How Do You React When Strangers Read Your Work?

I used to feel this way every time I got a new follower on Twitter. I know it’s not quite the same thing, but I’d look at them and wonder how they found me (especially so when they weren’t following any of my current followers).

As for strangers reading my work…it hasn’t happened yet, but the thought makes me nervous, so you’re not alone. I’m a perfectionist, so I mostly worry that people will read it and find a million and two errors or weak plot points or think it’s ridiculous or something horrible like that (GAH! Insecurities!). It’s a big part of the reason I hesitate to jump into self-publishing. What if what I put out there isn’t good enough? It’s a question many of us face, I think. Or maybe not. I don’t know.

Anyway, regardless I don’t think about it at all when I’m writing. It becomes more of a focus while I’m editing. But before then, I ignore the possibility.

So don’t worry! You’re definitely not alone (or insane, as I see you’ve tagged this post). At the very least there’s me. 🙂

There are no strangers, just friends we haven’t met yet.

I think I’m more concerned about people I know reading my work because then whether they like it or not might affect how they view me. That’s one reason I could never write romance. I love to read it, but the most I’m going to write is a pretty chaste scene. Of course, I’m writing middle grade so that works.

As for strangers reading it, I’m sure I’ll think about that more when I get closer to being published. I used to be afraid to let anyone read my work, but when I started taking it seriously, I felt excited and challenged when critique partners or industry professionals gave me feedback. After all, the whole point is for strangers to read it, right?

Great post!

Your posts are always thought provoking 🙂

Like Dean said, “There are no strangers, just friends we haven’t met yet.” I enjoy meeting new people on Twitter, FB, and my blog. I think I’ll get a thrill seeing someone reading something of mine “in the wild.”

I’m a perfectionist and want to put out the best work I can. So I’m plagued with, “What if what I put out there isn’t good enough?” Strangers haven’t read my work yet and I’m a little nervous just getting closer to putting it out to critique partners, who I hope won’t be complete strangers 🙂

I have to say worrying about my mother or father reading my work hasn’t occurred to me, perhaps because we talk about everything. It would have been a different story ten years ago though.

Excellent post Jami!

The only way I can write is by imagining that nobody will ever read my work. Of course, nobody has yet, but you get the idea 🙂

I am actually more worried about people who knew me reading my work as opposed to strangers reading it. The opinions of strangers don’t hold much weight with me; after all, if they hated it, they don’t know me as me-the-person-behind-the-writing. It’s nothing personal. And I can live with that since we all know we can’t please everyone.

But. The notion of my immediate family and friends reading my work and realizing for the first time that they didn’t know me very well after all (I like to write fantasy with a dark bent). I worry that they would start thinking, “Who is this person? I thought I knew her.” It’s psycho, I know. But their opinions hold more weight because I have a relationship with them. If that makes sense. 🙂

I am far less scared of strangers than people I know. I can handle the idea of some random judging me based on some words they read.

People who know me (or think they know me) reading my work makes me a little queasy.

I’m not the least concerned about strangers reading my work. But I start to get squirmy when I think about my business colleagues reading it.

I’ve had my own business for 8 years, and I’ve developed a lot of business contacts. None of them have ever heard me say anything worse than “crap”. My books are, um, unrestrained. Not quite sure how they’ll react to the ripe language and sex.

I think I’ll include a warning label when I mention my books to them.

I have no idea how I’ll react to strangers reading my book. I get nervous whenever anyone reads my work for the first time. As times goes on and they see what my style is like, I get more comfortable, but that edge of insecurity and excitement never leaves.

And like you, I can’t think about my parents when writing. It just doesn’t happen!

Umm, it’s NERVE WRACKING for sure. But also exciting! I always wonder what people I do know think of me when they read my stuff. Like ‘wow that was in her head?’ LOL. But it’s part of the deal, so I guess that’s it!

