Writing For An Audience Of One

For years, I read about the benefits of writing for someone else. For someone you love. Stephen King talked about it. Ernest Hemingway talked about it. Everyone and their great-dead-grandmother talked about it.

When I wrote The Great Lenore (what is today? - the 24th? - yup, 5 days until Tuesday March 1, when The Great Lenore becomes available for pre-order), I did not have anyone in my life to write for. And besides, I loved myself too much at the time for it to have been much use to me if I did have someone for whom I could have written. Instead, I wrote for me, with the idea that if I loved the final product, anyone else who likes the same books as me would love the final product. And while this ended up working out for me, I have now realized that there is a reason they do not advise that you "write for you." At least, not to write strictly for you. It is because you are biased. Either positively or negatively. Toward yourself.

Makes sense, right?

And so, they tell you to write for someone else. And the same foundational principle holds true: If that reader loves your book, then everyone else who likes the same books as that reader will love your book.

Enter The Shutterbug.

She and I began dating nearly a year and a half ago. Which is convenient, because that was how long ago I began writing Blue The Person.

How much progress have I made in Blue The Person? Don't ask.

Okay, go ahead and ask. But you won't get an answer.

That is, you won't get an answer beyond, "Not as much progress as I should have made in a year and a half. But I do have between 50,000 and 100,000 words written that I will never use, and these words have helped me get to know my characters like nothing else could. And now I am rolling - not rapidly, but rolling nonetheless - through what will at last be my 'final' first draft."

But as I have gotten to know my characters better, I have also gotten to know The Shutterbug better. And at last (that is to say, as of the beginning of this final first draft), I know her intimately enough to write specifically for her.

Her favorite author is John Steinbeck. A couple of her other favorite authors are Kurt Vonnegut and Jonathan Safran Foer.

But more than just knowing her favorite authors, I know her.

When I write, I of course maintain my own style (which is a lot like Steinbeck's anyway, so hurrah for alighment of tastes). But also, if something comes to mind that I consider deleting, I ask, "Would The Shutterbug like this?" If so, I leave it in. If not, I delete it. I am literally writing a book for her. She is my audience of one. If she is happy with the book in the end, then I am happy with the book. And if she is happy with the book, everyone who likes the same books as her will be happy with the book.

The great benefit of writing in this manner is the level of polish it yields to a first draft. Rather than questioning whether a faceless reader will or will not like something, you can wonder whether a specific person who you know well will like it. And especially if this "specific person" has excellent tastes in literature, you will be in tremendous shape.

Then, the only difficult thing about writing becomes the fact that you cannot read any of the book to them until months down the road, when the first draft and the first few edits have been completed. It's tough to wait like that. But it will be worth it.

I know that it will be worth it.

For me.

For The Shutterbug.

And hopefully for you, Dear Reader. Hopefully for you.

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