What kind of responsibility do we have to the public?

RRK · Jun 27, 2009

So, here's a question inspired by the wildly controversial post about homosexuality in books: what kind of responsibility do you think we have to our audience?

Are we just writing for ourselves with the audience as an afterthought, and therefore we should just do whatever it is we want to do (accepting, of course, that if we want to be commercially viable there are some rules we have to adhere to)? Or is there some deeper obligation--a need to teach people a lesson about life, about the world? Is writing a humanitarian job?

I'm curious what other people think.

scarletpeaches · Jun 27, 2009

I bear the public no responsibility at all.

My first loyalty is to the characters. As long as they're true, that's all I give a damn about.

No, I'm not saying they're real - but they have to be true.

There will always be some precious angel ready to complain about Alex being bi or the murder early on in this book, or in the previous one, "ZOMG! Your female MC sleeps with four different people in a month!"

Pfft. My books will find their own readers and the people who object can bite me.

That's not so say I write any old shit. I owe the English language and the story my best shot...aside from that? Nah.

thethinker42 · Jun 27, 2009

scarletpeaches said:
I bear the public no responsibility at all.

My first loyalty is to the characters. As long as they're true, that's all I give a damn about.

No, I'm not saying they're real - but they have to be true.

There will always be some precious angel ready to complain about Alex being bi or the murder early on in this book, or in the previous one, "ZOMG! Your female MC sleeps with four different people in a month!"

Pfft. My books will find their own readers and the people who object can bite me.

That's not so say I write any old shit. I owe the English language and the story my best shot...aside from that? Nah.

QFT.

I owe it to my reader to tell the truth, and I owe it to my character to do his/her story justice. That's all.

Cranky · Jun 27, 2009

Books have the *potential* to teach lessons and whatnot, but my only obligation to my readers is to write the story the best that I can and to tell the truth.

Calling (or suggesting) that writing is a humanitarian venture is laying it on a bit thick, imo.

Bubastes · Jun 27, 2009

My only obligation is to tell a damn good story.

TabithaTodd · Jun 27, 2009

scarletpeaches said:
I bear the public no responsibility at all.

My first loyalty is to the characters. As long as they're true, that's all I give a damn about.

No, I'm not saying they're real - but they have to be true.

There will always be some precious angel ready to complain about Alex being bi or the murder early on in this book, or in the previous one, "ZOMG! Your female MC sleeps with four different people in a month!"

Pfft. My books will find their own readers and the people who object can bite me.

That's not so say I write any old shit. I owe the English language and the story my best shot...aside from that? Nah.

*claps* Couldn't have said it better!

Jersey Chick · Jun 27, 2009

I write the story that the characters tell me to write. That's my responsibility. End of story (so to speak)

SP said it best **tips hat to SP**

scarletpeaches · Jun 27, 2009

Crikey. I'm making sense these days? Damn it. I knew if I kept writing I'd eventually start learning something about being a novelist but...people agree with me, too? *shudder*

BenPanced · Jun 27, 2009

Bubastes said:
My only obligation is to tell a damn good story.

Dammit, you stole my post. I'm hiring an intarwebz lawyer and suing for plajerism.

Chasing the Horizon · Jun 27, 2009

Bubastes said:
My only obligation is to tell a damn good story.

This. My greatest goal is simply to entertain people.

Salis · Jun 27, 2009

RRK said:
So, here's a question inspired by the wildly controversial post about homosexuality in books: what kind of responsibility do you think we have to our audience?

Are we just writing for ourselves with the audience as an afterthought, and therefore we should just do whatever it is we want to do (accepting, of course, that if we want to be commercially viable there are some rules we have to adhere to)? Or is there some deeper obligation--a need to teach people a lesson about life, about the world? Is writing a humanitarian job?

I'm curious what other people think.

None whatsoever. You have a responsibility to YOURSELF to write something good enough that people will want to buy it, and hence, you get paid.

You have a minor responsibility to the public in that you probably shouldn't write encouragingly about rape or murder (i.e, "If you want to try this at home, try a hacksaw from Lowe's, behind the paints"), but I don't think that's specific to writing, or even unalienable (I'm sure you could make a case for the above suggestion being all in good fun).

Shweta · Jun 27, 2009

My responsibility to the readers is this:

1) I will entertain them, for if they are not entertained they shall put down my story and hate me unto eternity.

2) I will make sense to them, whether or not the sense I make to them is the sense I make unto myself, and actually include enough information to not lose them to whiplash. For lo, whiplash is not entertaining.

3) I will not always write the same story over and over, for readers have memories.

There's one other, which I don't see as a responsibility but an opportunity:

4) I will do the things I would like to see done more in fiction, for others might also like to see the same things and shall thusly be entertained; and if it encourages others to write the things I would like to see more of in fiction, that is to my benefit. For I too am a reader.

Shadow_Ferret · Jun 27, 2009

The only thing I owe my audience is that I wrote the best story I could.

Cassiopeia · Jun 27, 2009

This is the way I see it

1. My first responsibility is to myself. I refuse to do anything that goes against my own ethical code.
2. I do my level best not to do anything that would harm another person while putting myself first.
3. If I wouldn't want someone else to do it to me, I don't do it to them.

