When Readers go Bonkers

Recently, on one of the many social media platforms that I use, a worried author described a frightening scene. One of his readers was offended by something described in his novel and went to the extent of burning his book! The poor author asked us whether this was his fault and if he should think about how his writing may cause people to act. This is a topic that every author seems to have a different opinion about. In this post I will describe how I feel.

The Authors Responsibility

Something all writers have a responsibility to do is produce feelings within our readers. We should aim to create suspense, drama, and plot twists in our writing in order to surprise and interest our readers. At times our readers will feel fear, sadness, even disgust at what we write. However, this is exactly what we want! These feelings are part of the reason why our readers will keep reading our books. They want to feel for the characters and know what will happen next. As writers, it is our responsibility to give readers a thrilling read with all the ups and downs that come with it.

The Reader's a Looney

So back to mister crazy reader, burning books that 'offend' him. In my opinion this has nothing to do with the author. Sure the author has produced those feelings within the reader but isn't that exactly what we want to do? If a reader reacts poorly to what we have written (especially in fiction) then that is their problem not ours. We have done our job, the reader should see a shrink… simple.

So, the author's job is to create a book which is entertaining to read. George RR Martin became a bestselling author because he invoked emotions within his readers, however, there are some aspects to his books that people may have (and probably did) get offended by. George doesn't change his writing just because people may get offended and neither should we. We shouldn't worry about how a reader may react (unless you're getting threats) and just continue doing what we must; writing great stories!

Scarlett Van Dijk

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