At What Point in the Writing Process Do You Consider Your Target Audience?

[queenoftheskies]

Some people will probably tell me not to worry about it. I am, of course, still an aspiring writer.

I need to be concerned with writing for myself at this point.

Yes, but...

I've had a couple of interesting experiences with critiques now that I've finally put something out at QnI and OWW.

I have people critiquing me that don't know what I'm talking about. That's kind of discouraging me because it makes me feel like I've failed my reader.

I try to write without info dumping. I assume that my reader will understand some things without being told. But, at what point should I actually stop and research to see if my target audience will really understand?

Or, if--as in this case--I'm writing speculative fiction with some ethnic and pop culture aspects and people critiquing me maybe write mainstream, how much do I need to explain? And, should I worry about whether or not people reading speculative fiction would understand what I'm talking about or not?

Lots of people on my FL write SF, Fantasy, and Horror. Some are artists as well.

If I had a young adult male wanting to break into art, would you understand that it's a difficult task, as is breaking into the writing world? Would worries over talent and inability to attend art school, and the fact that many people failed be explanation enough for you? Or would you need me to explain further?

If I used the terms anime and managa would I need to define them for you? If so, how detailed would the explanation need to be?

Here's why I ask. I fear that, in my writing, maybe I'm taking too many things for granted and that I expect others to know what they are and how they work just because I do.

So, when you write and mention what you consider to be everyday things in passing, do you stop to think that your target audience might not understand what you're talking about?

Or, am I particularly stupid?

Inquiring minds want to know.

I'm having a particularly THICK day today, I guess. But, I'm eager to learn. Does that count?

Comments

[dark-geisha.livejournal.com]

This is somewhat difficult for me to answer since I haven't read your WIP and I'm not a member of those groups so I can't read it.

Honestly though? Based on what you've said and what I can infer, while yes, you don't ever want to confuse your reader, at the same time, I would also take into consideration that a mainstream reader is not necessarily the same thing as a spec fic reader. There's overlap, I'm sure; there always is, but just like I'm not a member of Robert Jordan's target audience and realize this, I am a member of Jacqueline Carey's, which makes it more devastating when I slam her latest offering. Does that make sense?

Another thing is that it depends how deeply you go into the POV. You use the example of defining anime and manga. I can tell you right now that if I were reading a novel and someone explained what those terms meant explicitly, I'd probably laugh under most circumstances. If one of the characters didn't know what it was, I could see it working but that edges towards "As you know, Bob..." territory. I've read novels -- mostly young adult -- that explicitly talk about characters from anime, named manga phonebook anthologies, and talked about shounen ai without any true explanations. Well, maybe the shounen ai was shown when the character opens up a manga to see two guys making out, but you know what I mean. It depends on how it's done and how you'd go about defining those terms.

But if I have two readers -- one who reads only mainstream and one who reads only spec fic, and the first is confused and the second is not, I'd probably seek the opinion of another person to make sure but I'm afraid I'd weight the second reader's opinion more. But if both readers are confused, then there's definitely something going on that needs to be looked at.

Mind you, all that goes flying out the window if you have regular readers who know your writing style and have an idea of what you're going for. In that case, I don't particularly care what sort of stuff they read/write.

This is only in my experience. Your mileage may vary.