Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Expectations

When writing, have you ever considered your readers’ expectations? If you haven’t, you might want to think twice. Lately, I watched a movie that really disappointed me: “Trial by Fire” aka “Smoke Jumpers” with Brooke Burns playing the main character. When I started watching this movie, I was hooked because of the sexual tension between firefighters Kristen and Ray. The fire burning between them was as hot as any inferno they’d fought in the line of duty. However, when the external conflict was resolved, I expected there to be an extra clip showing these two characters could now be together… or they couldn’t because of their working relationship. Yet, NOTHING was mentioned at all. The last we were shown of their potential love interest was when they went on a “date”. Then, a fire interrupted them, they both took the call, the fire was stopped, and that was that. Talk about misleading and bad writing. I’m not sure if the DVD version “Smoke Jumpers” ended this way. I saw “Trial by Fire” on TV and that’s how it played out. My expectation was for them to get together. Okay, so I’m a sap. That’s why I write romantic suspense novels instead of thrillers.

My point is the writer didn’t take my expectations into consideration. Why put any sexual tension into the script if the writer wasn’t planning on following through with the romance? There’s the possibility the script was cut short because of a time constraint, but then the scenes with sexual build-up should’ve been cut or changed.

Think about this example when you’re writing. Who is your audience? What will your readers expect from YOUR writing?

11 comments:

  1. I totally try to make my readers happy--especially with endings. That's key: a bad ending will ruin the whole book!

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  2. Excellent thoughts, Lynnette.

    In fact, I recv'd a fantastic comment today on this very topic (we are playing a Do's and Don'ts game over on my blog..would love to have your input)

    Anyway, MaryJane said "Do remember your set ups - pulling those threads through the entire mansucript". I thought it really fantastic advice.

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  3. i'm not sold on having to have happy endings...but the strings better be good and tied when i flip the book shut. that's the WORST...just leaves you wondering! great post, though. we should consider our reader's expectations.

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  4. Very, very true!!! Thanks for the reminder!

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  5. Especially in a romance, the relationship HAS to wrap up in a pleasing way! If you've teased your audience about it, then you should bring it to climax definitely before the end.

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  6. Their expectations are huge to me! I hope I can do them justice.

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  7. Excellent post! This is one of the reasons it's so important to know what genre we write, so that we can know the expectations of the genre. I'm like you. I would've been very disappointed.

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  8. Oh, awesome post! I write romantic suspense novels, too, so I see exactly where you're coming from.

    Your points come in handy to remember when I edit and read through the feedback from my beta readers. They often catch things that I didn't wrap up to their expectations. :D

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  9. Weird. Why show romantic tension between the two if they weren't going to do anything about it?
    They needed to tie up that subplot.

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  10. I'm really trying to do that with this WIP. But I am also trying to twist it up abit so they can be surprised and not so clear cut.

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  11. I'm glad to see you're already taking this into consideration.

    Lynnette Labelle

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