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Do you write for an audience?


Elena
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Do you like that people read your posts?  

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Some people write only for their writing partner, or for themselves. I like reaching the widest audience possible (with that "widest" being not so wide, most often, but hopefully it doesn't mean that my writing sucks). I think all kind of stories are meant to be shared (in a way or another, orally or in writing). I always write with an audience in mind -  which doesn't mean, however, that I write "things which sell" if they don't interest me.

 

I like RPGs because I like interacting with my readers (and writing partners), talking about characters, plots, motives, etc. I wish the readers of my novels would interact with me on my FB page too (where it is easier) or on my blog.

 

What about you?

Edited by Elena
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I write for myself and my partners in the thread. If other people read the writing, that is fine for me, but I neither expect them to tell me nor want their feedback in most cases. I don't mind if someone comes and says they like my writing and so would like to get some plots going. Yet I've learned if I start to do something for praise I'll stop doing it for its own sake and stop enjoying it as much.

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My problem is that if nobody reads it, I feel that I have written it in vain. 😞 And this is the problem with some parts I am writing alone. Even when I was writing my novels, way before Internet, in a notebook, with pen and ink, I still wrote for an audience, albeit a limited one: my friends and cousins who read them in instalments, while I was writing them, and who discussed with me every plot twist.

 

I am not necessarily writing for a praise. The feedback can be constructive too, not necessarily praise. It just means that people have read and have felt something.

 

Sometimes I was asked "I don't understand why x did/ thought so." and I was glad to explain motives and reasonings. (I had asked, at my turn, the same thing several times). Sometimes I was told that some fragments would be more impactful if I used another technique. If that part was to be ever corrected (ie not for a RPG), then I took into account the comments.

 

Once a litterary critique didn't understand my metaphors and told me that I translated from a foreign language - I simply told him that it was not true and I left it there. He was definitely not my audience, not the target group for my YA novel.

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@Elena, once again you make me look at roleplaying in a completely different light. While I've been told in the past that people like to read my posts, I've never really thought that posts HAD to be read by others. I suppose the RP world has always had a "don't care what others think" attitude in many ways, and if one we're to admit that they wrote for others to read, they'd be told to write only for themselves.

 

But you phrase it in a way that makes it more about the story than about ego or anxiety, and I quite like it. Still, you'll be hard-pressed to find people who willingly admit to reading posts on sites like a novel for fear of being called a stalker or thief.

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Yes, it is about sharing the story with others. Because if you didn't write it to share it, or told it to share it, then why does it want out of your brain and on the paper/ screen/ air?

 

@Uaithne, I see it as natural to read everything, for keeping consistency in the story, since those are different chapters of the same story I am invested into. How could the characters know what happened and they should know, if the writers have no idea? Besides, if reading "The Three Mousquetaires" you wouldn't read only the chapters about d'Artagnan. The story needs read all, even the Cardinal's or the Duke of Buckingham's parts! It is the same for any story, including a site's! Just that the chapters are threads.

 

You know that Before the Mast has always had its fans, besides writers. (Hopefully Caribbean Dawn too, since it is its sequel, but it is too new to be sure. Anyway, the same people read the chronicles, which are now still mixed, as Caribbean Dawn's story started, but Before the Mast's wasn't yet entirely completed, so... yes.)  Fans who read the chronicles (which comprise summaries of the threads, and links to them, so they choose what threads to read in depth) and sometimes comment about a thread or another, either in the c-box, or to me on FB or in a PM on RPG-D. And I have always encouraged this. (I have been a fan reader of other sites too, the only one surviving up to now I think it's @Gothic's and she knows me as a fan of her site since 2009).

 

I have also encouraged members reading the other threads (and I have always done it actively, not only because I needed it for the Chronicles' "gossips", which aren't quite gossips, just summaries a bit far-fetched into a scandal journalist's style sometimes, such as if two people were discussing business in secret in a thread, a journalist was suspecting them of having an affair). We are writing a coherent story, so people need to know what happens in other threads in order to correlate their plots. This is the main reason for the existence of the "chronicle gossips", given that people don't always have time to read all the threads. Their characters don't live in a bubble. If a fire has taken place, surely everyone around should know. If two people fought aboard a cramped ship, even those who didn't witness it directly, must have heard gossips (or witnessed the punishment for fighting, if they got caught). And so on. I think I make sense...

 

And sometimes I have threads written alone, too. My characters need to interact between them, or with NPCs, in order to highlight other sides of the story which have to be told. Parts of the same West Indies tapestry/ saga.  Some people don;t read them, then they wonder why certain things happened and where they were written :P Look, they were!

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I chose Indifferent in the poll because I am going to keep writing privately and in RPGs whether or not people read what I write. I strive to write better for myself.


Despite choosing indifferent, I would say that I actually do write for an audience. I would love it if our RP stories reached a wider audience than just other members of the group. I read all of the threads on my own sites for enjoyment, not just to make sure everyone is still following the story. I cannot make the same claim for other sites I am a member of. The main reason is that there is not a cohesive story being told. Instead, they are numerous fragments that go nowhere. Also, on sites that have dozens upon dozens of IC forums, it just gets to be too much. In those situations, I favorite or follow a few people and characters that I really liked (either the writing or the characters' stories).


