What do you want your writing to achieve and what are you doing to make that happen?

[Feo Takahari]

This will be long, so I'll make it two parts.

My larger goal is usually to create characters my readers will find interesting. This doesn't necessarily equate to "sympathetic", but that's the route I most frequently go. I haven't codified my methods before, but a few thoughts off the top of my head:

1): An interesting character acts on more than one principle. In most cases, these principles drag them in different directions--this means that you can't always tell what the character will do in response to a particular situation.

2): Interesting characters aren't always logical, but their actions make sense on some level. This is most important in tragedy, with characters failing through their flaws and their weaknesses, but it's useful to keep in mind in other genres as well--if your character was previously cowardly, and you want him to do something brave, you need to create a sequence of events that will inspire him to bravery.

3): Interesting characters help to create their situation. This doesn't preclude inactive characters, but their inactivity must be at least partially their own fault. Characters who're constantly pushed around by fate or chance, without any opportunity to make meaningful choices, are unable to demonstrate the traits that define them.

To put this together, I think John in my story Eternal is an interesting character, albeit one of my simpler ones. When his wife Leila was alive, he wanted to spend time with her, but also wanted to earn a living and provide for her. After her death, he convinces himself that Ghost is Leila reborn, in part because that gives him an opportunity to atone for neglecting Leila. He's not that rounded of a character, and I ultimately used Ghost as my protagonist, but I think he's got enough complexity to function in his role.

More in a moment.

 

[Feo Takahari]

Warning: excessively wordy.

To illustrate my narrower goal, I'd like to discuss the lamia. This is a typical 19th-century lamia:

In the stories about her, she's beautiful and evil, seducing and corrupting innocent young men. As a female figure who actively pursues sex with males, her connection with snakes is often made curiously phallic, tying into the idea of sexual pleasure as a thing that's right for males but dangerous in females. (In some versions, she's actually hermaphroditic.)

But even at that time, Keats had a very different conception of what a lamia was and meant. In the years that have passed, we've seen his ideas expanded upon, and the lamia has become something else entirely:

The lamia of modern fiction is still in many ways a sexual being, but she's no longer a figure of fear. She can be a dear friend, a devoted lover, or even a protagonist in her own right. She's been allowed the potential to be multidimensional, and I think that's because women's sexuality is no longer considered scary.

I've read plenty of authors who find what people are afraid of, create a monster to model it, and then make money off the idea that the monster's coming to get you. I want to make monsters that are harmless, applying the techniques I mentioned above to make the things and the people other people shy away from understandable and even sympathetic. I want to be able to say that in my own tiny way, I helped to create an environment in which people are allowed to be different without being shunned or demonized.

My "beautiful grotesques," as I call them, aren't my sole artistic focus, but they're my favorite subject, and the one that's most important to me. Even in my stories where the grotesque is less obvious, I still tend to focus on freaks and outsiders, humanized and granted their own voices with which to tell their own stories.

 

[Chessie]

Anything specific you're doing to help you achieve entertaining and uplifting writing that brings a sense of wonder?

Well, lets see how well I can explain this.

I like to entertain with a story that is twisted, interesting, with a blend of dark and light for balance. Most of my stories tend to have an underlying darkness to them, and then I add in a bit of humor where its least expected.

By uplifting, the focus of my stories tend to be the characters and their personal transformations. Sure, plot counts, but its mostly about what the people in the story are going through. I like readers to come out of a piece feeling as if they connected not only to the characters, but to themselves. I love when I read a story that leaves me reflecting my own self and my life. That's one of my goals with writing.

For a sense of wonder, definitely magic and an interesting setting. But magic that is mysterious, unexplained, and beautiful to the characters so hopefully the readers will see it that way, too. I would love to get into specifics but....I'm kind of hushed about these things.

The setting for my work in progress plays a huge role, since its partly where the magic in the story comes from. EDIT: My characters tend to be pretty screwed up in some way. Addiction, sexuality conflicts, and my main character's biggest problem is that she's a mother and does not want to be so. Its central to everything that's going on...and the story moves towards her surrender. I like DRAMA big time.

 

[Pat Harris]

I'm after laughter, tears, angst, hope, fears, and a bit of anger perhaps. I'd like to leave my readers with the feeling that there is indeed a greater good and it is well worth pursuing. If that seems a little lofty, so be it. Fantasy epics are by nature "predictable," but it's about the journey--how we get there--and therein lies the challenge. Run 'em through the ringer and then set 'em on the throne.

 

[wordwalker]

I do love putting people through the wringer, leaving them not sure where they stood at the start and getting more complicated from there. Part of that is, like Feo, I like characters torn between different principles, and those who do unusual but logical-to-them things (and yes, they often attract their own troubles too). Also, I'm learning I have a real love for action, suspense, and the details of how a magic might really get used ("how do you break in with a spray can, a bag of birdseed, and a rock?").

