To write or not to write...

I was cruising around the writing.com forums last night and came upon an interesting topic. The original thread creator in the forum had wrote a poem and kept receiving reviews on formatting it with stanzas. The creator of the thread then asked if other authors were questioned to change their own works.

There were a lot of intriguing posts about it doesn't matter or it does but one poster in particular said that if the reader's want something to be changed, as an author you should change it because you do not write for yourself.

I would have to say I'm in disagreement with that statement - to a point. Yes, I can agree with changing something as simple as stanzas but as authors we are given a creative license to write stories as we wish. That is, if a group of fans say our trilogy should end a certain way, and not the way we originally intended, that we should write it as the fans want it.

Now, I'm not saying fans ideas shouldn't be taken into consideration. But there is a fine line on how much an author should change just for the sake of their fans. For example, in Book Two, there may be a death that not every person reading Book Two will agree with. Am I going to change that death because my fans don't like it? No. That would completely change the story and make Book Three a mote point. How the story is told, is how it was meant to be told.

Authors can't make ALL their readers happy, that would be impossible. Somewhere, someone is going to hate something in the particular story and author is writing and well, that person is just going to have to deal with it. I mean, they all ready bought and read the story in question, so isn't that enough? Even if they hate a certain part of it, the story affected them so much so, that they DID develop this hatred. And, isn't the whole point of writing to have someone express emotion over one's works?

Don't get me wrong, I'll take all sorts of suggestions and criticism for anything I write. I might not necessarily change it, but I will consider the idea and wonder if that idea might fit better. And there has been times when something someone has suggested actually does make it into a story.

I would like to say to all authors: Don't be hesitant to write something a certain way just because readers do not like it. It's your tale, let it be told as it is meant to.

To readers: Don't hate the author because your favorite character dies or something happens that you do not like. They made you FEEL after all and that should be appreciated. If you are going to hate an author, hate them for a generic/overused plot, 2d characters, poor grammar, or lack of creativity.