3 Things That Readers Have Taught Me About Writing

As cliche as it may be, I am a professional writer who also works part-time in a bookstore. Why? First, because I love books, but also because it was a facet of the publishing world that I'd not experienced first-hand.

I've written, edited, done book layout and cover design, worked in acquisitions, and even tried my hand at publicity, but never had I worked at that last link in the chain: the all-important step in which a book goes into the hands of a reader.

After I made the move to bookselling, I was caught completely off-guard by how drastically different what I thought readers wanted from a story was from what they told me truly makes them fall in love with a written work.

These are the three things I hear most often from readers:

They want relaxed, conversational narration.

People ask all the time for something that's an "easy read." When pressed to describe exactly what that means to them, most readers tell me that they want to feel like the narrator is telling them a story over coffee or a meal. No tricks, and nothing forced. They want to feel like the storyteller is approachable and accessible, which is probably exactly like the way you talk with friends. If you can move that tone from your daily life over into your writing, your audience may connect with you and your work on a much more intimate level.

They love imperfect characters.

The books that readers rave about and always ask for others similar to them are the stories with flawed characters. Sure, you're writing your characters with faults, but are they realistically messed-up? Take for instance Gillian Flynn's Gone Girl, in which the characters are almost deplorable, but you keep reading because they're just so incredibly real.

They want you to write more.

 If you've passed the test and won a reader's praise with one book, you can rest assured that they will buy your next work without pause. Once a reader finds a voice that suits them (hopefully yours because of your awesomely-relaxed and conversational narration) they want more and more of it. If you don't deliver within a year or so of your last release, they will move on to someone else while your name starts to slowly fade from memory.

Keep writing and hold on to this audience as long as you can! These people are what folks in the sales industry refer to as "prequalified leads" and they are your most valuable asset if you hope to write for a living.

Fear Not!

The novel continues even though the blog has lapsed! A busy schedule combined with deadlines has caused me to pare down to the barest essentials lately. I'm still squeezing in a page or two in the notebook each day, but the 10-15 minute blog posts have had to take a short hiatus. They'll be back as soon as the screenplay is polished and turned in - promise!

In the meantime, please enjoy this photo of Damian Lewis (AKA my lead character's husband, Patrick)

Day 19 - Getting Into a Rhythm

Though I still didn't get my pages in during the morning, I managed to completely shut out all of the distractions around me this evening and fully concentrate on two pages of game-changing prose.

My protagonist, Lainie, has been forced to act. She's angry and desperate to keep her son from going down the same road of tragedy that the son of a family friend traveled in the recent past. She made the decision to uproot herself, her husband, and her two children and move them to the country, away from the drugs and bad influences of the inner city.

This is the book's first turning point, and I've reached it in less than three weeks of steady work. The next phase of the story is going to be much darker and more mysterious...

Day 18 - In Which the Protagonist is Forced to Decide Her Fate and Then Act

My zest for the story was still lacking today and I failed to get my writing time squeezed into the morning like I'd planned. Meh. I still got a page and a half written, and a pretty good page and a half if I must say so.

Maybe I was getting bored with what the characters were doing, but I felt the need to push them a little. My protagonist had to take matters into her own hands and DO something. There will be consequences to face, of course, but those will also make for an interesting scene or two later as she works to calm things down in the wake of her decision.

Fun stuff.

Day 15 - In Which the Momentum of the Manuscript Gets Away From Me

A funny thing happened this evening - I got so swept up in the writing that I lost track of time and of gauging my progress. When I finally noticed that I had crossed the one-page finish line, I had already written six!

I have the introduction of another character to thank for this boost of momentum. Liz is the no-nonsense sister of the protagonist, Lainie, and has stepped in to help her find a solution to help her out of control son. Though her advice is good and her solution probably the best in the long-run, Lainie is going to have a tough time following it because it will turn her entire family upside down for a while.

The tension is building, the teenage son (remember Mr. Lady Lips?) is getting into more serious trouble as time passes, and the protagonist and her husband are going to have to do something major to remedy it all. This is going to be the "temporary resolve" that all you plotters and planners refer to in your storybuilding outlines.

I'm hoping I can milk this new boost of energy until the story shifts and things start to get spooky. Cross your fingers!

Day 14 - Taking a Cue From Poe

My day, for the most part, was long and gloomy. I spent the first half at a funeral and the second half at a birthday party for a dead man. It probably doesn't sound like it would be very inspirational, but it helps that the dead man was Edgar Allan Poe.

Since most of Poe's prose (say THAT three times fast!) focused on the mind of the protagonist, I turned the page and a half of writing that I completed today into my lead's introspection. She's being pushed to what she thinks is her breaking point, so it's definitely an interesting time to be inside of her head.

This strange little Poe-inspired exercise today helped me to see exactly where my protagonist is truly afraid, as well as where she has great strength - even if she doesn't see it herself. When I make that CRITICAL TURN in the plot that's coming soon, it's going to have a much more effective impact now.

Slow Writing vs. Fast Writing

As I described in a recent post, the slow pace of Page a Day - 365 is one that I am definitely learning to love. Having participated in various "fast writing" activities in the past (NaNoWriMo, writing sprints, deadline crunches, etc.) I found that the only upside was the quick creation of a rough draft. While seeing a draft build quickly has some ego-stroking perks for the writer within, I've found that this incredibly slow pace has offered much more benefit in much less time.

How has slow writing helped me so far?

• I'm not rushed to get through a scene. My characters can do all the things they need to do to hook the reader and build empathy for their situation.
• I can pay more attention to word choices. Instead of feeling like I'm running as fast as I can from point A to point B, slow writing has given me the feeling of taking a leisurely stroll through my story that allows me to take in all the details and better describe them for the audience.
• I'm able to think through the characters' actions before they begin to derail my plot and crash the story all together.
• I haven't felt the apprehension of the blank page because I know I can take my time and carefully consider the art of the writing, not just the raw words and the mechanics.
• I'm more relaxed knowing that my rough draft is really not so rough. Spewing out paragraphs as fast as I could in the past made me resent the editing process before it even began. 

Do you have a slow writing/fast writing success? I'd love to hear about it!

Day 12 - Beginning to Fumble in the Dark

I don't know if it's because of the steadily worsening headache I've had all day or if I'm just tired or what, but the two and a half pages I managed to complete today felt like much harder work than they should have.

I'm feeling a bit clumsy now, even though I have good foundations for my characters and plenty of stability in the plans for my plot. The story is moving along, but it's as though I'm holding the reigns of a stubborn horse and trying to keep it on the right path. I know that I'll need to keep this up if I'm going to be able to tell this story, but I wish it didn't have to put up so much of a struggle.

I know that every sort of creative process has slow-downs and bumps, so I'm not going to let today's fight for words get me down. Like I said, I did manage to get more than double my goal amount written!

Day 9 - More Progress (and Some Gratuitous 1970's Television)

The distractions seem to have multiplied like rabbits since last week, so today's two pages were managed by hiding out in the bathroom. Strangely, it's the only place in my house that I can go where children will not interrupt me every thirty seconds. (That's no exaggeration.)

I prefer to call my bathroom hideout my "think tank" because of all of the ideas those tile and beadboard walls seem to resonate. I'm nearly finished with the first scene of the story, but didn't quite make it all the way through without a sprinkling of nostalgia. As Lainie and the kids wait for Patrick to make it home from a business trip (and to help Lainie deal with an incident that resulted from their teen son's poor judgment) they try unsuccessfully to cut the tension with a little bit of Prime Time comedy.

On a positive note, the dialog is shaping up quickly.