Q: Do you write with a particular audience in mind?
A: I’ve tried in the past to write with a particular audience in mind, and each of those stories has failed. In The Emotional Craft of Fiction, Donald Maass writes, “The novelist…is not causing readers to feel as the novelist does, or as his characters do, but rather inducing for each reader a unique emotional journey through a story.” That line took a lot of pressure off me as a writer by helping me realize I have no control over how a reader interprets my work. That boils down to each reader’s life experiences and preferences. Now, I write to entertain myself or work through an idea I find challenging. I do my best to explore ideas in a way I find interesting, and I hope that my readers experience some of the same wonder reading my stories that I felt while writing them.
Matthew Gomez’s story “Right Behind You”
in Metaphorosis Friday, 12 November 2021.
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