plague journaling
Mar. 28th, 2020 07:41 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
scrubjayspeaksA thing that's been bothering me about the general situation is the question of creative choices. Now that Mostly Real has been finished and posted, I return to my weekly writing of new three-sentence Lewisia pieces. (Albeit a slow, uncertain return.) I've also got at least two other stories waiting in the wings, ready to be posted or nearly so. I'm still working my normal day job schedule, so I don't really have any more free time than usual, but I certainly don't have any social demands that would prevent me from spending my weekends working on writing projects.
I find myself paralyzed all the same, chiefly by the question of "what stories do people need right now?" That's essentially what it comes down to. Are the stories I have ready to put out or can write in this moment the ones people most need to hear? Are these the stories that would give comfort or offer escape?
I realize there is no universal answer to that, of course. People have vastly different tastes in fiction; they need different things in times of crisis. So I'm not speaking of people in general, but rather people who are already in my audience. For people who already want the stories I tell, what do they want right now?
I will note that this is the marketing question of every single professional writer, at least among the ones who care about the popularity of their work. We are all, always and forever, asking what our audience wants to see from us next. I think the difference right now is the undertone of...service, I suppose, that question has taken on. What can I write that will help my audience most right now?
Do people want fluff right now? Do they want stories of people having parties and picnics, all the things we cannot do right now? Escapism and nostalgia? Do they want a world as ours has been or could be, if everything were not so horrid and broken? Do they want far-flung worlds where none have ever dreamed of such troubles?
Do they want sick fic? Apocalypses like or unlike this one? A sense of solidarity with fictional people who suffer as we do? Tales of triumph to propose or promise what we can accomplish? Tales of catastrophe to which we can point and say "at least it is not as bad as that?"
Some of these are stories and angles I am more inclined to write personally, some less. As for my own reading tastes, I don't know what my answer is. Mostly, I'm grinding through old favorites. Familiar stuff, where all the emotional notes are ones I know the tune of and so cannot be surprised by. (Overwhelmed, yes. But then, I can be overwhelmed by emotion in commercials right now, so that's not saying much.) The familiarity is more important than the specific plot contents for me right now.
In the case of Lewisia, I have tried and tried to decide if I want to tell any stories about the quarantine. It's not a terrible idea. One of the things I've tried to build into Lewisia is the idea of a place in which civic systems and infrastructure work more sensibly than in the wider United States. I could tell a lot of stories about the ways that Lewisia handles quarantine with better efficiency and greater compassion. It is a town in which people pull together under normal circumstances anyway, and they are far more prepared to do so in a crisis than outsiders. I can imagine the support mechanisms that would activate in a quarantine. I've also talked before about fantasy illnesses present there, and it would be interesting to explore how supernatural and cryptozoological residents might be unaffected by this particular disease and what would happen when they are the only ones who can move and interact freely.
But do I want to tell those stories? Do the readers want them? Or is it better for Lewisia to tick along on its own timeline, facing unrelated struggles and enjoying a deliberate insulation from the woes of our world? Is the pure escapism better than the opportunity to show someone succeeding in the face of our current crisis? It feels strange to ignore current events entirely, when they otherwise occupy so much of the mind. But perhaps that's exactly why I ought to leave those things out of Lewisia and let it be a shelter from them.
It's one thing to show difficult or upsetting things happening in Lewisia, to show the hurt as well as the comfort. It's another to make Lewisia contend with our same challenges in real-time. Do I even know how to do that? Can Lewisia show the way?
I don't have answers to any of this. Perhaps there are none. I'd be interested to hear what readers have to say on the subject, even as I fear knowing. Because whatever readers might want, I also have to know what I want to write. And right now, I have no idea what that might be.
I find myself paralyzed all the same, chiefly by the question of "what stories do people need right now?" That's essentially what it comes down to. Are the stories I have ready to put out or can write in this moment the ones people most need to hear? Are these the stories that would give comfort or offer escape?
I realize there is no universal answer to that, of course. People have vastly different tastes in fiction; they need different things in times of crisis. So I'm not speaking of people in general, but rather people who are already in my audience. For people who already want the stories I tell, what do they want right now?
I will note that this is the marketing question of every single professional writer, at least among the ones who care about the popularity of their work. We are all, always and forever, asking what our audience wants to see from us next. I think the difference right now is the undertone of...service, I suppose, that question has taken on. What can I write that will help my audience most right now?
Do people want fluff right now? Do they want stories of people having parties and picnics, all the things we cannot do right now? Escapism and nostalgia? Do they want a world as ours has been or could be, if everything were not so horrid and broken? Do they want far-flung worlds where none have ever dreamed of such troubles?
Do they want sick fic? Apocalypses like or unlike this one? A sense of solidarity with fictional people who suffer as we do? Tales of triumph to propose or promise what we can accomplish? Tales of catastrophe to which we can point and say "at least it is not as bad as that?"
Some of these are stories and angles I am more inclined to write personally, some less. As for my own reading tastes, I don't know what my answer is. Mostly, I'm grinding through old favorites. Familiar stuff, where all the emotional notes are ones I know the tune of and so cannot be surprised by. (Overwhelmed, yes. But then, I can be overwhelmed by emotion in commercials right now, so that's not saying much.) The familiarity is more important than the specific plot contents for me right now.
In the case of Lewisia, I have tried and tried to decide if I want to tell any stories about the quarantine. It's not a terrible idea. One of the things I've tried to build into Lewisia is the idea of a place in which civic systems and infrastructure work more sensibly than in the wider United States. I could tell a lot of stories about the ways that Lewisia handles quarantine with better efficiency and greater compassion. It is a town in which people pull together under normal circumstances anyway, and they are far more prepared to do so in a crisis than outsiders. I can imagine the support mechanisms that would activate in a quarantine. I've also talked before about fantasy illnesses present there, and it would be interesting to explore how supernatural and cryptozoological residents might be unaffected by this particular disease and what would happen when they are the only ones who can move and interact freely.
But do I want to tell those stories? Do the readers want them? Or is it better for Lewisia to tick along on its own timeline, facing unrelated struggles and enjoying a deliberate insulation from the woes of our world? Is the pure escapism better than the opportunity to show someone succeeding in the face of our current crisis? It feels strange to ignore current events entirely, when they otherwise occupy so much of the mind. But perhaps that's exactly why I ought to leave those things out of Lewisia and let it be a shelter from them.
It's one thing to show difficult or upsetting things happening in Lewisia, to show the hurt as well as the comfort. It's another to make Lewisia contend with our same challenges in real-time. Do I even know how to do that? Can Lewisia show the way?
I don't have answers to any of this. Perhaps there are none. I'd be interested to hear what readers have to say on the subject, even as I fear knowing. Because whatever readers might want, I also have to know what I want to write. And right now, I have no idea what that might be.
What I'd like
Date: 2020-03-29 03:12 am (UTC)Re: What I'd like
Date: 2020-04-01 01:02 am (UTC)