Natasha Fondren

I fell into the trap. I got into a series, and I started understanding what the readers wanted. And, of course, I’m a for-the-reader writer, so I started giving it to them.

I forgot the most important thing to remember: you need to give them what they want in an unexpected way.

Reading back through one of my series last weekend, I did that in books 1-3, but failed to in 4 and half of 5. I slipped into only giving readers what they want, which is, unfortunately, not really satisfying.

What’s the angle? Because we almost always need one to stay “fresh.”

The other day I talked about the challenges of serial writing. Neil Gaiman once mentioned how educational comic book writing was in terms of readers. The letters would pour in after a release, and he’d have instant feedback on what the readers thought he was going to do next. So of course he did something different in the next installment.

There is a difference between giving the writers what they want and what they expect. One must always fulfill the former and thwart the latter.

What think you?

I feel for comic book writers. It’s a different method, for sure, a different sort of writing skill. Like comic book writers, I write a chapter, it gets published, then I write another chapter, so on and so on. When I’m ahead, I write the whole thing before the first chapter is due.

But when I’m not? Ugh. Sometimes it works out great. Sometimes not. It is a different writing process. You “drop” lots of threads in the first chapter, and you spend the rest of the novel picking them up. You end every chapter with something of a cliffhanger. You have a vision of the end, but…

Right now, I’m at the it’s-a-total-freakin’-mess stage. I’d started this thing with 15K of the end, which is sort of a ridiculous way to start. And now the end needs to be thrown out. In fact, the whole darn thing needs to be thrown out and done over.

But I can’t. I hate that.

The first six chapters are SET IN STONE. So now I have to deal. Sometimes things aren’t as much of a mess as they feel they are. Sometimes they are. I’m usually better than this; I usually can handle serial writing better. It’s a skill you learn just like any other.

Adapt and overcome. It’s just a tiny handicap. One can adapt to most anything and still turn out a good product. At least that’s what I’m telling myself.

I’d sorta hoped I’d have some point, some epiphany, something. But I don’t.

What writing challenges and strange situations have you had to overcome, to learn to adapt your writing process to? how did you adapt?