The Purpose of Storytelling is Communication (If You Aren't Doing That, Fix It)

When we write a story, whether it's a piece of short fiction or a massive doorstop of a novel, we often get wrapped up in what we were trying to do as the storyteller. Whether it's the lovingly crafted purple prose, the intricate plot twists and reveals, or the unique patois we used for how we chose to write it, these are usually very specific decisions we make as creators for how we want to present our stories.

The problem comes when the people you're writing those stories for aren't picking up what you're laying down. Because when that happens, you need to do something to make sure that what you're saying is what your audience is actually hearing.

Hmmm... is "apocrypha" a well-known enough word to use here?

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Listening Is Just As Important As Speaking

To get the obvious out of the way, there are different dialects in any language. There are different styles of prose, and there are different expectations that come with different genres. This post is not saying that we must always use Proper English (TM) and write in the same, easily-digested style or we are Writing Wrong (TM). Sometimes you want to speak to a particular audience, or you feel that the language you're using is part of the artistry of your story, and to change it would be to lose something the book needs.

All of that is down to artistic decision. This is your book, and you are the one with the final say in how it's presented to the public.

With that said, though...

With that said, if your audience cannot understand what you are saying, then it's up to you as the creator to say it in a way so your story isn't lost on people trying to read your book.

Communication is a two-way street, and you could be telling the most amazing story your audience has ever heard... but if you're telling it in French, than anyone who doesn't speak that language isn't going to be able to access that story. The same is true if you publish something exclusively in Braille, or if it's only written in cursive, or Cyrillic. For a communication cycle to be complete, the message you're delivering has to be translated, and understood by the intended recipient. And for most of us that's the widest audience possible so that we can sell enough books to pay the bills.

It is an almost universal experience to work really hard on a story, or a book, and when you hand it to your beta readers to have someone scratch their head going, "I don't get it," or, "what the hell do all these $5 words mean?" Sometimes it's because a given beta reader isn't familiar with the language of a particular genre (such as someone who doesn't normally read cosmic horror trying to figure out what eldritch and squamous mean without looking them up), or it might be because the way you write isn't intuitive to the general public. But there's always a knee-jerk reaction to place the blame on the audience; to say that you did everything right, but they're just not listening correctly.

The truth of the matter is, we need the audience for our stories to spread. So while it is important to keep the soul of the story in mind, and to be careful when it comes to changing the way you use language, it's also important to keep the practical aspect of, "Can they understand what I'm saying?" firmly in mind. Because at the end of the day, writers need an audience, and it is our job to provide entertainment for them. Because there are already hundreds of stories out there they can read instead... so make understanding yours as easy on them as you can.

Even if that means we have to use plainer language to meet our audience where they're at.

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That's all for this week's Craft of Writing! For more of my work, check out my Vocal archive, or at My Amazon Author Page where you can find books like my sci-fi dystopian thriller Old Soldiers, the Hardboiled Cat series about a mystery solving Maine Coon in Marked Territory and Painted Cats, my sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife, or my most recent short story collection The Rejects!

 

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Don't Worry About People Missing The Point (Because They Will)

The world of fiction is filled with great satires, as well as stories that make poignant arguments on social issues, morality (or the lack thereof), and the state of the world at the time. Books that act as take-downs (as well as send-ups) of political ideologies are a dime a dozen, and you've probably read at least that many in your lifetime so far.

And you know something? Good or bad, poignant or sloppy, subtle or obvious, there are people who missed the point when they read them. And even when you explain that point to them, they still just... don't get it.

Wait... what do you mean he's the bad guy? I don't get it!

That's going to happen. No matter how clever you are, or how clear you think you're being with your book, some people are going to misinterpret the subtext, the meaning, and the motivations of it. There is nothing you can do to stop it, so just accept that it's going to happen even if you spell it out in plain black and white.

