Good day.
I’m currently away enjoying a holiday with some very good friends on their gorgeous sailing boat. A lot of the regulars to my blog posts will know I am an avid sailor myself so this holiday is just perfect! You might also know I wrote most of The Crossing whilst on board our own yacht (before we swallowed the anchor and sold her), and now history is repeating itself as I endeavour to finish my current work in progress, Children of The Plantation, a rather spooky and mysterious novel about a family living in Malaya in the 1950’s and 1960’s. So far it's been going well and I hope to publish sometime next month...watch this space!!
Today’s blog post is all about writing and readers. Now this next sentence of mine my strike you as strange.
“Writers don’t WANT everyone to read their books.”
Why? Because in fact we have specific readers we want our work to reach, and some people we genuinely don’t want to have as readers.
It’s taken me a little while to understand this. For some time I believed I had to chase every living person out there to get them to read my work. And this is absolutely the wrong thing to do. With some clear thinking and time taken to sit back and explore I now have a very clear and specific idea of the person I’m writing for when I’m planning and writing each novel.
This is because I know what I write is not going to appeal to everyone. Simple. My writing is going to appeal to people who share certain values that matter to me, and who love some of the same genre and content I love.
In writing what I love—my ideal readers will love the same, and consequently, my fiction will fit them.
My stories all have a certain retribution factor within them.
So you’re my reader if you love real-life heroes who are usually the underdogs and struggle to do what’s right against enormous odds. You’re my reader if you believe in right and wrong, and you want the characters that are struggling in my story to do things right to win. You’re my reader if you love stories where one person beats the odds to make a difference. You’re my reader if you value creation over destruction. You’re my reader if you love characters in worlds where things go wrong more often than they go right, and the solution to the problem is simple, plain common sense. You’re my reader if you love the shivers you get when you first open a new book and the mysterious story begins to unravel itself, word by word. You’re my reader if you know love matters above all else, and you’d never hesitate to save your love if facing death.
If you fit this ‘mould’ you’re my reader, welcome. I have a whole cornucopia of stories to tell you.
I’m currently away enjoying a holiday with some very good friends on their gorgeous sailing boat. A lot of the regulars to my blog posts will know I am an avid sailor myself so this holiday is just perfect! You might also know I wrote most of The Crossing whilst on board our own yacht (before we swallowed the anchor and sold her), and now history is repeating itself as I endeavour to finish my current work in progress, Children of The Plantation, a rather spooky and mysterious novel about a family living in Malaya in the 1950’s and 1960’s. So far it's been going well and I hope to publish sometime next month...watch this space!!
Today’s blog post is all about writing and readers. Now this next sentence of mine my strike you as strange.
“Writers don’t WANT everyone to read their books.”
Why? Because in fact we have specific readers we want our work to reach, and some people we genuinely don’t want to have as readers.
It’s taken me a little while to understand this. For some time I believed I had to chase every living person out there to get them to read my work. And this is absolutely the wrong thing to do. With some clear thinking and time taken to sit back and explore I now have a very clear and specific idea of the person I’m writing for when I’m planning and writing each novel.
This is because I know what I write is not going to appeal to everyone. Simple. My writing is going to appeal to people who share certain values that matter to me, and who love some of the same genre and content I love.
In writing what I love—my ideal readers will love the same, and consequently, my fiction will fit them.
My stories all have a certain retribution factor within them.
So you’re my reader if you love real-life heroes who are usually the underdogs and struggle to do what’s right against enormous odds. You’re my reader if you believe in right and wrong, and you want the characters that are struggling in my story to do things right to win. You’re my reader if you love stories where one person beats the odds to make a difference. You’re my reader if you value creation over destruction. You’re my reader if you love characters in worlds where things go wrong more often than they go right, and the solution to the problem is simple, plain common sense. You’re my reader if you love the shivers you get when you first open a new book and the mysterious story begins to unravel itself, word by word. You’re my reader if you know love matters above all else, and you’d never hesitate to save your love if facing death.
If you fit this ‘mould’ you’re my reader, welcome. I have a whole cornucopia of stories to tell you.
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