One side of this we haven't quite mentioned is that at least some of these priorities are the things we need to publicize. It's a little easy for writers to sound alike (if I hear "strong characters" in the wrong context my eyes glaze over), and that's a fatal flaw in today's crowded world. But non-humanoid dragonriders? That one I'll remember, and I'll remember "big-time drama" if you can find a really juicy way to put it. A writer's more than one thing, but today's readers probably need to hear that one thing before they slow down to read the rest.

 

[Chilari]

With my writing, I want to achieve the following:

1. I want to write stories I enjoy writing
2. I want to hit the million words mark in the next 15 months (latest estimate is in the region of 650,000 written in the last decade - before that I don't have enough records or a good enough memory)
3. I want to surprise and excite and entertain readers
4. I want to make enough money from my writing in the next 3 years to boost my income enough that I can move out of my fiance's mum's house and finally actually get married.

As for how I'm going to achieve those goals:

Nonspecifically, I'll keep writing, keep reading and keep learning.

Specifically, I have a plan whereby I will write to a word goal for one month on any number of pieces of fiction - short stories, novelettes, whatever. Then I'll spend the next month analysing the various stories I've written, and select the best three shorts or best novelette and best short based on quality, completeness and appeal. Then I'll edit those. For the next month I go back to writing (new stories, rewrites of old stories, rewrites of sections of what I'd written two months ago, continuations of longer stuff, whatever), and the month after that it's editing again. I'll also seek feedback. After a few rounds of this I should have something ready to submit to a magazine or publish as an ebook. And then I market appropriately and keep writing, editing and submitting. One paid magazine acceptance or 200 ebook sales per month will boost my income enough to hit goal 4, excepting other income sources.

As far as reading is concerned, I've got quite the reading list of fiction, non-fiction, history and so on I am working my way through.

 

[T.Allen.Smith]

Fantasy epics are by nature "predictable," but it's about the journey--how we get there--and therein lies the challenge. Run 'em through the ringer and then set 'em on the throne.

Often they are predictable, but they don't have to be.

I look for ways to turn expectations on their head. It's part of the desire to surprise the reader. That's very difficult, especially when dealing with a sophisticated and experienced audience. I've found that my own reading, outside the fantasy genre, helps a great deal to spark unexpected directions and ideas.

 

[Steerpike]

Warning: excessively wordy.

To illustrate my narrower goal, I'd like to discuss the lamia. This is a typical 19th-century lamia:

I enjoy Waterhouse.

 

[Jabrosky]

My Writing Goals

1. Writing allows me to express my lifelong creative streak and to show people the exotic places and characters I've always imagined. They say guys like me I live in our own little worlds, and I want more than anything to share my own mind's little world with the real, larger world outside.

2. I want to win people's admiration with my creativity and start a loyal fandom. Money I don't care so much about, but I crave respect and love from others.

3. Sometimes I am upset by how certain groups of people, societies, or time periods get represented in popular media and want to provide a different, more accurate or more respectful portrayal of those subjects. For instance, as a longtime fan of ancient Egyptian civilization, I don't like how most movies and books depict the Egyptians and their culture and want to correct that. That's why a lot of my stories take place in Egyptian-based settings.

4. A major reason why I have so many female characters of certain persuasions is, well, I find those kinds of women attractive and wish I could see them more often in fiction.

As for the steps I'm taking to accomplish my goals...need to ponder about that some more. I do know that I want to paint vivid scenes with rich descriptions since I've always been a highly visual thinker.

 

[Sheilawisz]

I want my stories to be exactly what I wanted them to be. I am the first person that must be pleased while reading them, and when I do not achieve this, I keep re-reading and fixing a chapter until I am totally happy with it.

Then, regarding other readers:

1- I want my stories to make people feel happy, engaged and connected to my world and my characters. I want my readers to immerse into my stories... My goal is to take people out of the real world and plunge them deep into my own world, and that is, in my opinion, the main goal that all Fantasy writers should have.

2- I want my readers to create very clear and vivid images in their minds while they read my stories, just like they were watching a film.

3- I want to capture the imagination of my readers, so when they stop reading they will remain thinking about the story, the characters and what is going to happen next... and then, I want them to have dreams about my stories =)

Imagination is a wonderful power, and I want to transmit it to my readers...

 

[Daichungak]

1. Entertain myself
2. Entertain my reader
3. Challenge my world view
4. Challenge my reader's world view

If the book isn’t entertaining and it doesn’t make you reflect on your own life, why read it?

 

[Steerpike]

I'll read it so long as it's just entertaining. If it does something more, that's great, but not a requirement. Depends on my mood. I'm not sure I've read many fantasy novels that make me reflect on my own life or challenge my world view, to be honest.

 

[Chessie]

Steerpike, I haven't either. I was referring to popular literature in general, the classics. And stories of that nature can be deeply entertaining. I mean, look at Pride and Prejudice.

 

[Daichungak]

So, do you make achieving this element of surprise your first priority with your writing?

Maybe not the first priority, but one of the first certainly. Another of the most important priorities in my writing is making my reader unsure if any given character will be alive or dead at the end of the chapter, but ensuring that they have a passionate desire for one outcome of the other.