Writing my story for me…or my readers?

When I sit down and my fingers began to fly over the keyboard, what am I thinking? Plot? Characters? Action? or Readers? To be honest, it is a combination of all of those. I write the story the way I see it. My characters speak the way I hear them in my head and the action flows as I see it in my mind. But what about my readers? About 90% of my reviews on Amazon are glowing – the readers love my stories and tell me they can’t wait until the next one. But what about the others? Some say my alpha heroes curse too much. My reply would be, have you ever been around young men in the military? I have. Believe me…cursing is second nature to them. While I don’t want my stories to be offensive, my alpha heroes will curse. Some say there is too much sex. In a typical novel of mine that is about 350 pages long, there are probably 15 pages of sex scenes (average – some more, some less). So 5% or less of the book is a sex scene. I hardly call that excessive. I have read many novels where the sex scenes go on for MUCH longer! But in my books, the sex is descriptive…but in a way that allows the reader to image the intense emotions and feelings that are occurring. They are not just a random biological rendition of the sex act! A few readers will bemoan that the story isn’t realistic. I write fiction. They hero always gives his all for the heroine. My heroine is smart and works to help others. They are people we would like to meet, but perhaps their flaws are played down more so than in real life. When I am writing, I do sometimes wonder if readers will think the pace is too slow or too fast.
And sometimes all of these thoughts crowd into my consciousness and bring the writing process to a halt. So here is what I have learned to do. I write my stories. My way. I have them professionally edited (both content, line by line, and proofread). I want to deliver a quality product to my readers. Will they all like my work? No. And some quickly get on Amazon leaving scathing reviews about what they did not like. But again, most of my readers love the stories so I have to push the doubts away.
If you are a loyal reader…there’s so much more to come!