Category: The Artist & The Audience

Categories
The Artist & The Audience

How To Set Boundaries and Not Overshare Online

In the online community, there’s a lot of discussion about being honest. Being authentic. Not creating a fake idealized image of yourself to present to the world.

And yet, whether or not you straight-up lie on social media, you’re going to be faking it to some degree. Maybe not actually faking it, but you’re going to be curating  it. You are going to be presenting yourself a certain way, and you’re not going to be %100 transparent. Ever.

But is that a bad thing? If you’re a creative, you have a certain understanding that art is probably over half presentation. You choose and refine how you present your subject matter. Dumping a truckload of bricks doesn’t result in a great work of architecture. For the same reason, carefully selecting that kinds of things you share online is not just in your nature as an artist, it’s actually the smart move when you’re running a social media presence that will be connected to your work. 

Being Human Online

In case you haven’t noticed, cyberspace isn’t like the physical world. The gurus will say you need to be human on social media. What they won’t tell you is there’s a slightly different strain of humanity that rears its head there. It has the attention span of a goldfish, it gets offended like a nest of hornets, it misunderstands everything, and it needs everyone’s attention 24/7.

Nobody is human online. That’s okay, but it also means you need to think twice or three times about how you present yourself if you want to survive, keep your friends, and build your reputation on the right things.

When it comes down to it, you really don’t want to share too much of your “true self.”

Reasons why you might not want to share too much of yourself:

  • Privacy—duh

You don’t owe anyone vulnerability. That’s the hard truth. You have a right to keep certain things—anything you want—to yourself. You also don’t have to explain why. Some of it might be for your personal safety, other things could just be details you don’t feel the need to share. You might consider them unhelpful or distasteful to your audience. Or you might just be shy and reclusive. You are allowed to have those personality traits. A lot of artists do.

  • Pressure

Sometimes I feel like I have to give updates on all my projects and tell everyone approximately how soon I hope to get them done. I really want to break this habit, because it puts a lot of totally unnecessary pressure on me. Unless I’m collaborating with someone, nobody really needs that information. I’m just setting up deadlines and forcing myself to feel like my whole audience is holding me accountable, when in fact, nobody really cares that much.

Which brings me to…

  • The real risk of boring people

Okay, I know it sounds harsh, but one of the fastest ways to bore people is to talk about yourself. And the more detailed it gets, the less people ae inclined to hear you out. And you also need to pay attention to the interests of your niche. Why would anybody care what you ate today? If you’re not a health and nutrition blogger, your followers are just going to wonder what that’s got to do with anything.

I know in the age of social media, with everyone essentially making reality tv-shows out of their day-to-day existence, a lot of people have lost their sense of what should be their business only. I thought of a little test you can use that might put that in perspective.

What if the paparazzi were the ones behind the camera?

It becomes really annoying/creepy when you think about it that way. Beat it! I’m just trying to eat lunch. I’m at the gym, get off my back, would ya? I’ve had a terrible day and am literally shut in my bedroom crying—Cut. The. Cameras.

Set some hard boundaries for yourself if you ever feel pressured to overshare online. Choose some things you just won’t broadcast and stick to it. What kinds of things?

Things you might want to consider keeping to yourself:

  • Family news

Some people feel okay about updating the whole world on not just their own milestones and significant events, but also those of their family members. I draw a line here. I might not even tell Instagram if I get married—I certainly won’t be sharing endless carousels and reels of wedding pictures. It’s very standard for most people, but I’m also a little uncomfortable with the way people post pictures and updates on their babies and kids. Unless I have a private personal account, I won’t be doing that. It’s not going to happen on my author account—ever.

  • Physical and mental health

Another one I choose to avoid. It’s different if you’re a health and wellness account and the information is relevant—otherwise, that’s personal information. As an author, you won’t catch be babbling on about my latest illness, doctor’s visits, or how much weight I’ve gained or lost over the summer. My mental wellbeing is also something I prefer to keep to a very limited circle of people who care the most and could actually help me if I needed something. Though these things can affect my art and my productivity, I don’t think it’s something we should feel like we have to explain to our audience. They know we’re humans. We don’t have to prove it.

  • Travel plans

These first three points are debatable, and whether or not you share on these topics will depend on your niche. If you’re a mommy blogger it might be logical (within certain common-sense limits) to share about your kids. If you’re a health blogger, it would make sense to discuss your own health journeys. If you’re a travel-blogger, you’re probably going to talk a lot about your travels. But there is actually a practical precaution to take when you’re telling the world where you’re going to be, and when. It can become a safety issue, so use discretion.

