Why did Sir Arthur Conon Doyle kill Sherlock Holmes? What does George R.R. Martin owe his fans? Storytelling demands a pact between a writer and a reader: a sacred trust, yet often a devil’s bargain.

Once upon a time, Neil Gaiman famously wrote, “George R. R. Martin is not your bitch.”  Being Neil Gaiman, he immediately explained himself more politely and thoroughly. But this idea, that the writer doesn’t owe the world the story it demands, is an interesting one and runs counter to many threads from both fiction’s past and our current social media driven popular culture.

It’s about expectations, reasonable or otherwise, and I think trust is a big component. What one person, be it a writer or reader, thinks they are owed can be wildly entitled or quite modest. Writers and readers need each other, and with a little reflection can find some grounds for empathy.

The Reader’s Expectations

Reasonable Expectations (According to Me)

Some of the things I feel justified in expecting from any story:

A Visually Appealing Experience

Illustrations, cover design, and book design need to be at least inoffensive and at best beautiful. (Yes, art preferences are subjective, but readers expect to see industry standards, even if they don’t know what they are.)

An Error-Free Text

Nothing is perfect, and typos and such get by in every publication. But this needs to be a very rare event for me to feel like I can trust the product.

Honesty

If the writer is a robot, I expect that to be clear in the book blurb. The same with reworked or imagined stories, parodies, etc. A wrinkle from the world of e-books is that a short story can look just like a novel in an electronic thumbnail, thus disappointing the reader. And it should go without saying that, even under fair use laws, the original creator is gratefully acknowledged.

A Narrative Voice that Inspires Confidence

This is a nebulous feeling, and it may be unique to me. It is hard to describe but I know it when I read it. To be blunt, the book reads like a “real” book. And yes, by that I mean the commercially published books of the past, which include wide varieties in genre, style, language, etc. Charles Dickens and China Miéville are very different writers, but I trust both to create books that pull off the proposed fictive dream and see me safely to the other side.

Unreasonable Expectations

Consumers often unreasonably expect:

The Story to Conform to the (Most Vocal) Audience Pre-Conceived Ideas

A feature of the social media age is the ability of fans to find each other to discuss and speculate about their favorite fiction. Promotional efforts encourage these interactions! Such anticipation is a natural part of multi-book stories and movie adaptations of books. But the phenomenon can be a two-edged sword when the fandom hive mind becomes so entrenched in its beliefs about the story. The actual creators (writers, actors, showrunners, etc.) find themselves vilified for any different, unexpected direction the tale may take. Of course, honest critiques and reviews of the story—as written, not as imagined by the audience before it was ever presented—are legitimate, sometimes helpful, input.

For the Writer to Avoid Challenging the Audience

A corollary unreasonable expectation that readers/viewers sometimes have is that their favorite material will never challenge them. For example, a few, very vocal, fans of Marvel comics have lots of issues with the movie adaptations. Case in point: Captain Marvel. (Samuel L. Jackson defends Brie Larson.)

I know I’ve been challenged by the direction of creative works—Walking Dead and Orange is the New Black are two examples that spring to mind. However, those choices were the creators’ vision of their work, and they are free to follow their muse. I’m also free to make my own choice to stop watching. Not every story is for everyone, and consumer-story compatibility may change through time. (It’s not you, it’s me.)

Installments of the Story to be Available on an Unrealistic Timetable

A writer can only work at the pace they can work. Output varies among writers due to differences in paid staff, competing responsibilities, and work routines. Maybe they just think slowly. Or whatever. While a writer may have legal, contractual obligations to a publisher, they don’t owe the fans a new story.

However, a caveat for the writer—Don’t be cruel. Teasing the reader isn’t nice. Raising expectations via public statements isn’t fair, although every promotion and marketing plan will include a good six months of drumbeating over coming works.

Next time we’ll talk about the writer’s expectations of the reader, both reasonable and unreasonable. Tell me about your expectations of readers or expectations you perceive that drive you crazy. Comment on the blog by going to the website, clicking the name of the blog, then scrolling down for the dialogue box. I’d love to chat.

If you enjoyed this post, you might like to read about what cool things story does for the readers’ brain.

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