{"id":454,"date":"2014-01-05T19:11:35","date_gmt":"2014-01-05T19:11:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theresarogers.art\/?p=454"},"modified":"2022-09-10T17:13:17","modified_gmt":"2022-09-11T00:13:17","slug":"write-whatever-you-want-but-be-trustworthy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theresarogers.art\/?p=454","title":{"rendered":"Write Whatever You Want\u2014But Be Trustworthy"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"wpforms-container wpforms-container-full\" id=\"wpforms-2662\"><form id=\"wpforms-form-2662\" class=\"wpforms-validate wpforms-form wpforms-ajax-form\" data-formid=\"2662\" method=\"post\" enctype=\"multipart\/form-data\" action=\"\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fposts%2F454\" data-token=\"5b4bf148124b5330ba1430199b791633\" data-token-time=\"1778157236\"><noscript class=\"wpforms-error-noscript\">Please enable JavaScript in your browser to complete this form.<\/noscript><div class=\"wpforms-field-container\"><div id=\"wpforms-2662-field_0-container\" class=\"wpforms-field wpforms-field-name\" data-field-id=\"0\"><label class=\"wpforms-field-label\" for=\"wpforms-2662-field_0\">Name <span class=\"wpforms-required-label\">*<\/span><\/label><input type=\"text\" id=\"wpforms-2662-field_0\" class=\"wpforms-field-medium wpforms-field-required\" name=\"wpforms[fields][0]\" required><\/div><div id=\"wpforms-2662-field_1-container\" class=\"wpforms-field wpforms-field-email\" data-field-id=\"1\"><label class=\"wpforms-field-label\" for=\"wpforms-2662-field_1\">Email <span class=\"wpforms-required-label\">*<\/span><\/label><input type=\"email\" id=\"wpforms-2662-field_1\" class=\"wpforms-field-medium wpforms-field-required\" name=\"wpforms[fields][1]\" spellcheck=\"false\" required><\/div><div id=\"wpforms-2662-field_2-container\" class=\"wpforms-field wpforms-field-textarea\" data-field-id=\"2\"><label class=\"wpforms-field-label\" for=\"wpforms-2662-field_2\">Comment or Message <span class=\"wpforms-required-label\">*<\/span><\/label><textarea id=\"wpforms-2662-field_2\" class=\"wpforms-field-medium wpforms-field-required\" name=\"wpforms[fields][2]\" required><\/textarea><\/div><\/div><!-- .wpforms-field-container --><div class=\"wpforms-submit-container\" ><input type=\"hidden\" name=\"wpforms[id]\" value=\"2662\"><input type=\"hidden\" name=\"page_title\" value=\"\"><input type=\"hidden\" name=\"page_url\" value=\"https:\/\/theresarogers.art\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/454\"><input type=\"hidden\" name=\"url_referer\" value=\"\"><button type=\"submit\" name=\"wpforms[submit]\" id=\"wpforms-submit-2662\" class=\"wpforms-submit\" data-alt-text=\"Sending...\" data-submit-text=\"Submit\" aria-live=\"assertive\" value=\"wpforms-submit\">Submit<\/button><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/theresarogers.art\/wp-content\/plugins\/wpforms-lite\/assets\/images\/submit-spin.svg\" class=\"wpforms-submit-spinner\" style=\"display: none;\" width=\"26\" height=\"26\" alt=\"Loading\"><\/div><\/form><\/div>  <!-- .wpforms-container -->\n\n\n<p>The fundamental building block of story is <i>change over time<\/i>. This change is tracked through characters. We take care to craft characters who initially have flaws and strengths readers will connect with and then we create huge messes over the course of the story to generate change in these characters. But what kind of messes and how much change? We risk readers giving up on a story if they think characters are changing \u201ctoo much\u201d or in ways they don\u2019t expect\/understand (or worse, not at all). When this happens, readers can be pretty vocal about their displeasure. So this \u201chow much and what kind\u201d can be tricky.<\/p>\n<p>This can make an author feel trapped\u2014\u201cIs that the deal? Change is necessary, but I\u2019m not allowed to do too much or go in certain directions without risking losing my audience? How is <i>that<\/i> supposed to work?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>I first encountered this dilemma when I was working on a particular aspect of craft. I took my work live by writing a Harry Potter fanfic novella, which I posted chapter by chapter on two popular HP fanfic sites. In my story, in the first chapter, a young Lily and Sirius have sex. It wasn\u2019t soft and gentle and we\u2019ve-been-wanting-to-do-this-for-so-long lovemaking; no, it was we\u2019re-being-hunted-down-and-I-don\u2019t-know-if-people-I-love-are-dead-or-alive f&#8230;you get the picture. And there were many people who about lost their minds. \u201cHOW COULD YOU DO THIS?\u201d was popular, as was \u201cLILY WOULD NEVER, EVER, EVER IN A MILLION YEARS DO THIS EVER, NEVER, NEVER.\u201d (Apparently, Sirius would.)<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-2869\" src=\"https:\/\/theresarogers.art\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/lg.05-300x298.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"298\" srcset=\"https:\/\/theresarogers.art\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/lg.05-300x298.jpg 300w, https:\/\/theresarogers.art\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/lg.05-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/theresarogers.art\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/lg.05.jpg 593w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-2871\" src=\"https:\/\/theresarogers.art\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/psycho.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"258\" height=\"195\" srcset=\"https:\/\/theresarogers.art\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/psycho.jpg 258w, https:\/\/theresarogers.art\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/psycho-150x113.