Who I Write For
As do many writers, I tend to write for an imagined, ideal reader. Mine is a secret audience of one, a composite of favorite authors and a couple of people I’ve known. People who I appreciate and trust. It’s a collective sensibility whose appreciation and tastes meet mine. This is not a conscious approach, not a canned device or gimmick I put into place as I set about to write. Rather, I think it’s a subconscious act of empathy, a subtle putting of myself into a reader’s shoes. And, I hope, it helps me deliver work that does what it should.
With Apologies to Yogi Berra
Great editing is more important than great writing, and vice versa.
Simple Questions and Their Complicated Answers
“What’s your book about?” people ask, a fine question if ever there was one. But in a character-driven novel, there are so many answers, and few that satisfy both reader and author. The two sets of needs seem mutually exclusive. While the question is, understandably, usually about the story in regard to what happens, the author wants to explain what it means.