The burden of proof

It's a simple and yet important principle that a lot of newbiew writers (like me) miss.

The author has the burden of proof. That means that the author is the one that has to prove the audience that his work is interesting not the other way around.

It's true that the moment you earn fans, they get interested in things even you haven't even begun to think about.

But before that, there is usually little faith. For instance Lauren faust's Friendship Is Magic had a lot to prove with her concept and a lot of people were skepticall at first. But now even after her departure fans are still interested (just ask bronies). This proves that sometimes earning the love of an audience isn't always easy

To be sure an interesting concept will give more proababilities of people giving you a chance. But only the execution will make them stay.

You as an author propably love your story and your characters. But it's your duty to make your audience love them as much or even more as you do.

Similar to other kinds of love like friendship, and erotic love (you probaby spend time with them, buy them things, etc...) you have to earn the audience's love.

Unfortunately I have seen authors, sometimes "profesional" authors that state that they don't care about their characters. If the author doesn't care about their own characters/plot/ world why would the audience care?

The audience love towards's your work will requiere that you prove to them that you care and that they should care too.

Do what you can to make your audience see your characters as you do :)

edited 5th Mar '12 7:25:13 PM by FallenLegend

At last, somebody says what needs to be said! The great unspoken lesson. And bravo, Fallen Legend, for putting it in a way that — unlike how I'd have put it if forced — isn't cold-blooded harsh.

{Off-topic and personal deleted. —Madrugada}

Anyway, as far as the OP goes, I agree.

edited 5th Mar '12 9:10:57 PM by Madrugada

@killer Clowns

thank you!

@Fallen Legend: For the most part, I do agree with you wholeheartedly. I must quibble with a few particulars, however. Specifically, character and plot. You see, to me, if the author manages to make their work resonate with me on both the emotional and intellectual levels, whether there is a strong or obvious character or plot becomes irrelevant, as the author has, in their own way, managed to make me feel a direct sympathy with them without those (often essential) middlemen. Granted, this is difficult in the extreme when we speak of longer works—vignettes can slip by on a single, perfect image; a novel is something else entirely—but to apply the assumption to all works may be faulty.

But that important distinction aside, I think that the point rings true: You are lobbying for the sympathies of your audience, and it is they, not you, who are the arbiter of acceptance.

I agree with this, too. If you're not even interested in your own work, how can you expect others to be? If you can't say why you think the story is interesting, then it'll look like you're just doing it for the fame/money/reviews.

For example, say you write Yu-Gi-Oh fanfic. And you post them somewhere, but don't get many comments. If you really like Yu-Gi-Oh, writing, and fanfic, and want to get better, you'll keep writing it (unless you get writer's block or real life interferes). Yes, it's nice to get comments/reviews/hits, but you really have to be interested in the story to be able to write it convincingly, thus making it interesting to the audience.

You also need decent writing skills, but that's another topic.

edited 7th Mar '12 7:31:43 PM by BlackElephant

I agree that you need to care about a work to make it, well, work, but for a certain definition of "care". Like, someone bet that you couldn't write a good story regarding a topic you don't like, and you're willing to accept the challenge. Or maybe you just really wanna make tons of money so you do a lot of research and practice to write a story that'll earn you money.

After all this setup I expected the message to be something completely different than "care about your own characters". I figured this would be about never losing sight of the reader: After everything is said and done, when a person picks up your work you want them to start reading and keep reading. At least in this particular forum I don't think people not caring enough about their characters is a problem at all.

Really, advice at that general a level is preaching to the choir. Even the worst writers fancy themselves good writers to some degree, or they wouldn't be writing. They hear "You should make your work worthwhile and engaging" and they think "oh, my work totally qualifies". To improve they need to hear something more concrete, something that gives them a chance to look at their work and think "huh, this I didn't do". For example, the following exercise:

Mind you, even the best advice in the world won't help the archetypal bad writer, who will — without fail — see right past their work's flaws. But the writer who's ready to improve will be able to realize that they want to get to point B, they're not there yet, and they should do some thinking about why they're not there and how they're supposed to get there. And they need specifics.

