August 2026 Newsletter: Finding My Audience
When people find out I’m a writer, most ask what I write about. I start with the short answer - literary fiction, character-based storytelling. If they want more, I tell them I write mostly about women. Complicated, flawed, real women. They make mistakes, they have doubts, and they don’t always want to do the right thing.
But truthfully, that doesn’t land with every reader.
When I attended a literary conference a few months ago, one of the speakers on the panel mentioned a repeated experience of having their female characters criticized within the publishing realm for not being “nice” enough. They were told to water them down a bit, to remove some of the jagged edges, to make them kinder and more giving. This critique resonated right down to my toenails. I’ve also heard it, and although I’ve applied heaps of constructive feedback (gratefully), reducing the complexity of my female characters to obey the shape of a certain societal mold never sat right with me. This is especially true when I’m writing what they feel and think, not just what they do.
Recently, I decided to post about this because part of being an author is finding your voice, but the other part is finding your audience. It’s okay that my characters don’t speak to every reader, but I also know there are readers for whom they will. Here’s what I said:
This post certainly didn’t explode in popularity, but I did find that people who rarely responded suddenly showed up. Had I struck a nerve? Especially among women? Are women (myself included) seeking characters that reflect our own complex emotions around social expectations, caregiving and responsibility? Characters who might ultimately meet the world’s expectations, but not without a struggle?
I regularly seek out novels where I’m immersed in the thoughts and feelings and conflicts within a character. This fictional internal dialogue often acts as a bridge to other people in the real world, because those are things frequently not said in real spaces. When things are hard, we often put on a brave face and pretend that they aren’t. When we feel ashamed of our own insecurities or failings or battles, we stay quiet and discuss the weather. When we don’t understand our own conflicting emotions, we rarely discuss them, or even admit them. These are things that happen on the inside. And this is where fiction meets the world.
Sometimes characters are not immediately likable. Perhaps they lash out or have a a litany of excuses or are selfish and resentful. Those are not things that make me stop reading, because sometimes those same feelings and behaviours are tangled up with love and devotion in ways that paralyze them, or make them act unreasonably. As a reader, it’s a character’s growth and change that matter to me more than likability. That’s what ties me to their success. That’s what makes them real.
My debut novel, Fault Lines, explores one woman’s internal battle with a complicated past when pulled into role of caregiver for family she wants nothing to do with. Her stepmother is dying. Her father has dementia. Memories surface, and Nadia would do anything not to be there. But then her daughter disappears, and everything she doesn’t want to face is suddenly imminent. She has a choice. Come to terms with her family’s past, or risk her daughter’s future.
Is Nadia always likeable? Perhaps not. Is she real? That’s where you, as a reader, will decide.
FAULT LINES RELEASE:
Preorder: September 1st
Release Date: November 1st
Book Launch Event: November 8th
The bookstore on my website will launch on September 1st for preorders!
Love & Best Wishes
Shirley