  • Uncertain plans

Remember what I mentioned about putting unnecessary pressure on yourself? This one is hard for me, because I get very enthusiastic over newly-formed plans and if they relate to my niche—as they often do—I will be very tempted to go on Instagram and scream about them to everybody. Guys, guys, guys! I’m gonna do a thing! Read all about it! But I also change plans and timelines for plans every other day. It’s like making a promise and not being able to keep it. Even if my audience doesn’t really care, it takes the wind out of my sails and makes me feel unprofessional. I’m working on this one. Though I think a lot of creatives probably relate to my slightly manic tendencies.

  • Every little up and down

Once again—you owe it to no one to prove you’re human. If they don’t assume as much, that’s their problem, not yours. You don’t have to get on stories everyday and tell everybody exactly what you’re doing and how you feel about it every other hour. You’re having a blissful afternoon? Great. Enjoy it. You’re down in the dumps again? I actually recommend you stay as far away from social media as you can, in that case. It won’t help. Your son’s team won? Your cousin is getting engaged and you now feel like a languishing old maid, alas, alack? You’ll process all these things better without worrying about likes and comments, trust me.

  • Controversial opinions

What?! Not share controversial opinions on social media? Isn’t that what social media is for? Dividing people along ideological lines and having silent screaming matches with total strangers? Okay, so the truth is, every opinion will offend somebody, so this one can’t be completely avoided. But as an artist, I’ve prioritized being known for my work, not my opinions. If you want to be one of those artists who addresses “issues” you can do that. But choose your issues wisely, and don’t pick every possible fight. You will burn out and you will make a lot of enemies. Also, hold whatever opinions you want, but if you want to take a stand on something, make sure it’s something you don’t mind being permanently associated with. You may want to be known as an advocate for adoption, but you might not want to be too loud and outspoken on your hearty support of capital punishment, for example.  

The value of mystery and art speaking for itself

One more thing. Doesn’t anybody care about being mysterious?

Aren’t people who have their secrets, lead lives of their own, and maybe don’t voice their opinions at every opportunity automatically cooler? No?

For me, and maybe for you too, I want to be known for my work. I write books. I want people to find out about me when they read them. That way, I can share my thoughts and feelings with the world by a process that lets people experience them, not just hear about them. But most of all, I want my art to be about something bigger than me and the details of my own journey. It should be something that helps people understand themselves, the world and God.

You can make your online presence an extension of that. And as a result, you can see yourself as creating art every time you compose a new post on Instagram. And your art is whatever you want it to be.

Categories
The Artist & The Audience

The Rise of “Gritty” Christian Fiction

If you’re reading this post, you probably know what “gritty” Christian fiction is. You might even write it yourself. In fact, there’s a good chance you consider yourself a gritty Christian author.

We all know the story. None of us were satisfied with Christian fiction growing up. No variety. Cookie-cutter stories about cookie-cutter people with cookie-cutter problems. In the end, there was always a cookie-cutter solution. Boring.

Then we grew up and became authors. Now we take matters into our own hands and write the books we needed when we were younger. As a result—with the help of the explosion of indie and small press publishing—we now are living in a world with rapidly diversifying Christian fiction. Fresh tropes, rare genres, unique characters—there’s literally a whole press dedicated to Christian speculative fiction, which was once a rarity. Horizons expand every day.

One particular horizon is the world of “gritty” Christian fiction. These new books don’t shy away from the tough issues. They’re not afraid to show evil as it truly is or address the ugliest problems society has to offer.

But there are some myths circulating in the gritty Christian fiction community. I’d like to tackle them first off.

Myth #1 Gritty Christian Fiction is More Realistic

Actually it isn’t. If you think about it, all fiction has things it cuts out and things the author chooses to focus on. That selective focus is a major part of writing a cohesive story. Real life is overloaded with elements you could be paying attention to—and yet you only look at so many things at one time. Otherwise, you start to go crazy and will probably end up in a coma from overstimulation.

What an author chooses to focus on and how much detail they decide to portray it in is entirely up to them. In the end, it doesn’t have anything to do with the realism of the story.

What actually makes a story feel believable or unbelievable are things like chains of cause and effect, character actions and motivations, and pacing. A reader can forgive the omission of certain details as long as the author has a good grip on those things. Unfortunately, I’ve read too much fiction by Christian writers claiming they added grit to be realistic, but bombed out pretty badly on actually writing a realistic story.

Myth #2 Gritty Content is Deeper and More Meaningful

This one gets implied a lot, and it bothers me. Just because a story includes depictions of alcoholism, abuse, eating disorders, mental illness, or sexual assault doesn’t make it meaningful.

“But it’s raising awareness.” Most of us are already aware, so it has to do a little more than that. I’m sure the definition of “deep” and “meaningful” is relative and subjective, but factually a book with all the gritty issues covered could be a total farce if it’s executed badly. The grit isn’t going to save it.