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 258px) 100vw, 258px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft  wp-image-3195\" src=\"https:\/\/theresarogers.art\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/girl-screaming-top-of-her-lungs-300x225.webp\" alt=\"\" width=\"287\" height=\"215\" srcset=\"https:\/\/theresarogers.art\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/girl-screaming-top-of-her-lungs-300x225.webp 300w, https:\/\/theresarogers.art\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/girl-screaming-top-of-her-lungs-1024x768.webp 1024w, https:\/\/theresarogers.art\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/girl-screaming-top-of-her-lungs-150x113.webp 150w, https:\/\/theresarogers.art\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/girl-screaming-top-of-her-lungs-768x576.webp 768w, https:\/\/theresarogers.art\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/girl-screaming-top-of-her-lungs.webp 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 287px) 100vw, 287px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">\u00a0<em>Oh come on!<\/em><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>I was worried. I knew my storyline, knew where I was headed and why, but <em>here,<\/em> in the first chapter, I was losing the very audience I wanted to test my writing with!<\/p>\n<p>But honestly, why was the reaction so vehement? Yes, I was messing with the HP world. Granted, these were beloved characters. But what had I actually done besides put two people together who shouldn\u2019t have been together? I felt trapped, like I was going to have to write a different story than I wanted just to make sure people would read it, and that rubbed me all kinds of wrong.<\/p>\n<p>It wasn\u2019t until I was a beta reader for the sixth book in the NYT-bestselling Charley Davidson series, authored by Darynda Jones, that I got a way to navigate this dilemma. As we discussed Charley\u2019s reactions to the rather horrific things she\u2019s been through in the series,<a title=\"\" href=\"#_ftn1\">[1]<\/a> I told Jones I loved how, in the fourth book, Charlie had to work through PTSD brought on by what she\u2019d experienced in book three, and asked her why she\u2019d stopped exploring that in book five. Jones said a LOT of people were upset with her for giving Charlie that reaction, because Charlie WOULD NEVER, EVER, EVER IN A MILLION YEARS react that way. This sounded very, very familiar.<\/p>\n<p>Did you feel like you had to compromise your story because of those reactions? I asked. Why did you do what you did and how did you decide to do it?<\/p>\n<p>What both those questions boil down to, she said, is trust. As in, Trust Me, the Author.<\/p>\n<p>Trust is at the base of the author-reader relationship. It\u2019s part of our unspoken agreement: \u201cI\u2019m going to take these characters and put them in messes that change them utterly and irrevocably, and then I promise I will bring those messes, and characters, to a satisfactory resolution.\u201d When these things don\u2019t happen, readers get really, really upset.<\/p>\n<p>She listened to the readers based not necessarily on what they were saying but on why they were saying it. By objecting so strongly to Charley having PTSD, she realized they were really saying, \u201cYou didn\u2019t bring this mess to a satisfactory conclusion. We can\u2019t trust the changes you\u2019re making in this character.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>But what was so unsatisfactory about the conclusion? What was it, specifically, that broke her readers\u2019 trust?<\/p>\n<p>Jones realized it wasn\u2019t that Charley had gone through a harrowing experience and changed in the face of it, and she knew that she, as an author, wasn\u2019t going to stop putting her character through harrowing experiences\u2026and having her change in the face of them. (To do otherwise would be to make your readers think you\u2019re stupid or make them wonder if you think <i>they\u2019re <\/i>stupid. To deny that events affect us and change us would be to deny the reader the respect they deserve, and to disregard that essential building block of story\u2014change over time.) It was that she <i>couldn\u2019t introduce permanent fear into her character<\/i>, in the form of ongoing PTSD, as a change. It wasn\u2019t a satisfactory resolution, and therefore trustworthy, given she had a character who was going to continue to get into intense situations. Her readers needed to trust they weren\u2019t slowly going to watch a beloved character go under.<\/p>\n<p>I realized all the books I haven\u2019t enjoyed have, in some way, broken this Golden Rule. In some way the author had failed to give a satisfactory resolution. One book I vividly remember, even though I read it many years ago, had a main character who, with one childhood lie, violently derailed the lives of two adults she loved and allowed a third to get away with a horrible crime. The entire book implied this character\u2019s growth arc was going to include getting over her fear of telling the truth and finally clearing the two characters\u2019 names and bringing justice to the third. Instead, at the end, she didn\u2019t\u2014she just calmly told the reader she wasn\u2019t ever going to do it! The author completely broke my trust. I\u2019ve never read another of their books. I still, to this day, hate that book passionately.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-2872 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/theresarogers.art\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/thumbsdown-gladiator-300x140.