auria “Hussein” cortes

A few times I’ve blogged about the writer’s responsibility to readers. Some writers produce a storyline for their own pleasure and hope that it will sell. Others will follow through on a storyline line only if they believe it will be marketable. Neither position is right or wrong. In the end, it’s up to the writer to decide.   

Well, as Erika reminded me, somebody forgot to tell Nurse Annie Wilkes from Misery that as a reader her needs come at a distant second to the author’s vision. Here’s the plot as described in Wiki:

 Nurse Annie Wilkes (Kathy Bates) saves the life of novelist Paul Sheldon (James Caan) after a car accident brought on by a severe blizzard. Wilkes, an obsessive fan of Sheldon’s “Misery” romance series, takes him home and serves as his caretaker. Annie turns out to be severely mentally disturbed (very possibly suffering from erotomania), and she prevents him from leaving or contacting the rest of the world. 

Once Annie finds out he kills Misery Chastain, the series’ namesake, in his latest published book, she flies into a rage and nearly kills him. She also coldly tells him that she never called the doctors, Paul’s agent or his daughter, as she’d previously said she’d done. After leaving for a few days, she forces him to burn the manuscript he had carried with him and write a new “Misery” story, Misery’s Return, in which Misery is somehow brought back to life. 

Now, I doubt that we’ll come across readers that will go through that extent, but it is important to point out that readers have a invested interest in characters they have fallen in love with. And readers can get cranky. Believe me, I get crayon mail all the time from readers who get upset over a nonfiction article I wrote. I usually ignore the emails but some are too funny to ignore. Especially the ones that read YOU SUCK. But my favorite one is DIE BITCH DIE! Yes, I’ve received that one more than once. The crayon mail is always written in all caps, red letters, and the biggest font the reader’s email account allows. 

Despite some my readers personal attacks, I don’t take the emails personally. I realize that their frustration has nothing to do with me, but rather the market  (my nonfiction writing directly relates to the economy). Because I’ve been writing for so long and understand the demographics of my readers, I know which topics will hit a nerve. I craft my words carefully so that my readers will grasp the intent of the article. Some will. Some won’t.  

So it seems that no matter how you write. For yourself first and readers second or visa versa, there will always be a unhappy readers who thought you could do much better.