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I might not be that good at understanding what readers want

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People feel that authoring books is more than just entertainment; it is a deep expression of the inner self. The truth lies somewhere in the middle. Even if we express ourselves through our work, we must interpret our inner language for the outside world. Many people argue that this translation process devalues the writer's artistic creativity.

I have no qualms about attempting to make my writing more discernible. Writing, for me, is about conveying a tale and a wide range of emotions; if I fail to do so, I've failed at writing. As a result, good writing is contingent on the readers comprehending the incredible experience they are having.

Established what I believe writing is, it's now a matter of understanding what problems I'm facing. In simple terms, I struggle to create a reading experience that reads in the same language my head writes in. I believe that great writers have codes that greatly resemble those of their readers - they possess an intimate connection with what the readers might feel.

While writing Pam's Quest - which I write while narrating it in form of a DnD-like experience to my gf while she acts as the main character - around chapter 5, she made a choice I would have never made. She chose to peek out of the trap door to check if the zombie had gone away. Hell, I knew the zombie had gotten out of the house, but I couldn't help but grip my chair for a second and think: "What the hell are you doing?"
And that's where I finally understood all my shortcomings.

That is probably something I'm still lacking myself in my writing. I've learned a bit about Less is more and Readers are most attracted by what they think they will see next, not what they are seeing right now from Dan Brown's masterclass, but never like in that moment I understood the value of chaos, of a character escaping your control. See, I've always considered myself more of a psychiatrist for my characters than a all-powerful God; I was drunk on the notion that I was just getting their tales and writing them down. But I think that has not been the case until now. I think that so far, I've written down what I liked about my characters, not what they were really telling me. I think that, as the most insidious and dark among therapists, I was guiding their choices to reflect my beliefs.

I should have asked myself more questions to avoid that. I should have tried to fit their shoes better. Instead, my ego took over their personality in crucial moments. And that means I probably robbed my characters and my readers of what truly should have gone down in my stories.

In the end, all of this just means that my ego is so big that it makes it a struggle for me to write close to my readers. Even when I see a stupid joke or a very cringy moments fitting a scene, I might choose not to put them in because they make me uncomfortable.

Referenced in

I'm often too blunt with feedback

I believe that if you are not hard enough, you will never make it. Therefore, I always try to give the most productive feedback possible. If you show me something that is incredibly boring and I think it's not going to make it, I'll say so. I always preface my arguments by saying that I'm no fortune teller. And in the end, I might not be that good at understanding what readers want.

I might not be that good at understanding what readers want