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"140\" srcset=\"https:\/\/theresarogers.art\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/thumbsdown-gladiator-300x140.jpg 300w, https:\/\/theresarogers.art\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/thumbsdown-gladiator-150x70.jpg 150w, https:\/\/theresarogers.art\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/thumbsdown-gladiator.jpg 700w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><em>Ooo the thumbs-down from Joaquin Phoenix! Kiss of death, my friend. Kiss. Of. Death.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>This raises an important question: does \u201csatisfactory resolution\u201d mean you have to have a happy ending? <i>No. <\/i>(Except here in our Romance world! J)<i> <\/i>\u00a0\u201cSatisfactory\u201d means it brings satisfying<i> closure<\/i>. There may still be a huge mess at the end of the story, but you absolutely have to provide closure to the messes you\u2019ve created and the changes the characters have made.<a title=\"\" href=\"#_ftn2\">[2]<\/a> This is what it means to be trustworthy.<\/p>\n<p>I broke that rule right off in the first chapter of my Harry Potter story and they told me loud and clear they didn\u2019t trust I would be able to pull off any kind of satisfactory resolution. I made the decision to stick with my original storyline, realizing they hadn\u2019t yet read the whole story and hoping people would be curious (or furious, either works) enough to go along for the ride with me. To their credit, almost every of those initial readers stuck with the story, and loved the resolution I brought to it.<\/p>\n<p>So whatever you write, you\u2019ve got to pay the most attention to whether or not you\u2019re a trustworthy author. You can go anywhere, do anything, but the rule is: bring satisfactory closure to the messes and changes you put your characters through. How will you know if you\u2019ve achieved this? <i>You won\u2019t. <\/i>You\u2019ve got to test your story on other people. Have them read it and listen not just to what they\u2019re saying, analyze why they\u2019re saying it.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey\u201d is important\u2014have at least three people read your story (and don&#8217;t just send your story around until you find the one person who agrees with your own opinion). It\u2019s best if one of them can tell you technically why your resolutions aren\u2019t working (if they aren\u2019t), even if you have to pay a professional editor to get that information. If you\u2019re not reaching the goal of trustworthiness, <i>that\u2019s <\/i>when you\u2019ve got to rework the changes in your story.<a title=\"\" href=\"#_ftn3\">[3]<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Being a trustworthy author is this important. As with me and the author who\u2019s book I hated, if you mess with this, you risk losing readers not just for that one book, but for life.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<div><br clear=\"all\" \/>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<hr align=\"left\" size=\"1\" width=\"33%\" \/>\n<div>\n<p><a title=\"\" href=\"#_ftnref1\">[1]<\/a> Private email exchange<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p><a title=\"\" href=\"#_ftnref2\">[2]<\/a> <i>The Husband\u2019s Secret <\/i>is an amazing example of satisfying resolution without a happy ending.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p><a title=\"\" href=\"#_ftnref3\">[3]<\/a> Note: The feedback telling me my HP story wasn\u2019t going to work was based solely on the first chapter. This is why I chose, to a certain extent, to ignore it. By the end of the novella the feedback had done a 180, so I made the right choice, but it was a risk.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n<!-- wp:themify-builder\/canvas \/-->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The fundamental building block of story is change over time. This change is tracked through characters. We take care to craft characters who initially have flaws and strengths readers will connect with and then we create huge messes over the course of the story to generate change in these characters. But what kind of messes [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[168],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-454","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-thoughts","has-post-title","has-post-date","has-post-category","has-post-tag","has-post-comment","has-post-author",""],"builder_content":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theresarogers.art\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/454","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theresarogers.art\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theresarogers.art\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theresarogers.art\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theresarogers.art\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=454"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/theresarogers.art\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/454\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3197,"href":"https:\/\/theresarogers.art\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/454\/revisions\/3197"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theresarogers.art\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=454"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theresarogers.art\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=454"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theresarogers.art\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=454"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}