Reader Influence in Our Stories

By Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

I’ve always been interested in what readers thought and allowed it to influence my writing. That’s because my goal was to be as commercially successful as I could be within my genre constraints.  Before I even started writing a couple of my series, I read the reader reviews on Amazon for similar series to get a feel what readers liked and didn’t like in the hopes that I could deliver it.

My Myrtle Clover series was slow to adapt to this method because I started it first and then kept on the track it had already started down. I wrote it as I wanted and luckily readers responded well to it.

Reading reader reviews and tweaking storylines. At some point, however, I was aware that my readers had a much greater role in the production of my Myrtle series. I started carefully considering their criticism (probably five books ago…series will have its 10th release next year).  They’ve mentioned concerns regarding characters, things they disliked specific to the series, omissions that I made regarding recurring characters, etc. I’ve noted them and incorporated changes based on their feedback.

For another thing, as I mentioned in a recent post, I started paying attention to series-specific tropes (or ‘rituals’, as Camille LaGuire called them).  Readers were upset when I left out elements of stories that they’d come to enjoy (people, situations, even objects).  I made a list to remind myself what they saw as important things to include.

I’m also trying to think what they would specifically enjoy on upcoming books.  Since this series is now approaching ten books, I’m recalling what I like as a reader in series I’ve followed for a while. I definitely enjoy trickled-in extra information on recurring characters to be able to see them in a new light or to be able to understand them better.  I’ve made a list of things that I haven’t explained about my main characters or extra detail about recurring settings and plan on dribbling this information into future stories.

Considering readers in the outlining phase: I’ve also been a bit nervous about the next project in the series, where I take my characters on the road (or, technically, on the sea. It’s a cruise ship mystery). I’m remembering that my editor at Penguin had many reservations about this type of story…although I ended up writing one for her (Quilt Trip), and it did really well. My editor advised me to load as many of my recurring characters as possible into the story because they’d be missed by readers otherwise. Since this is set on a cruise, it would create a ridiculous suspension of disbelief for readers if I took all my characters along. Quilt Trip was different from this story in another way—it was another subgenre…a manor house mystery or English country house mystery (except mine was set in the American South).  I’ve always wanted to write one. The cruise book won’t be following the tenets of the manor house mystery as a guideline.

I’m currently creating the outline for this cruise book, although I won’t write it until May. I’ve gotten in the habit of outlining the next book in a series immediately after writing a book in the same series and before leaping over to a different series. It’s best if my head is still in the series world when I outline.

I started trying to think like a reader.  What can this change of setting add to my story? Instead of just a change of scenery, what will help make it a great story?  For the readers?

I looked up the Road Trip trope on TV Tropes (this site should come with a warning label that it can become an addictive time suck).  It stated that the main purpose of this trope was to teach the characters something about themselves. But this is decidedly what I don’t like about those types of stories.

I decided that, for me as a viewer/reader, when I saw a special episode of my favorite show or read a book where my favorite characters went on a road trip, what made it especially interesting is when the characters maintained their own particular quirks and traits even in the new location. Or, even better, when the new location created conflict because of their own particular/peculiar traits.  And I don’t like it when the setting overpowers the plot and characters.

Writing this, it seems as if it should have been a no-brainer for me, but deliberately planning a novel based on what I think my readers will find most interesting is somewhat new for me. I feel like usually I wrote things that I enjoyed and hoped everyone would come along for the ride. Sometimes this worked well for me and sometimes it didn’t.

Using reader ideas.  I know that sometimes writers have said this is an area that can get tricky, but I’m also willing in doing a certain amount of crowdsourcing for story ideas. I don’t solicit them, but I’m lucky to be at the point where some readers are invested enough in the series and characters to ping me on social media and via email with suggestions. Most recently, a reader suggested that Myrtle help recurring character (and destitute psychic) Wanda find a job. It worked well with a story I was writing and so I worked it into the storyline.

This is completely different from the way books used to be written.  Writers in the garret, removed from the world, crafting their stories.  And I’m not saying I’m 100% a proponent of this semi-collaborative approach, but as I’m reporting what I’m doing, it certainly seems as if I’m coming a lot closer to a crowdsourcing method.  It makes me wonder…what if I did a project…a just-for-fun project…on Wattpad?  I’d write it serially (which I just told someone in an interview I’d never do because I don’t like to edit as I go and this would force me to edit as the story progressed) and write to purposefully solicit and incorporate reader feedback as I went…would it be a crazy story? Like a weird, senseless round-robin thing? Or would I be able to corral it into something that made sense?  Part of me thinks that would be a cool creative challenge and part of me thinks that perhaps I’ve suffered a mild stroke.  At any rate, I don’t have time for it right now, but it’s an intriguing future possibility.

How closely do you work with your readers?  Where do you see reading and writing heading in the future? Concerns about collaborative writing?

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Image: MorgueFile: xololounge

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