Book writing objectives

Question

I was wondering whether people who write books have as their primary objective having all the readers thinking along the same lines, or whether there can be other objectives.

Thank you for your answers.

Answer 1

Some writers want their readers to understand their writing in the way they intended, and in non-fiction, where you can directly state your message, a writer may come close to that, but in fiction, where a message is illustrated by events and a character's reactions to those events, the interpretations of the narrative will always be different from reader to reader.

As a writer of fiction, your best approach, in my opinion, is to allow the readers to undertand your stories however they want – or to give interviews or write blog posts and explain yourself. If you want to make unambiguous statements, you should write non-fiction.

Answer 2

When I write, my objective is not exactly to have all readers thinking along the same lines, except in a superficial way.

In my head I have an image of a set, and a small cast of detailed characters with some exceptional strengths or skills combined with some potentially fatal flaws or weaknesses.

Now I am a discovery writer: I know my main characters (up to about 8 between sides) when I begin writing, but I don't have a particular plot. The plot is what I am discovering!

What I have imagined is the first 1/8th of the book, the "Normal World" of the characters, their normal day-to-day lives. I also have, within that Normal World, the "Inciting Incident" that will cause them problems, and eventually force them out of their Normal lives, away from their Normal World, into the unknown, to solve whatever disaster this Inciting Incident has grown to become.

The trick is (for me writing), their weakness has to cause them a huge problem, and it needs to be problem their strength or skill alone cannot fix.

In short, the hero must change in order to fix the problem. I never,ever make that requirement explicit in the story. The change is a matter of growth and maturing, being forced into circumstances where their strength is not enough, and without change, their weakness causes failure.

Personally, It doesn't matter to me if this character growth theme isn't exactly recognized by the reader. Just that they are entertained.

Hopefully they are entertained by the smart wealthy investor dealing with a big problem that his money cannot solve. I don't care if they recognize a theme or a message, just that they are entertained by his attempts to buy his way out of the problem that backfire on him. I don't care if they recognize his personal emotional growth, learned from these failures, that eventually changes him into a person that can solve the problem, without spending a dime.

Or hopefully they are entertained by the consummate warrior dealing with important problems that he cannot just kill his way out of, and his failed attempts to "battle" problem.

To me, there doesn't have to be theme, or a message, I just want to entertain.

I don't care if the readers understand the structure, or theme, or underlying message, as long as they recognize the characters and become absorbed in watching them try and fail, and sympathize.

I know what my characters are learning as they go, and how I have devised the incidents and challenges to teach them from their failures.

I am not explicit in this, I think being too explicit about the story mechanics bores the reader. Viscerally we can understand that John Wick (Movie 1) is lost in grief over the death of his wife, barely living, until his rage over the murder of his puppy, a gift from his wife, leads him into a rage filled killing spree to avenge her. But the important scene is the end, when his grief is dealt with, a recording of his wife snaps him out, and he adopts a new puppy, something to love, as his wife had told him.

He has moved on from grief to acceptance. Do we need to told that? No, viscerally John walking away with his new puppy just feels right, even if intellectually we don't realize this was a story of love and friendship from beginning to end, wrapped in some very flashy violence and clever action.

My point is that it is entertaining and that's enough, and the author (Derek Kolstad) did not bang us on the head with a "stages of grief" story making sure we recognize John Wick reaching peace with his wife's demise. With the help of a friend in a critical moment, no less.

(I'm not saying it is a flawless story, but there is a reason it spawned three sequels; we really like John Wick.)

My primary objective is not for reader understanding precisely what message or lesson I am trying to convey.

My primary objective is to entertain, to sustain attention and suspense. In order to do that, i think there must be some sort of growth objective for the character(s), but that is for internal structural and emotional consistency only. John Wick is the consummate ruthless hit man, stuck in grief.

The reader doesn't have to be told what the growth objective is; and indeed it may seem ham-handed to bop them on the head with it. In John Wick, we may not even realize why John walking away with a new dog is a satisfying ending; it just is -- Beaten, bloody, wounded, John has reached acceptance of his wife's death, and is moving forward, with his new puppy. Somebody to love.