Writing and Reader Satisfaction

*Originally published on 3/17/09


I have a LiveJournal account. Along with some of my friends from college, I also read the blogs of various celebrities. One of these is horror/erotica writer Caitlin R. Kiernan. I haven't read her work, but I find that reading about writers who have made it helps get me motivated to write myself. A while back, she went on a rant blasting readers who criticized her work saying that they weren't satisfied. She said that it wasn't her job to satisfy them and her only priority was the story.

I agree and disagree. I mean, yes the story needs to come naturally and it would be wrong to force an aspect of any work of fiction just to make it more mainstream. I don't know, maybe its because I'm still working my way up but I don't like the whole "Oh yeah! Well forget you. I'm a writer!" attitude. She's not the only one. Alan Moore does the same thing. Writers are really cranky and sometimes condescending people for some reason; I don't get it. She's got a point, and the readers in question had only an arbitrary reason for not liking the work they were referring to. So it is justified to a point, but she's also wrong in a way too.

Writing is one of those things that is completely subjective. A book or story that one person loves may not work for another. Either way, it's important to be constructive and specific in regards to why you didn't like the work. Just saying "I don't like it because it sucks" isn't good enough. Criticism needs to be insightful and well thought out. It's a difficult concept for people to grasp at times, especially on the internet, but it's true.

I digress, the question of the day, is it the writer's job to satisfy the reader? is not as simple as it seems. In a lot of ways, yes it is. After all, publishers hire you based on your ability to draw readers. If you go around giving everyone who criticizes your work the finger and telling them to sod off, no one's going to buy your work and the publishers are not going to hire you again. Conversely, if you write a good story, free of pretentious and meaningless symbolism but full of character development and rich prose, you will satisfy the reader. I know!

So really the answer is somewhere between yes and no. The reader should be satisfied reading your work. If you were only writing for you, then you wouldn't go out of your way to get it published. Your job as a writer is to come up with a story that appeals to readers and if they consistently react negatively to your work, they won't buy it and publishers won't go through the trouble of trying to sell it. At the same time, the story should work naturally. It shouldn't be too bogged down by unnecessary exposition, nor should it be rushed to a hurried ending.