The Reasons For Writing

I write for the reader. I used to think I was writing for myself, but that was a cop out in case it turned out that I had no talent whatsoever as a writer.

And if you have ever written a tale with a surprise ending, who were to trying to surprise other than the reader? Did you take care to drop enough hints so that the surprise was not of the "and then I woke up" class? Then who were you dropping hints to? If you allowed a red herring or two to be around to misdirect in a perfectly fair manner- they certainly weren't going to fool you: you knew who did it from the very get go.

I suppose those who write stream-of-consciousness prose which takes us from there is going to be a spanking - to there is a spanking taking place - to the spanking came to an end: now they may indeed by writing for their own enjoyment and share their work on the off-chance that it entertains.

But anyone who takes time to construct plots and use some of the various plot devices to enhance the reading experience: they are writing for a hidden audience yet to get to read that work.

But admitting that one is writing for the readership is a little awkward, for it can make one seem a little egocentric. But then - perhaps being a little egocentric is the mark of an author who is willing to take risks in entertaining the audience.

And anyone who has ever done a collaboration just has to be doing it for the interests of the readers. Islandcarol joined me to turn the hack-fest "Filifeldia Experiment" into a taught and rounded "The Gleam in Her Eye." And I think we augmented each other in ways quite profound to turn out the Natalya serial. If either of us were simply writing for our own enjoyment, such a collaboration would have been virtually impossible. In my opinion.

But of course, as in all things, YMMV.

Like Seegee, I write because I must. I was in a creative writing class decades before they were trendy. When i was in high School and University I had planned to write a work of epic high fantasy that would deal with grand themes. when I started writing it in my early 20s it started turning into thud and blunder fantasy with ridiculously stilted dialogue. I gave it up.

But i still wrote. I kept a paper journal that would eventually swell to 3,000+ pages of handwritten loose-leaf and around a million words. I discovered the world of spanking fiction in the mid 90s. A few years ago I decided that I could write stories just as good as them if not better. Finally I got around to doing just that.

I write for my own amusement yes. I try to see if I can pull it off. but i also write for an audience, namely other spankophiles. Some people like my work and others don't. I love the criticism I get because then I can improve my skills. We all have our blind spots, myself included.

I am not sure I will ever write the great work of epic high fantasy now. my literary tastes have changed. But this gives me a outlet for my creativity. it is an outlet i simply must have. I still do some journalling but not to the extent I used to.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it

I write for myself and the reader can sod off!

Not really of course (where would we be without readers) but I don't believe that anything is gained by writing for anyone else but yourself.

I actually still write fantasy, Rachel. Not epic, I tried that for a long time, but my creative mind just doesn't work that way. I have a YA portal fantasy adventure I'm trying to get represented with absolutely no luck, I'm not sure what it is, maybe it's just not any good. I'm currently working on an urban fantasy that maybe will strike a chord with agents, although I have to confess I don't know what they want. The work I publish here kind of breaks it all up and recharges the creative batteries. Plus you're all very nice people, who I enjoy writing for.

I agree with Blimp. Despite a lifelong fascination with spanking I only began writing spanking stories (indeed stories of any type) less than 18 months ago, partly to explore and partly just to see if I could do it. If asked I would probably have said at the time that I was writing them for myself, but the fact I published them on LSF (rather than just keep them on my computer) proves that I did not write them JUST for myself - I obviously sought feedback. I would now openly admit that I love getting comments and favourites and feel slightly miffed when other authors get a lot more readers, comments and favourites than I do. However, to be more successful in this regard I think I would need to keep to a single 'genre' so that I would have a better chance of developing a following because readers would have more idea what to expect, but this would defeat my objective of self-exploration. Also, it strikes me that certain genres are more popular than others, and the most popular ones are not the ones that excite me, so I do not see myself writing to suit the audience. Nor do I have any interest in taking creative writing classes to become a better writer - I suspect being taught how to be creative would probably kill whatever little creativity I already possess. So I guess I will just keep doing my own thing and get used to living in obscurity.

I don't want to start a mutual agreement society with you but I am in complete agreement with the above. My feelings exactly.

Creative writing classes don't teach you how to be creative: just how to write in a way that your ideas slap the reader from side to side and leave them gasping for you to carry on doing it.

For instance, an author might decide to write: "Adam knew Gwen liked him." Perfectly good sentence and shows the relationship between the two protagonists.

Now a good creative writing instructor might get that author to reword that single sentence into something like:

""Between classes, Gwen was always leaned on his locker when he'd go to open it. She'd roll her eyes and shove off with one foot, leaving a black-heel mark on the painted metal, but she also left the smell of her perfume. The combination lock would still be warm from her ass. And the next break, Gwen would be leaned there, again."

Same message, but just a different way of expressing it. Instead of saying what emotion Adam had, the author might be invited to give a set of actions that describe why he had that emotion.

I am a sucker for this sort of stuff. Provided it is free, of course. And can be safely ignored when plot demands a more concise approach.

The first story I submitted here was written for myself. Then the comments started coming in and suddenly I was a comment junkie. I started writing stories designed to generate comments and found the effort to be ponderous. In a reply to one of my commentators, I lamented that some of the stories I felt were very good, were not receiving the attention I thought they would and perhaps I should have chosen a better title. In his reply, this very wise gentleman from Canada said that I can't expect to please everyone and advised me to write for myself. Although I still want everyone who reads one of my stories to make a comment, I find the process of writing easier and more enjoyable. I needed to be reminded why I started to write in the first place.

I take your point that the objective is not to teach people how to be creative. I also found your example very persuasive. (What did happen to Adam and Gwen next?). But I am curious: can you teach people to be more expressive, or is it more a case of just encouraging them to be so? It seems to me a lot would depend on the skills of the instructor.

Indeed everything depends on the skills of the instructor. It seems there a stack of techniques on how to be more expressive: the art of the instructor/mentor is getting you to use the right one at the right time. I was recently persuaded to do an entire rewrite of a tale because a change in POV turned it into something much better.

There is a stack of free material on the net: I found it well worth exploring them, even if my prose still leaves a lot left to be desired.