When it comes to writing, yes...I do think that some literature has the potential to make a difference in people's lives.

Is that the only purpose that writing or reading literature serves? No. It's various purposes are evident in the genres.

If someone has a personal ethical code that their writing MUST be for the betterment of society and they can do it, I think that's great.

If they like to entertain and lift people up a bit...that's great too.

And if people don't want to read one particular form of literature, they don't have to. They have a responsibility for themselves and their own codes.

In the end, our responsibility as a writer comes down to honesty, authenticity and getting it done to the best of our abilities.

That's how I see it, anyway.

KTC · Jun 27, 2009

My responsibility to the public is to present something worthy of their reading time. That's it. That hasn't happened yet, but I do hope to get one of my manuscripts picked up. When I write, though, I write for me.

ChaosTitan · Jun 27, 2009

Shweta said:
My responsibility to the readers is this:

1) I will entertain them, for if they are not entertained they shall put down my story and hate me unto eternity.

2) I will make sense to them, whether or not the sense I make to them is the sense I make unto myself, and actually include enough information to not lose them to whiplash. For lo, whiplash is not entertaining.

3) I will not always write the same story over and over, for readers have memories.

Ditto.

mscelina · Jun 27, 2009

The only responsibility I owe to my reader is to not write crap.

The rest of the responsiblity I owe to me and the odd little people screaming their life stories at me in my head.

Cassiopeia · Jun 27, 2009

Cranky said:
Books have the *potential* to teach lessons and whatnot, but my only obligation to my readers is to write the story the best that I can and to tell the truth.

Calling (or suggesting) that writing is a humanitarian venture is laying it on a bit thick, imo.

But Cranky, darling...don't you think some writing is a humanitarian venture?

C.bronco · Jun 27, 2009

Writers are observers of life, and homosexuality is a part of it. We can't understand what we don't acknowledge.
Understanding breeds tolerance.

Cranky · Jun 27, 2009

Cassiopeia said:
But Cranky, darling...don't you think some writing is a humanitarian venture?

Nope. I think of humanitarian work as being something more along the lines of Doctors Without Borders, the Peace Corps, Operation Smile, and things of that nature. Writing might inspire people, but actually doing something tangible is what meets my personal definition of humanitarian.

I love writing (obviously) and I think it's got some power to make people think and feel and ultimately act on those things, but it's still the getting dirty part that really is humanitarian, imo.

Prit · Jun 27, 2009

Personally, I find it incredibly annoying when the author tries to teach me some heavy handed "lesson about life" so it is something I try not to subject my readers to. It makes me feel tricked, like I came into this thing expecting a good yarn and got some sort self-righteous essay instead. Often, my characters are drastically different people than I am and wouldn't be good at projecting any sort of lesson I want to teach anyway. And my characters are nearly always selfish.

Blue Sky · Jun 27, 2009

Only one thing I'd like to add:

I write not for you or me, but for us. Subtle but telling diff imho.

Cassiopeia · Jun 27, 2009

Cranky said:
Nope. I think of humanitarian work as being something more along the lines of Doctors Without Borders, the Peace Corps, Operation Smile, and things of that nature. Writing might inspire people, but actually doing something tangible is what meets my personal definition of humanitarian. I love writing (obviously) and I think it's got some power to make people think and feel and ultimately act on those things, but it's still the getting dirty part that really is humanitarian, imo.

What if a non-fiction book was intended to stop others from using drugs or how to handle that? Would that be humanitarian?

Cassiopeia · Jun 27, 2009

Prit said:
Personally, I find it incredibly annoying when the author tries to teach me some heavy handed "lesson about life" so it is something I try not to subject my readers to. It makes me feel tricked, like I came into this thing expecting a good yarn and got some sort self-righteous essay instead. Often, my characters are drastically different people than I am and wouldn't be good at projecting any sort of lesson I want to teach anyway. And my characters are nearly always selfish.

Of course, we all get annoyed when force fed morality but a lesson can be learned through the subtle nuances of characters and their experiences.

birdie · Jun 27, 2009

I wonder if some distinction here needs to be drawn among different genres -- or between fiction and non-fiction, more precisely.

With fiction it's easy to argue that the point is to write things that are true to the characters, and to write things that are entertaining, and to write things that treat the reader as someone with a modicum of intelligence. And although there may be greater responsibilities that authors have to readers, I think that the basic list stops right about there.

With non-fiction, though, do things change? If you're writing a biography, for example, you must have a responsibility to stick to the truth of your subject's life. And if you're writing an instruction manual, then you must have a responsibility to write instructions that are comprehensible and result in a working whatever-it-is.

I know that this is the novel forum, and so this may not be completely relevant, but it intrigues me. If we accept as given that certain extra responsibilities come with writing non-fiction, does that have any ramifications for the writing of fiction? Is it enough to simply say that they're different and that's that? -- or do we have to go back and look at why and how they're different, as well? Where do the lines blur?

What kind of responsibility do we have to the public?

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