Whereas a book that was “squeaky-clean” by most people’s standards and had no content warnings could actually be an intensely moving, life-changing, world-shaking story. The argument that a story has to be dark to be deep is usually a strawman that relies on claiming anything else is “fluffy” and “watered-down.” And we’ll get around to how handy this rhetoric is later.

Myth #3 Gritty Christian Fiction is Daring and Unique

This is my favorite myth. Most authors I have noticed branding themselves as “gritty” seem to think they’re a rarity. The truth is, they’re really not. It’s kind of like the “not like other girls” complex. Everyone has it.

Quite possibly every work of Christian fiction I have ever read includes some dark, serious or unsettling element. But then again, I haven’t read a lot of those feel-good clean romances off the mainstream Christian market. But that’s for the Hallmark audience. They have the right to exist, too. Still, it’s simply not true that grit doesn’t come up in Christian fiction quite frequently.

In fact, I’d say including big issues like the ones mentioned above is almost a trend right now. I see a lot of authors use hashtags like #mentalhealthrep #disabilitiesrep and #enddomesticabuse in posts promoting their books. It’s a quick way to draw attention to the themes of your book. (And I’m not knocking it. It’s a good shortcut to getting people to care about your story when they’re too lazy to read a blurb.) What I’m saying is, these authors are not outliers. There’s quite a community.

The Problem with Branding Yourself as a Gritty Christian Author

In spite of the apparent advantages of branding your work as “gritty,” there are actually some major problems with leaning too heavily on that image as a brand-identity.

First of all, it’s too subjective.  How gritty are you, really? Everyone is going to come in with different expectations when they start reading a gritty piece of fiction. (This goes for “clean” Christian authors too. No one is going to have the same standards.)

The second issue is it can actually start a little drama within your would-be community. Being particularly vocal about your opinions of “clean” vs.. “gritty” fiction can wind up with you, intentionally or unintentionally putting other Christian authors and readers down. That’s something you probably should avoid if you want any friends.

Lastly, and I’ll repeat myself here, no, it really isn’t that unique. You have to find what truly gives you your own inimitable flair when it comes to branding. If you put all your emphasis on something too many others in your community are emphasizing, you’re going to blend in.

Putting in the work of finding your true brand-identity as an artist is very important, and actually a lot of fun. I’d recommend you check out this post to get started.

If You Want to Write Gritty Content

So, am I against writing about tough issues and including gritty content in Christian fiction? No. Definitely not.

By all means, tackle the tough issues. Hey, some people might even consider my work gritty. It’s entirely up to you what you write about, and God definitely wants Christians to address the hard things in life. But I do have a few quick words of advice if you’re going to write gritty fiction.

Respect your reader’s right to object to your content. Some people are going to be uncomfortable with some of what you write. They might give you bad reviews or DNF you. Never lash out at readers. You’re not a politician. You don’t need to argue, explain or publicly defend yourself. You’re an artist. It’s okay if you’re not universally liked or understood. You’re not here to win people over to your side and score points. Your real readers will find you.

Here’s one more thing to consider: You may or may not want to brand yourself as an “issue writer.” I’ll do a whole post on this sometime. But You might have to decide if you’d rather be an artist or an activist. If the issues you’re trying to bring to light become the point over and above creating great fiction, it might end up hurting your development as a creative. This is happening in a lot of western mainstream entertainment right now.

I guess what I’m saying here is, don’t become a propaganda machine. This is the real reason a lot of Christian media crashes and burns. Not because they’re not talking about real-world problems, but because they’re preaching about them instead of telling stories.

“Clean” or “gritty” it has to be about the story.

Categories
The Artist & The Audience

Art from Empathy

 

One night I was up rather late, as I often am, and I was thinking. You’ve probably played with this idea a bit yourself—you know, the one where you start to wonder if anybody is experiencing remotely the same reality. Do we see colors the same hue? Hear sounds the same pitch? Do some people like blue cheese because it literally doesn’t taste the way it does when I eat it? How would we ever know?

  But what was interesting about my thought train that evening was what I started to wonder next. A switch was thrown somewhere along the line, and it all went in reverse. A second possibility dawned on me—one that was somehow even more stunning, at least at that time of night.

  What if everyone’s reality is very much the same?

  What if being you actually feels a lot like being me? What if the air we breathe, the water we drink, the stars we look up at on clear nights—what if it all comes in through the same basic human filters? What if the way we navigate our days is really a lot like any other human brother or sister? Haven’t you ever lain awake and thought to yourself—wow, you know, I could have been born anyone? I could have been born anywhere, any race, any time period, and more than likely I would lie awake one night just like this, wondering why.

