You’re at lunch with Megan and Sandra, who both report to you in your department at Sales, Inc. You arranged the lunch because you know that their work has been suffering due to a conflict that the two seemingly haven’t been able to solve on their own.

The three of you are at a table for four in a restaurant you selected. Your two co-workers are seated to your left and to your right. The food has arrived. They both ordered something you recommended. Because you’ve correctly planned every detail of the lunch, everyone has started to relax. At the proper moment, you breach the topic of their personal conflict. They start an intense conversation that doesn’t involve you . . . other than in how it makes you feel about them and the world in general.

While they debate your head is on a swivel between the two of them. You want to see the nuances of the speaker’s facial expressions, and then read the reaction of the listener through her body language.

At some point in the argument you realize there’s someone watching your table, who can see and hear everything. That person is your employer. You decide it is advantageous to allow the scene to continue. You’re now also aware of that person’s reaction to each statement and action.

Writing involves a bit of mental gymnastics much like the above.

To effectively communicate an idea the writer must simultaneously be in each involved character’s mind.

More importantly, author’s also need to be in the reader’s head. What’s does the reader know? How will the reader react given limited facts? What conclusions will the reader draw that might be twisted to make the story more interesting?

Stephan King has one reader in mind when he writes a story. His wife. She reads everything he writes and critiques it.

When Stephen King was starting out he wrote for magazines and had some minor successes. He submitted his first full length novel manuscript to dozens of literary agents and publishing houses. Like most writers, he was rejected by all.

He finally gave up and threw his manuscript in the garbage.

Imagine his surprise when he received a letter from a publisher offering him $600,000 for his story. That story was “Carrie”. His wife had taken the manuscript out of the garbage and sent it off to one more publisher.

Stephen knows that his wife is his biggest fan. He also knows that she loves him enough to be brutally honest. He credits her with the quality of his writing because he always has her reaction to his story in mind while he writes.

There needs to be a connection between the writer and the reader.

Erin has facilitated that connection through the “good story” button, the count of the number of times your story has been viewed, and the comments.

When I create a story I know that if I do a good job appealing to the olfactory sense through mention of a perfume, Geoff (Robyn) will appreciate it. I know that if my story follows a logical course Lindale, will find something in it that amuses her. When I make an obscure reference to a song lyric, I strongly suspect Drea will enjoy that nuance. I can count on a positive reaction to proper attention to period references from Joanne Barbarella. Rasufelle will respond positively to thoughtful characterization. Kristine Roland will get into the intensity. I have been conditioned through their comments to create stories they want to read.

If I want lots of readers, I will write something that involves forced fem, but I know I’ll be frustrated because that audience does NOT communicate their feelings. At least they don’t post comments on BC. When I posted on FM forced fem did quite well for comments. I knew that Vicki Tern would always have something nice to say about the way I subjected my protagonist to guilty pleasures.

I try not to write about protagonists who are under the age of eighteen. If I wanted lots of comments that would be the easiest way to get them. Rule of thumb, the younger the protagonist the more comments you’ll receive, to a maximum of about seven or eight years old. Those comments tend to be much more personal and seem to want to direct the action in the story.

I love it when a reader posts a comment about how she wanted the story to go. That seems to indicate active participation by the reader, which tells me I’ve achieved a certain amount of success in my purpose.

When you leave a comment you’re exercising your right to shape the author.

If the stories on BC aren’t all you’d like them to be, try commenting and see how quickly your author responds. In fact, authors on BC hungrily read comments on other writers’ stories. You might be influencing several dozen writers with one choice remark.

Jill