Wednesday, November 25, 2015

Wednesday's Writer's Tip - Keeping the Reader interested - Part 2 #MFRWauthor #amwriting

Continuing with what I write last week.

The first one today is - Promises made to the Reader - When you set out to write a book one of the things you need to do is think of the reader and what you're going to promise them. No one wants to promise a boring read but all too often this happens. I've read a lot of books with a great potential only to have them fall apart and not keep their promise. One way to keep the promise of a good read is the characters. Give the reader characters with real problems and real struggles to gain their goals. I real a lot and lately I've been reading books that promise a good story but fall short because the characters solve their problems too easily. I reach the end of the book and say so what. That is a writer I'll never read again. The other thing is to have a plot that makes sense. Since the plot is really the journey of the way one character or more reach the end of their quest there have to be twists and turns. Figuring out what will happen next before it happens makes the story fall flat. So when you promise your readers a good story. Keep at the writing until the story is the best you can do with characters struggling with their problems. Don't jsut wave that magic wand and like that the problems are solved.

The second rather goes along iwth the first. The character or characters have motivations that drive them toward their goals. Make sure this is a strong one. A weak motivation will let the story fall flat. Keep the motivation of the character striving to reach that goal and make the reader wonder if that will happen is the way to go.

2 comments:

Juliet Waldron said...

Needed the prompt--thanks for reiterating that again--I can't hear it too often, as I stumble through the current WIP!

Janet Lane Walters said...

Juliet, I also need to be reminded