I’ve realized, observing people — people I don’t know, out on the streets, living their lives, as well as my own friends — that the majority of people live routine, mundane lives, where every day is pretty much the same as all the other days, punctuated by occasional problems.
And people who read books do so mostly so they can get away, escape. And for a few hours share in the lives of other people who live exciting lives and do things that THEY, the readers, never do.
Or also, they read books for the satisfaction of reading about people whose problems get solved much more tidily and easily than those of the readers. The intrigue of discovering HOW they solve their seemingly unresolvable problems.
On the one hand I’ve been blessed to have lived a fairly exciting and unusual life, with a lot of travel and a lot of out-of-the-ordinary experiences.
And on the other hand, I’ve always had a big imagination, and my favourite game ever since I was a kid has always been “So what happened next?”, inventing long serial stories for myself.
So this is the first and main thing that I strive to accomplish by writing stories: to entertain, to help people have a good time and get away from their routine, ordinary lives and problems and to forget about their own — what they consider to be — dull existences for a while.
(Although experience has shown me that usually what one person considers to be a dull, unexciting activity probably seems pretty unusual, different and new to someone else.)
At any rate, if I’ve succeeded in doing that, then I consider that I’ve been successful, and I’m happy.