This is not in any way a condemnation of those that strictly write one-on-one character pieces. RPG writing meets different needs for each person that participates in them. Everyone chooses to join RPG communities for different reasons. 


My sites tell an overall story but also allow for individual character stories to develop in the central story. Each episode that we write to a conclusion then adds to the whole backstory of that season.


Yes, at the one site, we follow the format of a television series since it is a western based on the American classic TV westerns of old. My other sites were quest and mission-based but followed the same idea; the main tale that included individual stories too.


The bottom line: I write for myself, for my sites' members, and - if very fortunate - for a larger audience also.


Perhaps, if you substitute the word story for the word play, Mr. Shakespeare said it best....


Hamlet:
I'll have grounds
More relative than this—the play's the thing
Wherein I'll catch the conscience of the King.

 

Hamlet Act 2, scene 2, 603–605
~ William Shakespeare

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I voted indifferent - but I agree, storytelling is a form of communication and all storytelling is for an audience, whether you want/get an audience or if that audience is just you/in your head.

 

I like the social aspect of storytelling (in general) and for roleplay, whether it's with my thread partner(s), other members, or lurkers. My favourite sites were the ones where it was the members who showed an interest in each other's characters and stories going on. The same way watching a movie or show and discussing characters/plot lines afterwards can be a social event.

 

I wouldn't call my preference "writing for an audience", I don't expect one, but I like interacting with thread partner(s) and members as you described. I wouldn't be in public roleplay if I was thinking only about myself/writing solely for me. I do that in my private writings.

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9 hours ago, Elena said:

My problem is that if nobody reads it, I feel that I have written it in vain. 😞 

 

I'm exactly the same. I actually discussed this with a writing partner in the past, because she does not write for an audience the way that I do. I wrote for my siblings when I started, and my family. I wrote for my BFF when I was older. Then I was writing on fictionpress and fan fiction, which meant I had an audience that I engaged with. I also read works and left comments. I enjoy this and I always have. 

 

Now in RP, I enjoy discussing my RPs with the people on my sites, whether we're in a plot together or not. I enjoy reading their plots and I enjoy knowing they read my plots. If I don't have readers (an audience), then I feel like it's pointless as well. My writing partner doesn't feel the same--she actually enjoys the privacy of writing one-on-one, but I need that audience. I like it when people comment on my characters and threads, but my partner feels self-conscious when they do. 

 

Anyway, I voted yes. I do write for an audience, even if it's just a small one. If i'm not writing my stories for a reader, I feel like the work I've put in just comes across pointless.

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Mostly writing for myself and whoever I happen to be writing with at the time. Or whoever else is playing on that particular board. I love getting comments about a thing I had a character say or do but I don't write them for the purpose of getting those responses. That's just a pretty bonus to what feels right for the character at the time (or what we've already plotted for that character).

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I don't really write with other people in mind aside from myself and whoever happens to be involved in the current plotline I'm writing for or in. I know people read my posts, they've told me they're stalking them many many times in the past, and while I do find it flattering when I'm complimented on my writing ability, I just don't find my writing changing even in face of this knowledge. I tend to lose myself in the character and the moment and the story, so I don't really think beyond that moment when the words flow out and I'm typing. It use to embarrass me knowing people look and read what I'm writing, but I still find myself surprised to know anyone does. 

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I voted "I Liked people to read my posts", but perhaps writing is so ingrained in me that I'm actually indifferent? I think you can be both!

 

Everyone writes for an audience. But an audience can be one person or a million. It varies from person-to-person and even from piece-to-piece.

 

It is habitual for me to consider audience, purpose, and context of my writing in a passive manner, so trying to imagine how I write specifically for roleplaying purposes seems odd. It is a game for me, so imagining it in the context that I imagine my work writing is a little weird.

 

I suppose it can be broken down to the fact that I know that I write so that others may read (YOU COUNT AS AN AUDIENCE BTW so if you're writing "just for yourself" that's still an audience type and writing style). Will I cry if others aside from myself don't actually read what I'm writing, especially when I put little easter eggs in there for them? No.

 

I like when people read my work, and I write for it in case they do, but I also write for myself (I'm included in my audience). So I guess that means I do both and am not fussed about it either way?

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I've voted indifferent, because I mainly write for myself and my partner, but I'm perfectly okay with people reading my stuff and even commenting on it. To be honest, even if the person doesn't want to plot with me, I find feedback fun. And a part of me does police a thing here and there for a broader audience, depending on the platform I'm on and the rules.

 

But having others read it is just a pleasant bonus. My true audience, when I write, is the person (or people) I'm writing with, and they are my main concern.

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2 hours ago, Shades said:

I've voted indifferent, because I mainly write for myself and my partner, but I'm perfectly okay with people reading my stuff and even commenting on it. To be honest, even if the person doesn't want to plot with me, I find feedback fun. And a part of me does police a thing here and there for a broader audience, depending on the platform I'm on and the rules.

 

But having others read it is just a pleasant bonus. My true audience, when I write, is the person (or people) I'm writing with, and they are my main concern.

 

What when you have a thread alone, or when you write something alone? Then there is not a writing partner...

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