What Do You Want From Your Reader?

I’ve read so many blogs and writing instructions that they are seeping out of my pores.  What they all tell me is what people want from my writing.

They tell me what I have to do for an editor, an agent and, of course, a reader.  What I can’t find is anything that makes me consider what it is I want from a reader.

Generally when you are writing you are doing so within the confines of a particular genre.  It is fair to say that editors and agents know what readers of that genre want to see so why not leave that to them?

What I believe is that when you are creating something as special and personal as a novel you need to ask what you want from the person that picks up your book and reads it.

I hadn’t thought of this until recently and it has changed how I write.  When I write now I keep in mind the things I want from a reader:

1.  Forget me.  I don’t want the reader to remember that this is a book that I’ve written.  If you think of your favourite book, the author is just the person telling the story not the one that made it up.  If the readers fall so in love with the story they forget it’s not real you’ve achieved something special.

2.  Turn the page and keep turning.  Obvious I know but again when I think of books I love they are always books I can’t put down until I either finish it or fall asleep.  If it takes somebody 6 months to read your book this is surely a failure.  If they read it in a few days that is surely a huge compliment.

3. Get angry.  I’m always reminded of Stephen King’s Misery here.  When Annie Wilkes discovers that Paul Sheldon has killed off her favourite character she clubs his feet with a sledgehammer.  Don’t get me wrong, I don’t wont a crazy woman to kidnap me and hold me captive but if somebody feels that sort of emotion that they feel they have to tell you about it you’ve really made it.  Just take a look at Markus Zusak’s Twitter timeline and the comments about the characters from The Book Thief to get an idea of how people feel.

4.  Cry.  Books rarely have the power to draw a tear from me the way that a good old-fashioned weepy movie will.  It’s hard to find the literary equivalent of the Champ but when you do, it sticks with you.  You’ll tell everyone and you’ll read that book again and again.  For the record, the aforementioned The Book Thief is the only book to make me cry; on a train, during rush hour.

5.  Smile.  There is surely nothing worse than a book that has nothing happy in it.  No matter what your subject you have to have something in there that brings a moment of joy.  If you are writing about a war torn village, a moment of humour may be out of place, but somewhere somebody will always have something to say or do something that should lighten the moment.  A story full of doom and gloom is just depressing and will have the covers closed long before the story finishes.

6.  Know the characters.  When you write a story you already know these people, after all you’ve created them.  You will know their motivations, their desires and their failings.  More than this, you understand their emotions and know how they will react to situations.  If you’ve done your job right, your reader will share this knowledge.

What I love most about well developed characters is that they don’t surprise me.  This may sound like it will make for a boring story but it doesn’t.  The story itself can have all the twists and turns you like.  You can put whatever obstacle you like in front of the character but at the end of the day you should want your reader to know how he/she will react.  They should know what they will do and even what they’ll say when they come up against whatever it is you put in front of them.  Think of any detective series novel, for example Sherlock Holmes.  The stories are different, the villains, the motivations all change but throughout Homes is the same.  Even if you haven’t read the books you know that at some stage Holmes will say “Elementary”.   You also know that he will face the adversity thrown at him.  This knowledge doesn’t change the excitement of reading the book, it let’s the reader become involved with the character they have grown to love.

7.  Come back for more.  Isn’t that what everyone wants?  You keep reading your favourite author because you love what they write.  Wouldn’t it be great if you had a bunch of people who did the same for you?  I love the comedy writing of Tom Holt and entirely by accident I picked up one of his historic novels not realising the genre.  I read the Walled Orchard in two sittings, Holt’s style of writing and his ability to draw me into a story that I thought I’d have no interest in had me scrambling back to the bookshop to pick up the rest of his historic writing in moments.  We always get told to make sure the story has a “hook” – I believe the first book that somebody reads of yours should be your “hook” to keep them coming back to you.

These 7 points have just made me stop and think a little more about what I’m putting down on paper.  I’m not yet a published author, in fact, I’ve not even finished my first book. However, every time I take a few moments to think about how I want people to feel if they were to read my story I feel I’m taking another little step toward creating something good enough to share.