I think I’ll always be a bit nervous when I think of others reading my work, whether they are strangers or friends and family. Every time I share something I’ve written, I feel a little bit stronger, because even though I know I have something I want to speak and share with the world, my natural inclination is withdrawal.

I am curing myself of this strange duality by sharing short stories in critique groups. Not too long ago, I wrote a short story and shared it with the group, prefacing it that it was supposed to be ‘a funny little story’. It was a story about trying to save a wounded duckling. A woman piped up and said, “Excuse me, but I don’t find this humorous, in fact, I find this offensive.”I bit my tongue, took the criticism and lived through it. I know that even though it may feel uncomfortable to put your stuff out there, if you want to be a writer, that’s what you have to be willing to do.

Hey Jaime. I was the one that actually posted your Green Lantern blog on reddit.com yesterday. Here’s the link: http://www.reddit.com/r/comicbooks/comments/j73cj/the_green_lantern_movie_how_not_to_plot_a_story/

It was also pretty fresh since the sequel was announced yesterday.

It’s a clunky title, but you have to do that to get their attention sometimes. The subreddit gets 5000-10000 hits a day.

Honestly, I don’t know how I found you. I put you in my RSS feed because I like what I saw. I may have just googled tips on writing or something.

I suspect I’ve developed a pretty thick skin. My mom’s a pshrink, and has a tendency to psychoanalyze when she shouldn’t. Were I to worry about what she thought about my every decision and thought, I’d go crazy.

Still, I’ve not yet put my writing out in front of random strangers.
The first person to read it was my partner, of course. The second set of people, a collection of successful urban fantasy/fantasy authors.

Needless to say, I was nervous. But I survived, so I’m pretty confident I’ll survive when I get my stuff out in front of the general public, and I will, dammit.

Oh, and getting up on stage and bellydancing in front of random folk has also thickened my skin.

It bothered me once upon a time, but I got over it. Most of that was “what if they steal my ideas!?” but I soon realized that was just stupid.

In fact, I just shared my first five pages and my query/pitch for my wip over on my blog, as well as in the WriteOnCon forums. It really just doesn’t bother me anymore. Truthfully, I think it’s cool that people I don’t know have an interest in what I have to say or in my writing. I’m not shouting to the wind. 😉

I am Samoan and in our culture, no one is an individual.(well not really anyway.) We are representatives/pieces of a whole that includes: our parents, siblings, extended family, village…and the families and villages of our parents…and so on. This can have a paralyzing effect on my writing IF I LET IT. I can get caught up in freaking out abt how my work will make my parents look, my family etc and end up not writing anything at all. I was stuck in that quagmire for a long time. BLogging has really helped to shake me loose. And whn my first book was published a year ago, I couldnt bear to look strangers in the eye, in case they hated my book and also hated me as a result. Now, Im reconciled that – I will never please everyone with my writing. (esp not everyone in my family. Heck, my father had 23 siblings so i have a VERY large extended family.) Whats important is that I love what im doing. And hopefully, there will b readers out there who love it too.

My mom reads all of my stuff even before publication, so that’s a given. And I’m not too worried about her reading my sex scenes. My dad though…yikes, I was really nervous. I had initially told him not to read my book. But he’s a big reader (not romance mind u but everything else he can get his hands on) and he insisted that he was going to read his eldest daughter’s first publication. And that’s exactly what he did. And he loved it! So it really wasn’t so bad. Granted, I wasn’t there with him while he flipped through the love scene (thank GOD for that) but it wasn’t so weird. And I’m proud of the story so it’s all good. I’ve also had the complete stranger thing happen too. I was in a church waiting for my daughter’s choir to sing, got there early and barely anyone was sitting in the pews, and low and behold, the woman sitting infront of me had a Nook and was reading my book…MY BOOK!! It was amazing. And she said she was almost finished and loved it. Plus, she asked when my next was coming out, so it was doubly cool. (forgive me if I already told you this story…I just can’t help re-telling it. It makes me sooo happy:) I’m so thrilled to hear you had so much traffic on your blog, Jami. That just goes to show ya that you’ve got some great things to say and people wanna…  — Read More »

I’m the opposite of this. I worry more about what my husband, mother, father…GRANDMOTHER will think when/if they read my writing. LOL I can handle a stranger reading my work, but I do still have those questions running through my head about ‘How did they find me?’ or ‘Since they don’t know me, will it hit home for them like it did for me and my best friend?’.

