Writing for a broad spectrum of readers. How do you engage the elite whilst appealing to the base?
I've always struggled with this. I like to write at the top of my knowledge without leaving those not having the benefit my experience behind.
It may sound arrogant but if I write for the lowest common denominator I feel my target reader will get bored of reading (and I'll get bored of writing).
To exacerbate the issue I can use a camera-control slow-reveal opening.
"Dearly beloved . . ."
The sounds of the speech were drowned out by Emily's relentless nagging internal voice. "There is neither good nor bad, only thinking makes it so."
". . . gathered here today . . ."
"There is neither good nor bad, only thinking makes it so. There is neither good nor bad, only thinking makes it so." She'd rehearsed for this moment. It would be okay. She was just a little nervous - that's all.
". . . in the sight of God . . ."
She squeezed her eyes shut, waiting for her cue. "There is neither good nor bad, only thinking makes it so. There is neither good nor bad, only thinking makes it so. There is neither good nor bad, only thinking makes it so."
The room fell silent.
That was her cue. It was her turn to speak her line.
The internal voice intensified, repeating the same line over and over again. "There is neither good nor bad, only thinking makes it so."
The minister cleared his throat.
"There is neither . . ."
Emily drew breath to speak. "I –"
" . . . only thinking . . ."
"I . . . I don't want to go to prison!" Emily blurted out before hitching up her dress and sprinting away down the aisle.
The bang of the church door echoed as she slammed it behind her.
The minister raised his brows. "Oops."
- Some readers may have no clue what's going on.
- Other readers may understand a nervous bride has absconded on her wedding day. But may be confused by the prison option.
- The fully tuned may understand a bride who's absconded on her wedding day, and understand the option was not prison whilst assuming several aspects of her character and back-story.
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If you try to please everyone, you please no-one. Finnegan's Wake (Joyce) has gained and retained a reputation as a great classic of the English language, despite working hard at every turn to confound and confuse the reader (and arguably not even being written in real "English").
If your writing is good enough, and if you are true enough to your own personal vision, you are likely to gain at least a niche audience of passionate fans, which has been enough to keep many a book alive for centuries.
Typically, books that appeal to a broad popular audience do so because their authors are naturally at home (or have found a way to make themselves at home) with a broadly popular idiom or genre, not because they have deliberately tried to "dumb down" their work. In other words, they are attuned to the broader audience, not chasing it (and certainly not condescending to it).
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You have adopted a complicated, "elite" format, with a surprising "twist" ending to the scene. I'm not sure that you were successful, but you made your point.
You had two interlocking themes, the mundane, (that is the pastor's homily), and the "real" one. There's your distinction between the elite and the least common denominator. The mundane stuff keeps the attention of the average person, while the surprise event captures your intended audience. It'sh hard to execute well, but if you can, you can appeal to both audiences. For instance, I'm not sure how to work the prison angle into your story.
Apparently there are some writers that specialize in these surprise twists. They are hard to execute but can be very interesting when successful You might want to identify and copy these authors. I have the feeling that you are onto something, but haven't yet arrived. Your scene reminds me of one or two in Tom Wolfe's "Bonfire of the Vanities." You might want to consult that book.
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To appeal to a broad audience, write simply and directly about things of interest to a great many people. Nothing in this formula stands in the way of creating great literature. Greatness in literature depends on creating a rich and enduring experience that is deeply true and exceedingly vivid, not in complexity of language or in complex narrative techniques or stylistic innovation.
And while there clearly examples of narrative and stylistic experimentation in works commonly acknowledged to be great -- Dickens, Joyce, Cormac McCarthy for just a few examples -- this kind of experimental technique is often a substitute for having something to say. And the fact remains that the basic techniques of narrative fiction always seem to return more or less to the norm. Give or take a few flourishes Cervantes narrative technique is not fundamentally different from what is being published today. Over the history of the novel we find significant variation of theme and diction and even point of view, but the basic narrative technique is remarkable consistent. Some experiments may work in individual books -- may perhaps achieve something that could not have been achieved with standard techniques -- but they don't change the way the mainstream operates.
If the greats sometimes seem obscure today it is because they were written years ago with a narrative style that we are not used to and relying on references to events and practices that modern audiences are no longer familiar with. This is why it is often the more educated that read the greats today -- they simply have the historical knowledge and the research skills to figure this stuff out. But in its day, most of what we now consider great (in novels at least) was written for the general reading public.
When it comes to appreciating the experience provided by a great story, there is no elite and no base. There is an effete class that only likes what others do not understand (whether they understand it themselves or not), but you should never confuse the effete with the elite.
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