Writers & Readers: Learning to trust

An interview with writer Gabrielle Korn on resisting the urge to connect too many dots, queer stories, and trust.

Hey friends,

Years ago, a professor gave our crowded classroom some advice that made everyone laugh. Advice that I still think about randomly, especially when editing or trying to write my way into a story.

She said something along the lines of: write for your smartest friend who’s had a couple of beers.

I’ve heard different variations of this advice over the years— “Write for [insert here]”—but for some reason, this is the one that surfaces in my mind most. Maybe it’s because I can picture some friends who fit the bill. Friends who are always up for brainstorming, dreaming, scheming, or just for a good laugh, especially after their first beer or glass of wine.

The general message behind this type of advice seems to be about learning to trust your readers. They don’t need to be “babied”, in fact, they usually arrive to your work like that smart friend: curious and eager to hear more. They’re probably following the story better than you think, but they might need guidance every once in a while.

In our interview today with the talented Gabrielle Korn, I found myself thinking about this advice from a few years ago, and this idea of trusting not just readers, but also your own instinct as an artist.

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Here’s a little bit about Gabrielle:

Gabrielle Korn is the author of the essay collection Everybody (Else) Is Perfect, the novel Yours For The Taking, and its forthcoming sequel, The Shutouts.

Most recently she served as the editorial and publishing lead of Most, Netflix’s digital home for queer storytelling. Under her leadership, Most doubled in size in under a year, launched its first-ever podcast, and won Webby awards. She's known for her work as the Editor-in-Chief of Nylon Media (2017-2019) and at Refinery29 where she was the Director of Fashion & Culture.

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Hey Gabrielle, thanks for doing this with me! I’m going to start with the same question I asked Andrew last week… What have you learned about the writer-reader relationship since publishing your first book Everybody (Else) is Perfect a few years ago?

When I was writing my first book, I think I was overly concerned with what readers would think of me—if they would like me or not.

What I didn't understand was that the thing about a good memoir is that it gets readers to think more deeply about themselves, not about the author. 

That’s a great point. (I just finished Leslie Jamison’s new book SPLINTERS and was definitely reflecting on my own life as a writer and partner while reading.) Did this change at all for you when you started writing fiction? How do you think about audience now after the publication of your first novel?

With Yours for the Taking, I was surprised at what readers latched onto and how everyone seemed to have read a different book.

One person would call it plot-driven and the next would call it character-driven; one would say it was a book about ideas, and the next would say it was a book about relationships. Everyone was having a completely different experience with it, which was so cool to hear about. I realized at a certain point that it's not my job to tell readers what the book is and what they should take from it. 

When I was writing The Shutouts, I had to resist the urge to connect too many dots for the readers. By now I've learned that they don't want things spelled out for them, and I tried to honor that. 

All that being said—because my debut was a pandemic release, I feel like I'm just starting to understand what writer/reader relationships can be! So much of it has been online for me, and I'm really looking forward to continuing to meet readers IRL. 

I think having so many readers take different things from your book is a huge compliment! Is there something one of these readers (or others) have said that’s stayed with you? And if so, how did it affect the way you approach your work?

Early reader reviews for Yours for the Taking really harped on how queer the book is, and that really stuck with me!

People were like—and this is paraphrased—I like this book but I don't understand why everyone had to be queer. I guess I should have seen that coming, but it was still surprising. 

It made me double down on keeping the books as queer as possible, honestly. The more people took issue with it, the more important it felt to do. 

I love that you’re leaning into what you know is important. I don’t think that’s easy to do at all.

This is a slight pivot, but you have such an interesting background in media at Most, NYLON, Refinery29, and Netflix. From the little I know, media seems to be hyper-focused on reaching specific audiences. Did your professional experience affect the way you think about it?

This is such a fun question because I often think that I know too much about audience work. I've seen behind the curtain and it's not cute.

Basically, the problem with creating work for an audience is that they'll probably hate it. Even if you check all the boxes you know they are looking for, because your research has told you so, it's never going to land the way you think it will. I think that's because people are extra hard on things that are created with them in mind.

I thought about audience a lot while I was writing Yours for the Taking, and I'm honestly not sure if that concern made it a better book. I mostly just didn't want to offend anyone. Another way of thinking about that is that I didn't trust my readers not to get offended.

The truth is you can't control how people will react to your work, so you just have to write what you want to write. That's how I approached The Shutouts, and I think because of that, it's much more nuanced.

That’s so true. I’ve been thinking a lot about trust lately—trusting your readers, but also trusting your gut and instinct with a story. It’s a bizarre process writing a book!

What’s one thing you think most readers don’t realize about being a writer? 

I think readers have so much more power over our lives than they realize! We would be nothing without them; our careers literally depend on them. I try to always DM people back because I'm honestly just so grateful that they've read it.

So if you like a book and you want that author to be able to keep writing books, the best things to do are to post about it, rate it somewhere public, and recommend it to your friends. 

^^^^^

I’m just going to leave the little carrots there ha. I think that’s one of the biggest things I’ve realized, too. It means the world when someone takes the time to do one of those things.

Okay, a few more quick ones. Do you read differently now that you’re a writer? If so, how?

Becoming an author has absolutely cured me of the desire to publicly criticize other peoples' books. So when I'm reading, if I don't like something, I mostly keep it to myself these days.

What’s it like to write a series… did you have to think a lot about the audience when returning to the world to write a sequel, The Shutouts?

I did think a lot about the audience when writing the sequel! The first book ends with a couple heading towards each other, and I hear a lot of frustration from readers about it. They wanted the payoff of the moment they found each other, and it's just not in that first book.

I had to decide whether or not to immediately give them what they wanted in book two or to drag it out a little bit and torture everyone (the good kind of torture). You can guess which one I did.

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Thanks for reading. I hope if you’re writing or working on something new, whatever that may be, that you can trust your gut, your instincts, and your audience this week.

See you next time,

Charlee