Know your audience, but write for yourself

I just got stuck. Not badly stuck. But sorta stuck. And I got stuck, basically, because I'm trying to write for you and not for me.

Basically the most recent two installments of Project SG (which thanks to Val now stands revealed as Spider-Girl, but I like talking about projects) haven't featured any explicit* masking or disguise related stuff. There's been talk of it, especially in the inner monologue of the main character. There's just not been no actual masking. And in the back of my mind, ever since I finished one bit and went to myself "Well that was fun, just get on to the next bit oh waitaminute I didn't put any masking in... er... whoops" I've been wondering if I should add some masking.

For you. Because I know you love it. In fact, I think it's fair to say, it's probably the partial/main/only reason you read my stuff (delete as appropriate).

So today, partially at a request from a character (They do that sometimes) and partially because I was giving in to my inner voice (Which, in reality, is sort of you, you know) I started to add a masking scene. Well kind of. It's hard to explain. The point is: it changed the plot. So suddenly I was having to replot what I'd had plotted for... well ages, now.

That means I spent the last hour staring into space - well, when I wasn't looking at YouTube for, erm, inspiration - trying to re-plot this part in my head. In the end, I realised that replotting just to get one masking scene (which wouldn't even be explicit*, again) into the story was actually just a waste of my time.

So I'm about to scrap the last bit I wrote, and go back to my original plot. Thank God, because I know where that's going, and ultimately it makes more sense when I think about the characters acting as the characters, and not just as puppets I use to make up erotic stuff.

Just for fun though - and as a bit of a teaser - here's a bit that's about to get lost in the electronic ether forever:

"I'm sorry it took me so long," Peter replied as he hugged her. After a moment, Betty stepped away from him, and picked up her discarded mask. "I guess he... has seen your face then?" Peter said.

"Worse than that," Betty said, pulling her mask back on again and smoothing it over her features. "Somehow... he seems to know who I am."

"What? But how is that possible?"

"I think he works at the Daily Bugle," Spider-Girl said in slightly deeper tones. "He knew about Liz... and very few people knew about her. That coupled with his reaction when he saw my face...." She sighed. "I'm worried he's at the Bugle right now telling JJ everything he knows."

"Perhaps," Peter conceded, "but then JJ doesn't generally entertain criminal types in his office. Well, unless they're white collar criminals...."

"What am I going to do, Peter?" Spider-Girl asked. "We had so many problems with the Chameleon... we can't go through that again. But imagine the damage he could do, the havoc he could cause in my life, knowing who I am! He could come after you, Peter... and JJ... and the rest of my family and friends."

Oh and by the way, for those of you with really long memories...? This is Issue #6 I'm quoting from. Uh-huh. I know. I only released Issue #1 and #2. This is me: SMILEY FACE.

Anyway, lesson learned? Look at the subject of this post: know your audience, but write for yourself. Sorry people, but if this is gonna work... I gotta write for me, as well as for you. Let's just hope we can both end up happy.

* By explicit, I mean actually shown... get your mind out of the gutter. I'm already lying there, so that means it's occupied.