Are there actually any readers here?

From the look of the post or lack of posts in here I actually wonder if any readers come here anymore. If so, what would you like to see in this group. Have all the "Drive By Authors" managed to kill this group? RIP

When interesting* topics come up I'll chime in a ha'penny

*about world-building, concepts and interactions, etc what I want to read, not necessarily what authors need.

Thank you, reading_fox, for responding. I was about to conclude that this group, and many others, were dead. Sadly, I hate to see that. I actually enjoy the discussions, and maybe the group can become more active.

I was here as a lurker, but I left for a while and have only now poked my head back in. I'm always interested in hearing why writers write what they do and why they make particular editorial and stylistic choices for their work, but since I'm not a writer myself, nor do I have any aspirations to be, I skip over threads that deal with how to succeed as an author and other related topics.

This group could maybe benefit from more topics along the lines of "in famous novel X, thing Y happens which seems like a strange choice from writer's perspective, for reasons Z. I would have done it this other way, what do the rest of you think and what have you done with scenes like that?" That would be a discussion to involve both readers and writers and get some back-and-forth going.

Cecrow, I can see where this could be interesting, but I come up blank when I think about it. As a reader of a good book I tend to immerse myself in the story I'm reading and go along with the flow. I travel with the story to the point I can't see the technical stages of the of the plot or the author in the writing. For me this is the best way to enjoy a story. In point of fact, if my mind begins to see the author and not the characters, It takes away from the enjoyment of the book. As an example: When I read a story with overly many 25 cent words where a 5 cent word will work, I begin to visualize the author pouring through a thesaurus to load the story with impressive words that don't add to the story. To me this breaks the flow of the story and diminishes my enjoyment. To me the best books are those where the writer is invisible and simply tells the characters' story.

>6 GaryBabb:, yup, they sure are. The best authors, my favourites, are the ones who write so well that I let analysis go and just enjoy it. But they have to make me first, lol.

I'm here too, and do read most of the significant threads (not usually the single-post threads about a single book). I don't write much - words are hard... but might join in on topics such as in >2 reading_fox: