As writer’s we  write what we are presented with. An idea or characters start to form, and we write it. When that inspiration hits, it’s the best feeling in the world. Birds sing when you walk by, the sun shines a little brighter. For me, seriously, it’s like falling in love.

Then we edit. Some people love it, some people hate it. For me, this is the time in the relationship where the honeymoon is over, and now we’re starting to fight and argue. We fight, we make up…sometimes. But now the scars are there. It’s make it or break it time. If we can make it through the editing process, we can make it through anything, and hopefully we’ll be better and stronger on the other side.

Then, we send it out, get an agent and a huge advance and a multi book publishing deal. We start hanging out with big time authors and having millions of people worship us. For me…ok, I don’t know what that’s like yet, but I’ll bet it’s awesome.

Basically, we write because we love it and we can’t NOT do it. If we’re honest with ourselves, we write for ourselves, NOT for other people. We hope beyond hope that other people, (besides our writing group buddies) like reading our work too, because if we are to make a LIVING off of our writing, it’s essential that other people like it. But, what do readers really want?

As a reader, my must haves are plot and character. Style is important, but secondary. I love a good turn of phrase, but if there’s no plot and character, so what?

As a reader, what’s important to you?

Here’s an interesting article by Salon’s own Laura Miller on that very topic.

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