Also since this is a writing forum I feel obligated to provide a "Get Help with English" functionality here:

edited 8th Mar '12 5:55:36 AM by TripleElation

...

Edited by fanty on Sep 28th 2019 at 2:09:14 PM

Well, okay, but I think at that point the writer probably realizes for themselves that they're not producing A-grade material, either content-wise or schedule-wise, and they don't need a lecture. Especially not considering that they even got you to read the webcomic to begin with. Most works that fail the "why do I even care" test don't get read past the third paragraph.

I don't like caring about my characters. I feel like people will coddle them too much. Well, that's more of in a LARP/RPG setting, where you're more likely to have a self insert.

I think it's from bad experiences where the people who care are less likely to have their characters mess up or be the butt of a joke, which is more crucial in a LARP/RPG setting.

edited 8th Mar '12 6:11:01 AM by MrAHR

Neither Schedule Slip nor the fact that you actually know what's being done necessarily indicate a lack of care. Not everyone's experience is improved by knowing the plot twist is coming or seeing the work that went into it. (God knows there are times and places where I've found out more than I wanted about the production of various works.) The truth is the creative process can be ugly.

And caring about your characters can be a trap. One thing you'll hear from professional actors is that they never judge the character they're playing. This is because such judgement is usually obvious, and in seeing that we are also seeing the person doing the judgement; the actor, not the character. I've seen books that fall prey to the same problem. The author clearly approves or disapproves of a particular character or stance, and I'm pretty sure by now most of you have heard my rant about seeing the author writing.

To care for an individual thing, a plot point, a character, even a work as a whole, is not by necessity a good thing. It can just as easily and just as often be bad. Care is valuable in the care for the craft, not in the results of the craft.

Yes. That too, definitely.

I guess it's one of those elements that can screw your work over in both directions if you're not careful.

edited 8th Mar '12 6:42:02 AM by TripleElation

I think you want to care about the work you put out. As in, the ultimate quality. Care about what your characters represent and how they come across, while not necessarily caring about them on a personal level.

But that may be a bit subjective.

I fear that at some point, I have to break my own heart. I have found that if I have a lot of emotional distance to the protagonists, I lose every incentive to write... anything, really; but if I really like them, it gets incredibly hard to do all the evilness to them that I have to, for plot's sake!

Now, caring for the characters ≠ caring for the text itself, obviously. But I believe that the same principles apply. You have to rip out what feels like your own eye, sometimes, in order to make the text better.

And yes, this feeds into "selling it to the audience", because that entails exactly those sacrifices I've talked about. One is a prerequisite of the other.

So, it's a pyramid of values: You have to care about the characters, but possibly sacrifice them to the plot, which you have to partially sacrifice for clarity and brevity... and the list, I'm sure, goes on.

Really, advice at that general a level is preaching to the choir.

sorry mys post wasn't up for your expectaions. Is just a friendly advice I wanted to give

Well, don't mind me. If people avoided posting things just because someone might possibly have some sort of objection to them, there'd be no internet.

The only situation I can think of in which caring about an entire work might turn out badly is if one likes it too much to take criticism; caring about your work too little and not putting enough effort into it (especially editing) is, IME, a more common pitfall.

When I read bad writing I often get a very distinct impression that the author just couldn't fathom their work actually being experienced by this "reader" creature they keep hearing about. The author might have heard that supposedly it's some person who comes into a story and doesn't know all about the characters from the get-go, and certainly doesn't care about them yet, and isn't familiar with the plot and isn't privy to all the exciting images running in the author's head; but the latter seems too excited about the awesome goings-on in their mind's eye to care about any of that. If they can see it, surely anyone can see it.

That's how being too attached to a work can be a problem.

edited 8th Mar '12 11:48:59 PM by TripleElation