Who did I write The emerald serpent for?
Well The emerald serpent is up on Amazon kdp and Amazon kdp select and I'm starting to receive some verbal feedback from readers, all of it positive. It brings to mind the hoary old question as to who writers actually write for: themselves or some anonymous/imagined audience.
I certainly need to love the characters and story which slowly forms in my mind, in fact if I didn't, there wouldn't be a story. As a pantser, I have to pursue my glimpses of things zealously, but also patiently, knowing that it takes time for the story to unfold.
I often begin with a picture or scene. The emerald serpent began with a television scene on a beach where a man looks up and sees something or someone he obviously doesn't expect. His expression goes from shock, to anger, to contempt. This man became Cormac, but it wasn't till I stumbled upon a poignant picture of Willy Cartier that I knew what he looked like. But of course, The emerald serpent is actually Etaine's story, more than Cormac's.
So, as The emerald serpent slowly revealed itself to me, I started to consider who its audience might be. I tend to write characters who are 17 or 18 which suggests a YA - cross-over audience, but Etaine is actually 25, although she was 18 when the trigger event happens. Cormac is older, and although his age isn't explicit, I suspect he was around 25 when he and Etaine first met. The whole YA designation can be problematic though and I prefer NA - or New Adult - which is late teens to mid-thirties.
The Emerald Serpent is the first story I've written with a setting that exists in this world (or this world as it was). Normally I start from scratch with a fully constructed secondary world, but The emerald serpent was a NaNoWriMo project and November marks the end of the academic year in terms of lecturing and I was a bit weary. I have a mixed Scottish heritage and love Northern Scotland, so I set it in the Caledonian Forest. There are only remnants of this ancient forest left today so the setting reflects what it would have been like several thousand years ago.
Of course, age isn't the only variable that effects audience enjoyment. The forest setting with its bears and wolves, rushing streams and snowy crags, would appeal to readers who like pastoral rather than urban fantasy, and the fact that the Eadar aren't human, nor the Fuaran for that matter, might appeal to readers of Lord of the Rings, which uses a similar mix. It has an overall Celtic feeling to it as well, which again might appeal to those who delight in the Elvish.
In the end though, I think it's the story of the characters' struggles that must attract. While I feel Etaine's behaviour is fully justified, to have any goodness in her life again, she has to change. And of course, her behaviour has the potential to affect not just herself (and Cormac) but the entire Eadar.
All these elements kept me going in my struggle to discover the story, and as I still take a great deal of pleasure in it, the answer to who the writer writes for, at least in my case, might be that they write for themselves and for those readers who enjoy the same things.
I certainly need to love the characters and story which slowly forms in my mind, in fact if I didn't, there wouldn't be a story. As a pantser, I have to pursue my glimpses of things zealously, but also patiently, knowing that it takes time for the story to unfold.
I often begin with a picture or scene. The emerald serpent began with a television scene on a beach where a man looks up and sees something or someone he obviously doesn't expect. His expression goes from shock, to anger, to contempt. This man became Cormac, but it wasn't till I stumbled upon a poignant picture of Willy Cartier that I knew what he looked like. But of course, The emerald serpent is actually Etaine's story, more than Cormac's.
So, as The emerald serpent slowly revealed itself to me, I started to consider who its audience might be. I tend to write characters who are 17 or 18 which suggests a YA - cross-over audience, but Etaine is actually 25, although she was 18 when the trigger event happens. Cormac is older, and although his age isn't explicit, I suspect he was around 25 when he and Etaine first met. The whole YA designation can be problematic though and I prefer NA - or New Adult - which is late teens to mid-thirties.
The Emerald Serpent is the first story I've written with a setting that exists in this world (or this world as it was). Normally I start from scratch with a fully constructed secondary world, but The emerald serpent was a NaNoWriMo project and November marks the end of the academic year in terms of lecturing and I was a bit weary. I have a mixed Scottish heritage and love Northern Scotland, so I set it in the Caledonian Forest. There are only remnants of this ancient forest left today so the setting reflects what it would have been like several thousand years ago.
Of course, age isn't the only variable that effects audience enjoyment. The forest setting with its bears and wolves, rushing streams and snowy crags, would appeal to readers who like pastoral rather than urban fantasy, and the fact that the Eadar aren't human, nor the Fuaran for that matter, might appeal to readers of Lord of the Rings, which uses a similar mix. It has an overall Celtic feeling to it as well, which again might appeal to those who delight in the Elvish.
In the end though, I think it's the story of the characters' struggles that must attract. While I feel Etaine's behaviour is fully justified, to have any goodness in her life again, she has to change. And of course, her behaviour has the potential to affect not just herself (and Cormac) but the entire Eadar.
All these elements kept me going in my struggle to discover the story, and as I still take a great deal of pleasure in it, the answer to who the writer writes for, at least in my case, might be that they write for themselves and for those readers who enjoy the same things.
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