Silk & Shadows

You know those anxiety dreams where you show up for a final exam that you haven’t studied for and you’re naked and on prime time TV with an audience of millions? That’s what publishing a book feels like. Your inner self is out there for all to see and criticize and—guess what—for good or ill, feedback happens.

I’ve been fortunate. With few exceptions, the response to RAVENOUS has been very supportive. Still, I get that “erk” feeling whenever someone darkens my in-box with a “check out your review here” link. Now I know what a partridge feels like in the shooting season. You’re game, baby, and someone has a rifle pointed at your butt.

Don’t get me wrong. An author (or anyone who puts their work before the public) rarely objects to constructive criticism or balanced reviews. No one is perfect. It helps to know where, as an artist, one is missing the mark. Beyond that, not everyone is going to like every book. That’s why there are 7,164 sub-genres of romance.

My only complaint about having the metaphorical gun pointed at my metaphorical tail feathers is that the intrinsic anonymity of the Internet does not enhance civilized dialogue. Which is a nice way of saying some folks are just plain off their meds some days.

Worst comment? Someone said RAVENOUS was so boring they quit reading halfway through. Unfortunately, they didn’t bother to say what they thought was missing. More dead bodies? Polyandrous android sex? Ghouls doing the can-can? Who knows?

Best comments? Well, here are some nice ones I grabbed off my website:

I urge anyone who is a fan of urban fantasy and paranormal romance to put Sharon Ashwood at the top of their list! – Night Owl Romance, Reviewer Top Pick

With its splendidly original heroine and dangerously sexy hero, surfeit of sizzling sexual chemistry and sharp writing seasoned with a generous dash of wicked wit, “Ravenous” is simply superb. – Chicago Tribune

Intriguing and darkly entertaining — not to mention sexy. Ashwood is definitely making herself right at home in this genre - Romantic Times Book Reviews

Nice, but I really like the ones from private individuals who drop an email to say, “Hey, I stayed up all night to finish this. Good work!” Those are the folks who keep me going in the cold, still hours at the keyboard.

The best, though, came when I was talking to a friend (who is also one of my beta readers) about the plot for book three. I was saying something about the heroine and she turned around and said, “No, you can’t write that. That’s wrong. Ashe wouldn’t do that.”

Oh, the proud mother moment. My characters have lives and worlds of their own and are negotiating with my readers behind my back. Alive! They’re alive!

However, I’m checking my credit card statements carefully.

I gave a few of them expensive taste.

Major congrats to our own Allison Chase for winning the 2008 Reviewer’s Choice Award for Best Historic Romantic Gothic at the Romantic Times Convention this past weekend!

As a ‘not-quite’ published author, I don’t have a lot of reader feedback on my books yet. Still, feedback was instrumental in smoothing out the many bumps in my road to publication.

In the beginning, when I first started writing seriously, most feedback took the form of responses from judges in contests that I entered. For a writer flexing her wings for the first time, wondering if she had the talent to turn her dreams into reality, those initial comments were precious gems chipped out of the gloomy rockface of self-doubt. I once got these words back on an entry:

“You have a lot of talent! Never, never quit! You will be published.”

Can you imagine the power of receiving that feedback on the same day the mailman delivers a flurry of rejection letters from agents? Yes, I’m sure you can.

I used to pull all the positive comments off my contest entries and store them together in a file. Never any negative comments—they had their place, but not in this document. Then, whenever the world felt particularly heavily and I considered giving up, I’d open up that file and read all the lovely things people said.

“You are a wonderful, talented writer with a magnificent voice. I’ll be looking for you in print.”

Bolstered by a few very kind words, I’d find the strength to send my newest manuscript out into the cold, cruel world.

The closest I’ve come to a reader comment was an email I got over a year ago, after I finaled in the Brava Novella Contest, where the top 20 entries are posted online. Mine was a medieval historical, set in France. Out of the blue I received this:

“I would like to purchase the book title: A Righteous Seduction, but I have been unable to find the seller. Would you by any chance be able to supply me with a name? This book sounds interesting.”

I practically danced on the ceiling. Someone wanted to buy my book. Okay, it was only a novella, and it wasn’t actually published yet, but someone wanted to BUY my book. Responding to that reader to let her know the story was not in print—and might never be—was soooo hard.

I’m looking forward—yes, with nervous anticipation—to getting reader feedback on DRAWN INTO DARKNESS in my mailbox. The good and the not-so-good. I’ll read the not-so-good ones, look for lessons to be learned, then put them away. But the good ones? You guessed it—I’ll be storing those in a special file I can open up every now and then and savor.

If you’re a reader (which most of us are, LOL) and you love an author’s books, I heartily encourage you to visit her website and drop her a quick note telling her so. We writers are a strange bunch—chock full of prose-induced confidence one minute, lost in the depths of uncertainty the next. Trust me, your words will be incredibly, marvelously appreciated. Even by the big names.

How about you? Did you ever receive a compliment or a pat on the back at just the right moment? Something that kept you slogging forward, despite the challenges you were facing? Willing to share?

What do readers want?

