Importance of Audience by Misa Buckley

Storytelling has existed as long as mankind. Whether it is spinning a yarn about “the one that got away” or sitting around the campfire scaring each other witless, people tell stories even when they’re not writers. But what everyone has in common is having someone to tell their story to.

Writers need readers. There’s no point in telling a story when no one is listening. For me, sharing my worlds and characters is the best part of being an author. As a child I loved sitting in my room, lost in the pages of a novel – this is how I want my readers to feel. I want to take them on a journey; to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life, to brave dangers untold and hardships unnumbered, to go there and back again. That is, for me, the point.

We’re in the midst of NaNoWriMo and while it has its faults, and it certainly isn’t for everyone, it does teach discipline. A rough draft is supposed to be rough – the important thing is to get the story out of your head and commit it to paper or screen – and NaNo teaches you to turn off that little voice we call our Inner Editor. It is a great motivator to Getting It Written.

But the journey doesn’t end there. Writing 50,000 words only to toss the manuscript into a drawer is not the point. The point is to get it Out There. We need to make the transition from writer to author, and that means editing, having the story read over, more editing and then the scary bit – submitting.

Rejections can come, but do you know what? That is one person’s opinion. And there can be so many reasons for a rejection – it can be too similar to an already published title, it’s not quite what the publisher is looking for, or they simply don’t like it. That is their entitlement, but that doesn’t mean that the story isn’t right for somewhere else. Lick your wounds and send it somewhere else. Don’t stop because one person said no – you have to fight for your right to partystory.

I believe that if your story is good, if the plot sound and the characters likable, then someone will eventually say the magic word. When you get that “Yes!” you feel incredible, but there’s still more work to be done. Everything up to now has been the dress rehearsal – now’s the time to get on stage and wow your audience, the readers.

Get out there and knock ‘em dead.