There’s definitely a fine line there when we’re writing. We can’t think about who’s going to read it and what they’re going to think. When I’m writing the first draft of a new story, I always keep telling myself that it’s for my eyes *only*. That way, I’m keeping my husband, family and friends out of my brain so I can pull the best work and voice possible out of myself during that critical creation process.

Another great post, Jami!!! :o)

I know how that feels. Mainly I feel really nervous in the sense of “is it good enough?” I’m hypercritical of my work and am always second-guessing myself. It’s an ongoing struggle while I write. So when someone completely new, who’s never read anything of mine, reads my work…I can feel my heart pounding in my throat.
Also, the “what will my mother think” mindset…well, you’re totally correct. You have to completely abandon all sense of holding yourself back in consideration of a certain audience. I grew up having a strong respect for my parents in that I would never – and still don’t – swear around them (the major ones, of course). But in my writing I try to capture realistic dialog where appropriate, which entails swearing.
If I thought “what would my parents think” every time I were writing, it’d stifle that desire to make characters genuine. Admittedly, I do not get nervous about a first-time reader misinterpreting my work or it not fitting into their preferred genre…more that I’m nervous they won’t think it’s industry-skill-level in quality.
Good post.

LOL – when you DM’ed me, I didn’t know what to think Jami. I’m like, “What the hell did she say?” No worries. I think it’s hilarious that you would get nervous about me reading a “hot” scene. I was embarrassed when you read my work, but that was because I knew it wasn’t anywhere close to publish ready. I don’t get nervous about “what” I write, but I do get nervous about “how” I write it. I’m a grammar goober (opposite of a grammar Nazi), so I know I’m constantly doing thing incorrectly. I am reading the books you recommended on grammar and trying to improve on my craft.

I will make one exception on my nervousness regarding the “what” I write, and that’s if my mother reads something with bad language. She’ll stop flat in a book if it has bad language, so I’m not sure how I’m going to get around that one.

Anyway, no worries on the romance scenes Jami. I’m still your beta buddy. 😉

Kerry

I actually do okay when strangers read my work. I get tied up in knots when members of my family or close friends read it. I waffled for a while about advertising my blog on my FB page because I was afraid of their reaction, but I finally sucked it up and started posting.

Such an interesting question, Jami. I think I worry more about the people I know reading my work than strangers, and in that sense can sometimes curtail what I’m writing because of that worry.

It IS always interesting to me to see what a stranger thinks, though. And I learn so much about POV from their responses, because someone else will see it so totally different than another or than from me. I’ll put myself into their perspective, see what they mean, and learn a lot about how important POV is. 🙂

Hi Jami!

I write for me and have no problem with anyone reading my stuff. I’m not sure that’s a good thing though, because you do grow-up fast when you put yourself out there.

Murphy

For me, it’s more “what will my grandparents think.” They totally support me, but….ha ha.

I know that by the time wy WIP is finally finished it will have been edited, rewritten, reworked etc. so that the final product will indeed be something that many people will enjoy.
I know very well that some people will hate it, others will point out mistakes, and some will call it garbage but since I have done my very best there will be more that like it than don’t.
Yes I have confidence in myself, probably because some of my previous works have been published and I know what to expect–to a small degree anyways.

Let the strangers in!
I Welcome them.

The idea of strangers reading my work is nerve wrecking. I went through that the first time I posted a flash on my blog. I still do everytime, but it is a lot better now. My family – I worry so much about their reaction that none of then even know about the blog. And there is nothing offensive on the blog, where the wip might be (my mc has some serious issues)