What Kind of Reader We All Deserve
Hello December and hello my lovely reader – let’s have a heartful conversation today.
Honestly, it took me some time to come up with the title for today’s blog post. I wanted the title to be the bridge between writing and general life, because recently I have come to a quite interesting conclusion – thanks to my experience on Wattpad.
They say, life is a stage…
Maybe so.
But I believe, life is a book as well and we all need a special kind of reader to feel like it has value and it matters.
It has been a month since I came to Wattpad and I have learnt so many real things about this connection that can happen only between authors and their readers.
I have always been thinking that there were just two kinds of readers – the ones that read and the ones that read your works. But as it turned out, I had a bit narrow view at this.
Different kinds of readers
On Twitter and Wattpad, I have seen several writers doing an exchange of favors with other writers: they would offer to read your work in exchange for you reading theirs. And for a long time, I saw nothing bad about it.
But a few weeks ago I received a few of the same offers on Wattpad and my opinion about this drastically changed. Because I realized that this kind of reader is not my reader.
I do not want people butter my work just because they expect me to do the same with theirs. I do not want to see fake reviews on my works, and soulless votes that in fact do not mean a thing.
Every writer puts an enormous amount of effort and time in creating stories after stories, writing characters and living through hell with them. While other people enjoy life, having parties with friends, or travelling maybe, we write! In other words, in order for a story to just exist a writer should put a huge chunk of their life on the table and it should count for something.
There are also shadow readers – the ones that come to check your work regularly but never leave a note about their presence. They do not write reviews, they do not vote, they do not write you a letter letting know their opinion about the story. They just come to read your work and that is it.
I must admit, many years ago, I was that kind of reader. As a shadow, I would regularly come to read the book at night and yet, I would never leave a review or comment on the work.
My heart was flaming for the story but my mouth was sealed shut, you know.
And though they are like shadows, I kind of like them. This kind of readers makes me think a lot and I am never against thinking.
And here is the third kind of readers – the true readers, the ones I would die for.
This kind of readers would never get tired to give you feedback, to vote, to share your work with their friends and siblings and even write you letters here and there sharing their emotions, concerns, and thoughts about your characters.
It would not be about what an amazing writer you are rather what an amazing character you have written. For this kind of readers your work means as much as it does for you. And I honestly believe that every work needs this kind of readers more than it needs votes and views.
We all deserve this kind of readers in our lives as well – people that genuinely care and are interested in what we create or write.
Back to – life is a stage…
Imagine, there is a full hall of people that came to see your performance not because they are interested in what you have to show but because they kind of know you and you asked them to come and they kind of did not want to offend you by saying no, so here they are – thousands of them. But when you get up on the stage, you notice that neither of them is even looking at you: some check their phones and some are talking to each other. Neither has even noticed that you are there.
Yes, you have a full hall, but your show is doomed.
And now imagine, you have just a few people in the hall but when you get up on the stage, they stand up and start applauding you because they are truly there for your show. Just a few people but I promise with this kind of people you will feel like the whole world is looking at you.
I wish you all to have this kind of ‘readers’ in your life and I wish all happy December 1!