ACTION:

ADVENTURE:

A touch of DANGER:

Let us not forget UNBRIDLED PASSION:

And, of course, A JOYOUSLY HAPPY ENDING:

Sound a little cliched? There’s a reason for that. It’s been said that there are basically seven stories in the world and they’ve pretty much all been written. Over and over and over again. (These would be: Defeating the Monster, Rags to Riches, The Quest, Voyage and Return, Comedy, Tragedy and Rebirth.) Each of these classic stories is peopled with archetypes. Without getting all literary and in-depth, archetypes are those quintessential characters we recognize the minute we see them. The Mother, the Hunter, the Wanderer, the Mentor, the Shadow, the Reluctant Hero (a favorite in romance), etc. — these all embody certain personality types with very specific behaviors, and readers are able to connect and empathize with these characters right away. Think fairytales and myths, and stories like The Lord Of The Rings and Harry Potter. Aragorn, Frodo and Harry are reluctant heroes. Wolverine in X-Men is another. Each has a Mentor — Gandalf, Dumbledore, Xavier — each must fight a Shadow, etc.

But archetypes are also where the idea of stereotypes comes from. In writing, archetypes are good; stereotypes are bad (actually, stereotypes are always bad). The trick, always, is in finding a fresh approach to every new story, and to use the archetypes as guides to create original characters while avoiding the cliches of stale old stereotypes. Easy? NO! But don’t let me scare you! The beauty of it is that you really don’t have to be actively aware of any of this, or even know what the seven classic stories or archetypes are to put them to good use. A lot of it is instinctive.

So, OK, what was the question? Oh yeah, what do readers want. As a reader, I want believable, identifiable characters I can relate to (yes, even the villains), whose actions remain true to who they are, yet who are capable of growing (don’t forget that character arc), who set off on extraordinary, action-packed adventures, face danger, discover passion and, in the end, learn that love is the greatest power on earth.

Did I leave anything out?

I believe each reader opens the cover of a book armed with different expectations. Those expectations can be based on all sorts of things, including past experiences, likes & dislikes, and even what kind of day they’ve had. But I also believe most readers have general demands of their literary investments—they want to lose themselves in the story from page one, they want a riveting story that makes it tough to put the book down, and they want to close the book satisfied.

At least, that’s what I want when I read.

When I write, I try to keep the reader in mind. Not so much in the first draft—which is mostly about capturing the story and getting it down on paper—but definitely as I revise. The story in my head is full of wonderful details that make it come alive, but I sometimes forget to drop some of those details onto the written page. So, as I revise, I layer more of those details in.

One of the ways I try to factor in the reader experience is to read the story like an unbiased reader. Obviously, this is impossible to do when you’re the author. But to gain a bit of objectivity, I take step back and let the manuscript sit for a while. Wander off, read or write something else, take a break. For a couple of weeks, if I can manage it.

When I return to the manuscript to tackle the next draft, I see things I’ve missed: descriptions that didn’t quite capture the mood, clues that weren’t dropped, emotions that were lost in translation to the page.

Whether I’m successful in giving the reader what she wants is up to the reader herself—you’ll have a chance to judge in September—but my ultimate goal is to write a story that entertains.

Certain genres of novels come with inherent expectations: romance novels need a happily ever after, mysteries need to be solved, fantasy novels need the bad guy to get his ass kicked. In addition to those, when I plop myself down with a book, I bring along my individual wants: a hero/heroine who isn’t TSTL, a plot that I can follow without getting lost, and some humor.

What expectations do you have when you bend back the cover?

Currently working on: The big 3/4 fubar
Mood: Gleeful

I consider myself first and foremost a reader. I learned phonetics with LOTR. (Ar-Sakalthôr, anyone? How about Tar-Ancalimon? Númenor didn’t fall to hubris but to unwieldy names — Sorry, I should’ve called geek alert first). I read Black Beauty 11 times in a row. My bookshelf spilleth over. I am reader; hear me slap down plastic at Powells Books!

That said, I have no idea what readers want. When I go through Powells endless stacks or I search my library’s collection online, I am amazed at how many choices there are, especially when I can’t quite imagine who those titles might appeal to — or why.

Sample these delights from Bookseller’s 2008 oddest book titles:

Though the impossible urge is to please everyone, I’ll have to go with what my mother told me about my story. My mama said: It better have a happy ending.

Demons were okay by her. And premarital sex (in fiction, at least). And some other fairly intense questioning of various “truths.” Fine, fine. But there better be a happy ending.

So maybe that encapsulates what every reader wants, from any genre she is reading? She wants a happy ending. Maybe not a great love between the hero and heroine as is the case in romance, but the happiness of a story that comes to its promised — if not necessarily expected — conclusion. The killer is caught. The mystery solved. The world is saved. The cowboy rides into the sunset. Ah.

Scientific analysis of a dog’s ‘happy end.’

As a reader, when I turn the last page, I want to be left in ‘ah.’ As a writer, I seek that ah-ful, ah-some moment of Happily Ever Ah-fter.

Besides, I figure, if I can’t please everyone, I can at least please my mom.

Out of curiosity, what have you done — or refused to do — to meet the expectations of your mother or someone else who mattered to you? In the end, did it feel right or wrong? How do you balance the expectations of others with what you want for yourself?

P.S. Mom, you’re all good; stories with happy endings were the only ones I ever wanted to write.