I walked into this Fiction Cartel session already wired—“Finding Your Voice vs Writing For An Audience” is the kind of topic that eats writers alive if they’re not careful.
We had a full house! That’s the good thing about changing these sessions from the morning to evenings—it’s provided more opportunities for authors to join us.
Tonight’s Panel:
Lisa / Deleyna Marr – fantasy author and founder of No Stress Writing Academy
Scoot / L.R. Scott (Gibberish) – serial fiction madman and Flash Fiction Friday ringmaster
Anne Kimbrough / Tell Me A Mystery – mystery author and recovering screenwriter
Ian Dunmore / Dunmore’s Dispatch – fantasy short-story machine and theme nerd
Kummer Wolfe / C.B. Ash (Worlds of Kummer Wolfe) – fantasy & historical urban fantasy
Jessica – my daughter and aspiring author
Jaime Buckley / Life of Fiction – your host, instigator, and lampshade-at-the-party problem
We dug into the tension every working writer faces:
Are you allowed to write what actually sounds like you…
…or are you obligated to bend toward what you think will sell?
We talked about dating metaphors, ghostwriting regrets, “existential terror” when strangers finally read your work, and why “show, don’t tell” might be one of the most overrated rules in modern writing. We also hit the big career questions: what makes a “real” author, how much you should chase trends, and whether you’d sell your soul for a guaranteed bestseller.
Make sure to follow them, and subscribe to their substacks!
Subscribe to Kummer Wolfe’s World’s of Kummer Wolfe
Subscribe to Scoot’s Gibberish
Subscribe to Deleyna Marr’s Deleyna’s Drift
Subscribe to Ian Dunmore’s Dunmore’s Dispatch
Subscribe to Ann Kimbrough’s Tell Me A Mystery
Subscribe to Jaime’s Life of Fiction
…and give Jessie Lewis a follow! (she doesn’t have a publication…yet)
Highlights of the chat…
Several of the authors admitted they started writing purely for themselves—because their heads were too full and the stories had to go somewhere. The funny twist? The moment they realized strangers were actually reading often made their writing worse at first, because self-consciousness kicked in and they had to relearn how to draft without that imaginary critic over their shoulder.
Ian Dunmore talked about finding an old teenage epic in the garage—a time-machine story where only vampires with alien DNA could survive time travel and there was conspiracy stacked on conspiracy. Reading it years later felt like opening a time capsule: yes, it was wild and a little cringe, but it also showed the raw seeds of their current voice.
The takeaway: your “terrible” early work isn’t a waste; it’s the compost your real voice grows out of.
When the conversation turned to audience and word count, the Cartel collectively torched the dogma. Scoot pointed out they’ve published everything from 250-word pieces to 6,000-word stories, and readers still show up.
The conclusion: stop obsessing over “nobody reads under/over 2,000 words” and let the story be the length it needs to be—you train your audience, not the other way around.
On “writing to market,” everyone drew a hard line: that’s not voice.
One author described voice as the way you see your protagonist’s situation—the stance, the patterns, the emotional angle you keep coming back to. Chasing trends and markets tends to homogenize your prose until nobody could pick your page out of a lineup. Better to be distinctly yourself for fewer readers than interchangeable to a crowd.
When Jaime pushed the “real author” question, the consensus was blunt: you’re a “real author” when you decide you are and back it up with behavior…showing up regularly, taking the craft seriously…not when a publisher or some external gatekeeper knights you. The title follows the practice, not the other way around.
SESSION NOTES: Finding Your Voice vs Writing For An Audience
Fiction Cartel Session: November 19, 2025
Here are the core questions we used in this session. Use them to stir up the same conversation in your own writing circles.
If your writing voice were a person at a party, who are we meeting tonight—and how different is that from how you act in real life?
Helps writers externalize their voice and see the gap between “on-page self” and “real-world self.”When did you first realize, “Oh…people are actually reading this”—and did that make your writing better, or immediately worse?
Surfaces how awareness of an audience shifts confidence, process, and output.Which came first for you: writing for yourself or writing for a reader?
Forces a choice between internal impulse and external expectation, and how that balance has changed over time.There’s this fear that “if I write honestly, I’ll lose people.” Have you actually lost readers for being more yourself—and did that turn out to be a problem or a filter?
Pushes into the cost of honesty and whether losing readers might actually improve the fit of your audience.What’s something you used to do to “sound like a real author” that you’ve since killed off in your voice?
Exposes the fake habits, pretentious tics, and inherited “rules” that writers eventually outgrow.What do you personally consider a “real” writer or author—and when did you first let yourself claim that title?
Challenges gatekeeping and helps newer writers see that “real” usually means: you take the work seriously and keep showing up.How do you tell the difference between genuine evolution of your voice and just bending toward what’s trendy or “writing to market”?
Draws a line between healthy growth and self-erasure in the name of sales, algorithms, or approval.When a new writer asks, “How do I find my voice?”, what’s the worst advice you’ve heard given to that question?
Clears away vague, unhelpful clichés (“just be yourself”) and opens the door for concrete, actionable alternatives.What’s one “rule” of writing you happily break because it doesn’t fit your voice or your readers?
Invites writers to admit where they defy craft dogma (like “show, don’t tell”) in service of clarity, pacing, or personality.Imagine this: your next book will sell 100 copies total, but every word can be exactly what you want. Do you still write it that way, or do you change it to chase 10,000 copies?
Forces a brutally honest look at your priorities: artistic integrity vs reach and revenue.You get a guaranteed bestseller—but you have to write it in a voice that isn’t yours, in a genre you don’t love. Do you take the deal? Why or why not?
Opens up the ethics and long-term cost of ghostwriting your own career for money and visibility.If an AI scraped everything you’ve written and generated “you-adjacent” books that audiences loved…what would that force you to change or double down on in your own voice?
Uses the AI fear to clarify what is uniquely human and non-delegable about your work.
That’s It For 2025.
Have a Happy Holiday…and we will be back in 2026 with brilliance and FUN!
What Do YOU Want To Know?
Do you have questions you’d like us to answer?
Do you have something else you want to know that The Fiction Cartel can discuss next time?
🧭 About The Fiction Cartel
A bold new idea where writers come together live to talk craft, challenge conventions, and grow as creators. No scripts. No filters. Just raw, real writing minds sharing insights.
➡️ Want to join live next time? The link is ALWAYS THE SAME =)
Pull up a virtual chair at: https://gobrunch.com/fictioncartel
Hope you enjoyed the video. Drop a comment below and let me know!
Have a great day. Have a great week!
Remember:
You are MORE than you THINK you are!
Until Next Time,
Jaime *the-creative-addict* Buckley