Not Everyone Is Going To See Your Perspective

Communication is a difficult thing when text is the only tool you have to work with. Especially when you consider that, try as you might, you have a very specific set of experiences and frame of reference that goes into your work. Someone who doesn't share those aspects with you, or who has been conditioned to see certain aspects of a character, story, or situation as white when you're painting them as black, and vice versa, isn't going to walk away with the same message you laid down.

One of the more famous misreadings of a text comes from Alan Moore's comic (and the subsequent film) Watchmen. The graphic novel is a deconstruction that shows just how awful it would be to live in a world with real superheroes, and the sort of damage that life of unbalanced violence can do to a person as well as a culture. Atomic Junk Shop talked about this recently, and in it they mention how horrified Moore was to the American reaction to his cast.

Because, you see, the character we're supposed to empathize with is Dr. Manhattan. He has the power of a god, but rather than bringing him happiness, it's disconnecting him from the world around him. He's having a harder time seeing things from the simple, moral sidelines so many mortals occupy, and he can only view the world on a grander scale, or on such a microscopic one that it's beyond anyone else's comprehension. By contrast, Rorschach is the character who is meant to embody everything that is awful about what a real-life costumed vigilante would be like. He's a product of a horrifying upbringing, was regularly abused, has a skewed black-or-white vision of reality, lacks empathy, is a sexist, a fascist, and a serial killer. He can barely communicate, he has no hygiene, and he's left behind his actual life and identity entirely to become this thing. He exists as a brutal, awful ideal comprised of splintered bones and broken teeth in a world where might makes right is the whole of the law.

And that's the guy American readers could NOT get enough of!

Some of you don't seem to understand...

It didn't matter how awful Moore made Rorschach, just like it didn't matter how terrible Tyler Durden was, or how absolutely insane the actions of characters like the Punisher or Judge Dredd are. No matter how clearly they're coded as villains (or as characters who are broken, hurting, and violently dangerous as opposed to the sort of people you'd want to model your life choices after), there are readers who are going to see them not just as heroes, but as examples. Maybe that's a cultural difference, maybe it comes from a misreading of the subtext, or maybe it's because these readers just have a bizarrely different frame of reference from the writer, but they not only missed the intended point, but they picked up an entirely different point than the one being made.

The important thing to know is that, in the end, it's out of your control. Additionally, it may not even matter!

For The Last Time, It's NOT About Censorship!

In 6 Books Everyone (Including Your English Teacher) Got Wrong, it's pointed out that Fahrenheit 451 is not actually about censorship, according to the author himself. While it's easy to get that impression, given that it's literally about state-sponsored fire teams going building by building and blow torching books, Bradbury has gone on the record by stating clearly and explicitly that his book is about television, the dumbing down of the audience, and the shortening of people's attention spans.

Which, sure, you can see that. If you squint really hard, and tilt your head a bit.

The point, though, is that in the end it didn't matter what Bradbury's intended message was. The book became a condemnation of state-sponsored censorship, whether that was what he meant it to be about or not. Some people might argue that his vision should be respected as the creator, but communication is a two way street. If you make a statement, and there are alternative interpretations of that statement (good or bad), then the fact that you didn't intend them is irrelevant.

In other words, you can control what you said all you want. But what you cannot control is what the audience actually heard. And sometimes that's frustrating. Sometimes it leads to your book becoming a champion of a cause you hadn't intended, or getting latched onto by a group you'd really rather not have as fans. But that is, as they say, out of your hands.

And look at it this way... people still have to buy a copy and read it before they can misinterpret what you wrote.

Like, Follow, and Come Back Again!

That's all for this week's Craft of Writing! For more of my work, check out my Vocal archive, or at My Amazon Author Page where you can find books like my sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife!

If you'd like to help support my work, then consider Buying Me A Ko-Fi, or heading over to The Literary Mercenary's Patreon page! Lastly, to keep up with my latest, follow me on Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and now on Pinterest as well!