Walk the Line: The Balancing Act Between Reader Expectations and Fresh Writing

with guest/s Sparkle Abbey!

Reader expectation is a powerful thing.

Especially today when readers can jump on the Internet and express with contagious enthusiasm that what we’ve created has met their expectations. Those reviews rock! Or they can write a scathing review on Amazon when they’re upset with a book, promising to never, ever read that author’s work again. Ouch.

We believe every author thinks about what their readers want. (Though some may claim not to.)

We love the fans who tell us they really don’t have expectations. They just want to read a good book and escape from the daily chaos of their life. Hmmm...that’s an expectation, but don’t tell them.

If you’re writing genre fiction, there are a few universal expectations to keep in mind right off the bat.

In a romance, readers want a heroine and hero who are worthy of each other. Readers look for chemistry, tension and a conflict that can’t be resolved with a simple face-to-face conversation. They want an engaging plot and an emotionally satisfying ending.

We write cozy mysteries. There are also basic reader expectations for our genre. The obvious one—our readers expect a dead body. Two? Even better. Readers do not want to see violence or anything graphic on the page, but they do want rising tension and a strong conflict. The savvy cozy reader also expects a great puzzle to solve along with the sleuth.

Those are pretty straightforward.

It’s the expectations that come after fans have read a specific author or series that plant themselves in the writer’s thoughts and can potentially derail or bog down the storyline. How do you give the loyal reader what they want and still keep the series evolving? 

It is possible to add new and fresh ideas and still not disappoint. An author’s voice, tone, theme and characters are part of why a reader returns to a favorite author or series. It’s important those elements remain consistent, but you can still change things up. Add a twist. Perhaps a new challenge or a new character.

We write pet themed cozies—no animals are harmed; only people are dead. That’s an expectation. Could you imagine if we ever put an animal in danger? Talk about blowing up reader expectations. We’d lose most of our audience. So we chose not to go down that path. Is that us being swayed by our reader expectations? Sure, it is. But we’re not really interested in writing that type of story anyway, so it’s a win-win situation.

Our fans also want Caro and Mel, our Texas cousin amateur sleuths (who are currently not speaking to each other) to make up and work together. Will we change the course of the series to meet that expectation? Probably not. If we did, we’d lose built-in conflict and tension. You know, those basic genre standards mentioned earlier. However we can’t let Caro and Mel rehash the same scenarios over and over, or our readers will quickly tire of the conflict.

To maintain what your readers want and yet keep the story new, you have to throw in some surprises. Still it’s important to note that while surprises are good, twists that come out of left-field are not. You want a spin that logically flows from the characters’ journey, not a jarring bolt from the blue. A revelation, not a bombshell.  An unexpected development, but one that feels exactly right for these characters.

To do that a writer must walk the line. It’s a balancing act. Sometimes a tight-rope balancing act. You must find that intersection where the story continues to provide the experience that made readers fall in love with it in the first place. And yet, you must mix in something fresh and new that provokes readers and makes them wonder just what you’re going to be up to next!

What do you think? Do you take into account readers’ expectations as you’re writing? Have you ever been influenced by fans to alter a storyline or a character? What methods do you use to keep a continuing storyline fresh? 

Please leave a comment. We’d love to send a copy of Fifty Shades of Greyhound to someone! (A winner will be randomly selected and announced in the Weekend Edition of Seekerville)

 
Caro Lamont, Laguna Beach's favorite pet therapist, is thrilled to support the elite fundraising gala for Greys Matter, a SoCal greyhound rescue group. All the guests in the couture-attired crowd are clad in varying shades of grey, the champagne and donations are flowing, and there are fifty gorgeous greyhounds in attendance. But before the evening ends, a stranger in their midst is dead.

Caro sets out to help the rescue group find the identity of the mystery guest but soon finds herself in the doghouse with homicide detective, Judd Malone--oh, and federal agent, John Milner. When there's a second death, Caro is convinced she's on the track of someone who wants a secret to stay buried, but it's a race to see whether Caro can uncover the truth before the killer decides she's next.

Sparkle Abbey is the pseudonym of mystery authors Mary Lee Woods and Anita Carter. They write the popular pet mystery series which features whodunits set in the wacky world of pampered pets, precious pedigrees, and secrets. They chose to use Sparkle Abbey as the pen name on this series because they liked the idea of combining the names of their two rescue pets - Sparkle (ML's cat) and Abbey (Anita’s dog). The first book in the series Desperate Housedogs, an Amazon Mystery Series bestseller and Barnes & Noble Nook #1 bestseller, was followed by Get Fluffy, Kitty Kitty Bang Bang, and Yip/Tuck.  Fifty Shades of Greyhound is the latest in the series and will be followed by The Girl with the Dachshund Tattoo. 


They love to hear from readers and can be found via their website: www.sparkleabbey.com or on Facebook: www.facebook.com/sparkleabbey