  “Write what you know.” That’s what people say. In fact, if you dare to branch out into territory you may not have directly experienced, a lot of people these days will make it a moral issue and maul you for it. #ownvoices. Are you a man? Don’t even try writing a female character. Are you white? You have no idea how to portray a non-white character. If you don’t have a certain disability there is absolutely no way you can write a character with that disability fairly and accurately. You just don’t understand. YOU WILL NEVER UNDERSTAND.

  Recently, I came across this quote.

  “Writers don’t write from experience, although many are hesitant to admit they don’t. …If you wrote from experience, you’d get one book, maybe three poems. Writers write from empathy.” –Nikki Giovanni

  I’ve written a lot of characters who are not me. Some people would be really upset about that. Some people are offended by the idea that other people might, in fact, be able to imagine what they go through. They don’t want to consider the possibility that all human experiences might be rooted in things common to all human experience. They want to divide people by gender, race, age, economic status, disability…anything—everything. I don’t know why. But that kind of alienation is the enemy of art.

  When you read a book with a great lead character, you find yourself slipping into that character’s skin without even questioning it. You no longer care if they’re rich or poor, black or white, male or female. You bond to them and live their story. And, more than likely, you come to understand it. No, you’ve never been there. But because the artist took you there, you empathize. And you empathize because the author was empathetic toward the character—not because the author and the character necessarily had anything in common.

  A lot of artists spend more time inside their own heads than anywhere else. The ability to create art gives us a much-needed way to connect with the world outside. It’s a miracle, actually. And even an imperfect attempt to understand others and see through their eyes should be respected. Because through empathy-driven art, it’s possible to let go of the barriers we have built between us, and see ourselves in each other.

 

Categories
The Artist & The Audience

The Great Audience Question

Over the weekend I read a book by another Christian dystopian author named Angela R.Watts. The book is called The Divided Nation and is the first of a series called The Infidel Books. I’d been watching this book for a while as it made its way around Goodreads, reading review, visiting the author’s blog and website and learning about her mission. All authors should have a mission. There needs to be something bigger under the stories you tell that you want to reach the world with. Watts has a well-defined mission, and that’s what attracted me to her book. 


Having a mission can help you overcome what might be the biggest hurdle of being a writer. That’s the question of who you’re speaking to—The Great Audience Question.


A lot of times, authors go in thinking finding an audience is simple. I did this, for sure. There’s a market for dystopia, right? Christian dystopia is a growing thing, isn’t it? What young Christian reader isn’t tired of the same-old same-old in Christian fiction. People will flock to my work.


Yeah. No. Finding your audience is complicated, and it’s complicated for everyone. There are way too many kinds of people in the world who are interested in way too many kinds of books for way too many different reasons. I discovered, pretty quickly that—though Christian dystopia is a growing thing, it’s still pretty fringe among readers. You get out on the street and start talking to Christian readers, and half of them (mostly the older half) don’t even know what dystopia is. 


I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been standing in a Church lobby with a table of books and the conversation goes: “So, you write science-fiction, huh?”


“Yeah, kinda.”


*chuckles, walks away*


Slightly discouraging.


Then there’s the younger set. Dystopia is kind of a YA genre anyway. But is Dronefall really YA? Guys, I actually still don’t know for certain. In a lot of ways, it breaks too many norms. It certainly doesn’t involve much in the way of coming-of-age, romance, or any of the more recognizable “teen issues” most YA is expected to include. How off the beaten track is too far?


I started this post out by mentioning Angela R. Watts’ Divided Nation on purpose, because I believe it is another case of a slight conflict between what audiences might expect and what they get. If you’ve heard anything about The Infidel Books, you probably know the series is described as “gritty.” It includes some mild swearing and a lot of content a good percentage of the Christian readership prefers not to deal with in fiction. Because of this, the author seems to be trying to market the books as secular fiction, not intended for a Christian audience.


There’s a problem with this, though. Divided Nation is definitely Christian. I can’t imagine a non-Christian reading through it comfortably. So, we have another case where a book seems to be sitting in an uncomfortable place between potential audiences. So, who is the book for?


This will likely be a problem for any artist who steps outside of what’s expected and does something unique. The moment you step outside of expectations, you take a risk. You have to ask yourself “is this risk really worth taking? Do I really love this elements enough to possibly throw my readers for a loop by including them?” For me, the answer is yes. I love my genre and the way I’ve decided to subvert expectations with my plot and characters. I think, if people will give my work a chance, they might find they enjoy it too.


I think that’s how you have to approach audience expectations. Figure out what they are. Evaluate them. Decide what you can get away with and then go forward in faith. In the end, if you have a mission, it’s your call to follow it. Even if no one comes with you.

Privacy Policy