i've had whole stories come about due to a perverse notion of a prospective character.
I used to think I wrote for me but i've increasingly become aware that i'm writing for my characters, they want to tell their story their way and if I try to interfere it just doesn't happen.
Romance, action - gods only know, I could no sooner sit down to intentionally write one than willingly eat broccoli!
As long as you like the results what does it matter what Cindy in Cincinnati thinks? If others enjoy it and maybe are even willing to part cash that's just a bonus.
Do what you do, do it well.
Mads
Madeline Anafrid Bell
Make it clear
There's nothing wrong with an author choosing only to write those parts of the story they care about, as long as you don't trick the reader into giving you their time and/or money under false pretenses. Don't tag your story a romance if the romantic elements are a subplot to an action story. Hollywood does this all the time in movie trailers, selling a tragic biopic as a comedy or a coming-of-age drama as a romance.
Sometimes tonal shifts can be enjoyable to a viewer/reader, but it gets a little more complicated when people are paying money and feel cheated.
Suit Yourself
Write what you want for whoever you want to write for. For yourself, for your audience, whatever. Whatever you want. I have strong opinions on what I will and won't read. All I ask is it be tagged accurately. I may personally get upset when BC gets into a run of topics I dislike, but I don't say anything. Unless I'm misled, now that pisses me off. I have a large number of people on my ignore list. Some authors go on it then come back off. Some may go back on it later.
But what I like or don't like is not yours or any other author's concern. Concentrate on writing your story your way as best you can. I firmly believe that if somebody cares enough about something that they'll go to the effort of writing about it, then there are people out there that also care that will read it.
Now is probably a good time to mention that you can ask Erin to delete unkind comments. It is your story and you get the say-so on what comments are attached to it.
Keep writing if you so desire.
"Life is not measured by the breaths you take, but by the moments that take your breath away.”
George Carlin
Writers write for themselves?
Yeah, i disagree with that. Writers are in essence entertainers who use the written word as their medium. Like an actor or singer....
"I live for the applause, applause, applause
I live for the applause-plause, live for the applause-plause
Live for the way that you cheer and scream for me
The applause, applause, applause"
Ok, a little Lady Gaga there... but you get my point.
Disagree if you like
I am an author here and speaking for myself, I write to keep my head secured. I couldn't care less about viewers, kudos, and comments. When I get whatever it is out I'm satisfied. Main reason I haven't posted in some years. Although I have some sequels planned and even partly written, I don't feel the need to do anything with them. I'm sleeping better, having far fewer nightmares and dealing with my depression. I haven't even visited my stories in several years, I have no idea if there are new comments and I'd have no idea if the kudos have gone up or down.
"Life is not measured by the breaths you take, but by the moments that take your breath away.”
George Carlin
So I wrote 1 story but with two endings: mild & XXX
This post make very good points. - I write for my self. If my subject material is to graphic then don't read it (I always CLEARLY label a story). With that in mind I JUST posted a mild story called "Acceptance: Spousal (mild)"... in a week I'll post the same store that will be about 450 words longer and it's XXX... I'll let readers 'vote', kudo, comment and we'll see which story is better received.- "Acceptance: Spousal (XXX)"
Two of my previous stories drew comments that: I should not have mentioned the heroes size/weight.. as it had no bearing on the story. In another story a reader took umbrage that I described a meal being served... really!
So write what YOU like. Write what flows for you.
Dee
Donna