When readers' and authors' viewpoints don't reconcile
I always read with interest, usually when a book in a really super popular series releases, the varying viewpoints of readers and then how the author interpreted certain characters, their pathways etc. It's no denying that readers become invested in their favorite series or their favorite characters. They root for them along the way. They wait anxiously for character B and C to get their own stories. I see this a lot with hugely popular series like J.R. Ward's just to name one that comes to mind!
But what happens when the reader's expectation doesn't reconcile with the author's vision/interpretation of character B and C? As a reader do you shrug it off and say okay well these are the author's characters, he/she knows them better and chalk it up to minor disappointment? Or do you become angrier because as a reader you've invested countless hours, you KNOW these characters and what you got wasn't what you expected?
And who's right?
I've long sided with the author (because hello, I am an author haha) BUT I am a huge reader and I've BEEN disappointed when a long awaited character gets a story and it's not what *I* envisioned. I grumble. I sulk. But at the end of the day, that character is the author's creation and their worldview and my worldview are going to be vastly different.
Does it mean I break up with the author and swear "never again?"
Usually not. Unless said author breaks my cardinal rules lololol. There are a few things that if an author does, I break up with them forever and ever amen. Killing a major character off will do that. Dissolving a happily ever after that occurred previously in the series. I mean NOOOOO I do not want to read a SECOND book with the hero or heroine from a previous story where I was already invested in the FIRST HEA only to have to reconcile in my head that it didn't work out and now I'm expected to root for this other person? Is it realistic? Well of course, but realism is NOT why I read fiction. I read because I want to be in my happy place where everything is perfect and everyone stays together and lives happily ever after.
So what say you when an author doesn't go the way YOU want him/her to go with a story or a set of characters? Is it off with his/her head? Or do you chalk it up to differing visions and move on?
©2012 Maya Banks: Southern Sin. All Rights Reserved.
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I chalk it up to differing visions/ I have to say I like to read what other authers stories are in their head. I try to get out side of my head and get in to the story to get away as much as I can. I love to see what authers minds are thinking and turning the story in to. I do wonder what would happen if something little happend where would the story end up but then thats where my mind goes off wandering again. So yes they are their charactors & I live with it. The only time I would write off a auther is how they write. I do not do well with a tone of discription and a tone of being inside of the charactors heads. I do like a good amount just enough to get the jist of where the charactors are at in their lives, the scene, and surroundings.
I chalk it up to differing visions and move on. I guess as to whether it's off with the author's head depends on whether or not I've read other books besides the series that disappointed me. If I have read and enjoyed other books by them, I wouldn't stop reading that author, but I may stop reading that particular series. If I either haven't read other books by the author or I have read others, but just thought the books were ok, then I might just stop reading the author completely.
Like you, it depends! I will only give up if I feel the author isn't being true to the characters she/he created. Readers come to trust authors and the characters they crafted so when that trust is breached because of odd storylines, they risk losing those readers forever. The examples you give would certainly drive me away (thank goodness I've never read a series where these occurred). I give authors leeway to take their characters in directions of their choosing, as long as they do their job in effectively carrying me there, too.
There is always going to be stories in a series where reader likes some but not all in said series. It happens. But me I don't give up on the author just because I didn't like a curtain story even if it is in a series. Because a few of the authors have done that in the books I have read. Also the other commenters for this question have gave valid points.
