the craft. the writer and the reader.
What brings us to the page initially is not often the reader, but some internal drive to tell a story. Whether it’s the story we’ve been looking for and couldn’t find, a story tied to our personal history, or if you’re like me, sometimes following a question. However, at minimum, when we decide what we want to write will be for public consumption, we know eventually there will be a reader on the other side of our words. If we’re lucky, of course. The reality is that art is a collaborative experience, and while you may not make the art with the reader in mind, we’re all having an interaction with it.
Recently, I came across this post on the Jenna Reads page where she mentioned author Rumaan Alam’s comment on writing fiction and leaving subjects open to interpretation, which I thought was poignant.
“As a writer of fiction, I don’t have to provide answers, but I can ask questions. And I love a novel that can sort of prod you to ask questions.”
I have found myself at the end of novels thinking, what am I supposed to take from that? And the truth of it is, with most of the good ones, it’s left up to my own interpretation. After being guided through that story, what have I learned about what I believe? What do I think the future of these characters will be? How, if at all, does this story relate to anything in my real life?
Recently, I read Here Comes the Sun by Nicole Dennis-Benn and I had so many emotions when the book was finished. I thought about the generational trauma that people carry. There was the colorism that was so sad to bear witness to. Sex work, and trying to get ahead, I mean there was so much. The ending doesn’t tell me exactly what to feel when Margot is alone in her new, shiny villa, but there’s a lot that sits with me because of that imagery. It allows me to question, what will it mean to gain the whole world and lose my soul? Is it worth it?
All stories have themes. Not that we start out saying, I want to write about these 3-5 themes. But as we get started down a path with these characters, the themes naturally begin to arise. I only started GOOD MORNING, LOVE with the question, “what happens when the playboy falls in love?” That was the beginning of my drafting process. But once it was all said and done, the story was representative of ambitious women in male-dominated fields, the influence of family in our relationships, and learning to trust yourself when everything around you is in flux. I wish I was prolific enough to think of those things from the beginning, but I was not. That is what I started to pull from the story as it developed.
Even with those themes, there will be people who read the book who take something entirely different from the story. For instance, I thought Tau was charming when a reviewer thought he was overly masculine. As I continue to grow as a writer, I am less interested in trying to tell the reader what they should or shouldn’t believe. I don’t know about you, but I’ve read things where it felt like the author was trying too hard to get their message across through the characters. There is a lack of authenticity in my opinion when the author is so heavy-handed in that way. The gig is to give the reader enough to infer, to question as Alam said, to consider.
I feel like there is Toni Morrison content for every writing scenario and it was pretty timely to be reading through The Source of Self-Regard and find this excerpt that I think fits nicely with this idea around themes and the readers and what they will interpret from your story.
A postnarrative, extratext, outside-the-book coda that comments not on the plot or story, but on the experience of gathering meaning from the story. These coda play an advocacy role, insisting on the consequences of having read the book, intervening in the established intimacy between reader and page, and forcing, if successful, a meditation, debate, argument that needs others for its full exploration.
Toni Morrison, Literature and Public Life
Here Morrison is exploring this relationship between literature on the page that becomes this very palpable part of our real lives. Good fiction does this work, which is why I’m consistently up in arms around the folks who only swear by reading nonfiction. Novels are full of great stuff served up to you on a different platter.
Later in the piece, Morrison calls out specific examples from three of her novels. In reference to Jazz, she notes, “… These paragraphs also activate the complicity by calling attention strenuously, aggressively to the act of reading as having public consequences and even public responsibility. From “Look, look. Look where your hands are. Now,” one can infer something is to be done, something is to be reimagined, altered and that something is literally in the reader’s hands.”
This reminds me of the conflict I had around whether I should include the assault scene in GML. While it’s unfortunately a regular occurrence in the music industry, I thought readers might think it too unrealistic that something like that could happen and not be reported. But the reality is, by including it, it can help another victim feel seen. It can also demand that a possible perpetrator evaluate their own history. Maybe what they did wasn’t as bad as Meck, however, fiction has this ability to be a mirror. What is my responsibility now that I’ve read this? Maybe to understand the complexity of women’s decision to report or not to report these instances. Whatever it is, I don’t want to tell you how to feel about it as the writer. That is your work as the reader.
Even now with my current work in progress, I find myself having more awareness of my approach to telling the story of the characters without being too overbearing. It’s a sensitive subject matter to dance around and I don’t want to let my feelings bleed all over it. The readers will either understand the circumstances or they may vehemently disagree but that is good art. It should make us feel something one way or the other. What we want to stay away from is indifference.
Will we show up in our work? Absolutely. I’m not certain I’ve met a writer with the skillset to create that ultimate separation. However, I’m saying be true to the characters, to the story. Lead the readers there, but allow them the freedom to interpret as they may. Find ways to release the judgment in the work, unless of course you’re writing from a judgy character’s perspective. Remember, the art is no longer ours once it's been released. How can we set it up in a way that the reader can have their very own experience with it?
Yaddo offers residencies to professional creative artists from all nations and backgrounds working in one or more of the following disciplines: choreography, film, literature, musical composition, painting, performance, photography, printmaking, sculpture, and video. Artists apply individually. Peer review is the keystone of the selection process, with different panelists each season. Residencies last from two weeks to two months and include room, board and a studio. (Closes Jan. 6).
Black Lawrence Press will award The Big Moose Prize for an unpublished novel. The prize is open to new, emerging, and established writers. The winner of this contest will receive book publication, a $1,000 cash award, and ten copies of the book. Prizes will be awarded on publication. (Closes Nov. 30th).
The ACLU seeks a full-time position of Senior Communications Strategist, Reproductive Freedom in the Communications & Marketing Department of the ACLU’s National office in New York, NY or Washington, DC. This is a hybrid role that has in-office requirements of two (2) days per week or eight (8) days per month. ($132k).
The Texas Tribune, the state’s go-to source for Texas political news, is seeking a full-time Politics Editor. The Politics Editor will directly manage the newsroom’s politics desk, assigning, approving and editing stories. ($90k)
