Explaining things...

Errant_Fragments

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I've been sending some of my ghost stories out to test readers recently and I've been somewhat frustrated by their responses. Now of course, all readers are right and their response is just their response to the writing, could be taken or avoided and I'm not meaning to argue with them about their feelings and a lot of their feedback has been really helpful on overall structure etc. But at the same time, I was wondering if anyone has any thoughts about one point that has come up.

Specifically, every reader at some point stage commented "Is this real?" or words to that effect; they all want to know how much the ghosts and ghoulies are metaphors, or how much they are 'real things'. And this is where my frustration lies. I'm writing a series of shorts themed around trauma, specifically historical trauma in the LGBT community and the ways in which those events have lasting, haunting, effects on contemporary culture. Each of the stories is based on something that really happened, in anything from the past 5 to 300 years of British history. So all off my ghosts really are metaphors, but in the stories they also really do kill people.

To my mind at least the ambiguity of how much these things are real or not is part of the point of what I'm trying to do. Although some of them are clearly real enough to actually eat someone I don't think the ones that don't have any direct affects on the world are less real... But all my test readers so far have wanted a clear division that sets out 'This is a metaphor' from 'This is a real monster that really will eat you'.

So here's the question - am I trying to do too much and just need to focus on being a better fiction writer instead of trying to write parables and analogies about traumatic events, at least until I'm a more experienced writer. Or do I need to find test readers that get the premise of the idea and will critique on that basis?

Is anyone else working on a comparable project that could share some wisdom?
 

ironmikezero

practical experience, FTW
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Trying to gather a select set of test/beta readers who will "get" your premise (and subsequently tell you what they think you might want to hear) isn't necessarily going to be all that helpful. A broad diversity in test/beta readership will more likely give you a more candid data set of responsive critiques, a more honest report of how the work is received.

You state your work has engendered questions like "is this real?" Congratulations! You've evoked introspection and potential insight among those readers--you're reaching them! If you feel you must respond to the question, you can always say, "Perhaps . . . Does it feel real to you?"
Do you want your readers to sense it's real (especially if the tale has been inspired by actual events)? Or would you simply have them ponder that possibility? You could always admit to being inspired by an actual event.

Either way, you'll have your readers thinking. For an author, what's not to like about that?

Don't sell yourself short--you're already doing something right. Keep it up & best of luck!
 

Girlsgottawrite

I write at work...
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If one reader says something, you probably don't need to worry too much. If all your readers say the same thing, you need to sit up and pay attention.

Like Ironmikezero said, there's nothing wrong with ambiguity if that is what you're going for. What I think the problem might be here is that not everything is ambiguous. If you have some ghosts that are "real" so to speak and others who are not, that may be leading to some confusion among your readers. If in one story, it's obvious that the ghost is real, they may be going into the next story with that expectation in mind and then become confused when they encounter something different.

Have you tried asking readers to read only one or two similarly themed stories? If not, try it out and see if you get similar comments.

I don't necessarily think it's a bad thing to have the different takes on ghost stories together, but maybe it would help if you include a foreword in the book that sets it up for the reader.

Whatever you do, don't stop writing what's calling to you. Even if it never sees the light of day, you need to follow your interests and forget about everyone else. If you're passionate about what you're writing, it will show in your work. If you aren't, that will show as well.

Good luck!