Engraving of a Reader (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Readers are fundamental to what we do. Without them there would be little reason to spend the long hours propped up to a key board pounding out the words that make a story. It is the words that make a story not the brainstorm that created the concept. So with that in mind I have a question. Do you take care of your readers? I don’t mean do you house and feed them, I am really asking if you actually write for your readers? In writing for your readers do you do everything possible to make certain they are okay as they read what you have written?
You can’t query your readers as they move through your book (unlike the old high school smart assed trick on a long report, “if you have read this far check the box.”) so you must think ahead about pleasing them. How do we do that? (BTW Thanks for asking) Here are five simple things to think about and try as you are writing:
- Think about your reader as a real person sitting in the room with you and you are reading your story to them. This will allow you to have personal contact with the reader and if you are a good writer you will be able to detect questions that your reader might have about what you have written.
- Don’t leave your reader in the dark about some key points of plot that will help them come to some resolution about what you intended in the story. Nothing is more discouraging for a reader than to have invested their time in a story only to wonder what happened in the end. This can be as simple as a question about the rationale for character actions or as complex as a plot twist that comes out of left field with no preparation.
- Think of some of the habits of your reader. If you are writing in a particular genre and that genre has some fast rules, your reader will not expect deviations from those rules. You as an artist may want to deviate from these rules to demonstrate your multi-dimensional talent, but your reader may be left in the dust of the experiment. If there is a question about artistic freedom and genre conventions you should side with the reader. There are a number of break out genres that the reader expects rebelliousness. This would be the more proper place for your grand statement.
- Try to understand the demographics of your reader. In this way you can keep your story true to form. Age, sex, income and education all make up who your readers are in life. If your readers are highly educated and more affluent then you can use more sophisticated sentence and plot structures. If your reader is more like the population norm then the writing style should be geared to be most understood by the largest number. You may have the desire to use your story as an educational tool or literary statement, but if your readership cannot understand what you have written, you may lose the interest of a wide segment of readers doing so.
- Think about how your readers live and what they want to think about when reading your story. Doing this will allow you to create some amazing scenes that may actually carry your reader away from the mundane and into the special world you have created. In this special world, all the worries and concerns of your reader’s everyday life can be washed away for the time spent reading. If you are able to build a story that transforms the reader even for a few hours you will have won the reader over to a loyalty factor that will last a lifetime.
I hope you find these tips useful. Let me know what you think.
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Stephen King writes you have to write with Constant Reader in mind: “…the reader must always be your main concern; without Constant Reader, you are just a voice quacking in the void.” He writes this specifically in the context of using clear, concise, readable language, but it definitely applies to plot and characters as well. If I just think how Dan Brown’s latest novel made me feel…
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Dan may be a machine. Thanks for your comment.
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All great advice. Definitely something to consider, especially if one is writing a series.
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I am near the end of beginning of a hero. I’d say you know the lessons well.
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One thing I was thinking when reading your post was that an author should also write for him/herself. Not to ignore readers, but to enjoy their own story. That will show in the words and crafting. At least until the 15th editing run.
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Wow, John. This was a tremendously useful piece of information explaining way of writing (or thinking of readership) that really captures why we do what we do. I know that my faction novel did not have the same rules that a my more strictly written crime novel will have. That is a serious consideration in the manner in which i approach the reader. Thank you for sharing your wisdom.
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I think we need to be in the same place (the reader and the writer). Too often I have read books that left me asking basic questions and it gets frustrating. Thanks for the comment.
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Excellent post, John. Speaking as a reader, these are all spot-on. Speaking as a writer, I have much work to do 🙂
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Naw. You do it well.
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It was a big moment for me in college when I read, from a writing tips book (keep in mind I was in nursing school at the time) that every writer needs to write with the idea of a reader in mind. It could be just one person, or it could be readership at large. He said that having a reader in mind makes us accountable for every word, and I think it’s true.
It wasn’t until recently that I learned the value of sticking within genre norms and giving the readers some of what they expect, although not too much, and making the book boring and less than original.
These are some great thoughts, John. Great thoughts. Thanks for the reminder!
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You are welcome. Good reminder for me as well. Thanks
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I have to enjoy what I’m doing, or the reader won’t ever get to read it. Having said that, I constantly stop and ask myself, “Would a reader want to read this?”
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It’s all tied in for me with genre, which is something I’m having a hard time defining at the moment. This is an excellent list, John. I will give it a lot of thought.
Thank you 🙂
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Well I can imagine. Yours is puzzling. Thanks for the visit and comment.
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