Writer's Ethics

[seanriter]

Somehow the written word is taken more seriously than the spoken word. It is perhaps because we feel, "why would anyone bother to write something down unless it is important". Also when one write's something down it lasts longer but something that is said can be easily forgotten. Although this reason might be redundant due to the technological advancements. Anyways the reasons might be many and my basic premise that written word is taken more seriously itself might be wrong.

 

This post is however to get reactions from writers about writer's ethics. Meaning, how many of us consciously make an effort to influence our audience. Now there can be good or bad influence, but I don't think that is important. What I believe is important though is for the writer to be honest, whether he writes fiction, non fiction, poetry.........whatever. Honest in expressing what he truly feels and not write what might be pleasing to the audience even though it might not be what the writer feels.

 

The question is are we slaves to the wants of the audience or should we be truly free in expressing in what we feel, irrespective of the fact that the reader's might not find it pleasing?

[TheZot]

What I believe is important though is for the writer to be honest

 

...

 

The question is are we slaves to the wants of the audience or should we be truly free in expressing in what we feel

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

You'll pardon the snippage, but I wanted to leave what I think is the important bits.

 

I think, ultimately, if you want great work you need to be a slave to the piece, rather than to your audience or your own feelings. This is especially true with fiction -- you start with a setting and some characters, but once things are in motion you either stay true to what you've created or you find you've got something that isn't working as well as it really could, to the detriment of the piece.

 

That doesn't mean you always end up with the work that you originally planned. There are times when you'll find that what should happen -- boy meets boy, or boy hates boy, or whatever -- doesn't happen because, like it or not, what you wanted isn't right for the characters. At which point you either rebuild the story, or go the way the story's going, like it or not, because it's the right thing to do.

 

As an author you've got many things you can do -- you've the power to create, the power to show, the power to influence. What you don't have is the power to control.

 

Part of the craft of writing is in choosing the settings and the characters, choosing what to show and what not toshow, and choosing how things are presented to the reader. A good part of the craft is also in staying true to the characters and settings you've chosen, which can be really difficult. I think it's a mark of a good writer to find yourself wanting to smack one of your characters for being an idiot but not doing anything about it because that's the character and there's really no other way for he or she to behave.

 

-TZ

[lurker]

There are many reasons people may write, but the decision to share the writing with an audience necessarily includes some desire to influence the audience. This can take many forms - to entertain, to amuse, to scare, to educate, to communicate something about the author, to make a broader social statement, etc.

Usually, more than one of these effects is intended, whether conscious or subconscious.

 

It is helpful to the writing if writers are honest with themselves about how they intend their writing to influence/effect the audience.

 

I don't think writing for an audience is simply 'expressing what you feel' as an author, even though that may be a component to it. And I agree with Zot that story crafting often requires authors to suppress their true feelings to create a believable world that is specifically NOT real.

 

Given these dynamics, I don't think writers are slaves to their audiences unless they allow themselves to be. I don't think they are required to please an audience. There are plenty of other reasons to share writing.

 

Authors often write solely to express their true feelings (I call it "writing as therapy" and mean that in a non-disparaging way), but they must ask themselves: why am I sharing this? What IS my intention regarding the audience?

[TheZot]

Lurker makes some good points, ones that I tend to forget. There are definitely a number of different reasons to write, and it's pretty easy to get hung up on your own reason (or reason of the moment, based on what you're working on now) and forget that other people have other reasons. Writing for money is different than writing for the ego boost you get from an audience, which is different from writing because you can't not, which is different from writing to make a point.

 

Knowing why you're writing is important, as is knowing why you're writing a particular piece. Different pieces have different flavors -- nonfiction (like reviews, explanatory articles, or manuals) has to be approached differently from opinion pieces (essays and editorials and such), and fiction is different again. Things get tricky when you're trying to pass off one type as another (fiction or opinion as nonfiction, or opinion as fiction) since you have to balance off the needs of the mixed types.

 

For some types of writing an audience is near-essential -- opinion pieces don't get you very far without someone to mark the opinion. For others it's less so -- fiction often needs an audience, but it's perfectly reasonable to write some without one, or to put something out to an audience without caring what they think. (Though it does get increasingly more difficult to ignore an audience once you've started... )

 

Anyway, there's nothing wrong with both acknowledging that you've got an audience and working to influence that audience. You just need to be careful, since if you get to blatant you'll end up losing that audience.

[seanriter]

Authors often write solely to express their true feelings (I call it "writing as therapy" and mean that in a non-disparaging way), but they must ask themselves: why am I sharing this? What IS my intention regarding the audience?

 

Yes writing can be quite therapuetic, when we write we are forced to think of our way through. This really helps us to examine our thoughts/ideas from different perspectives. The result is a potent concontion :nuke: of our imagination, feelings, aspirations etc....

 

I write for intelligent audience who are able to discern meaning both obvious and hidden from my writing. If we look back in history, we find numerous examples of writers being persecuted for writing what they honestly felt. But we must persist and the one guiding principle in writing should always be honesty.