Why, when I write, do I forget what I like to read?
I’m traveling again, which means reading light, page-turning novels in train and airplane seats, with noise and interruptions and weird smells distracting me at every turn. So, the stories that survive a travel-read? Are special.
But when I start to write, I forget what made them special. I go back to my old patterns of writing what I want to write, often getting lost in flowery language or a sea of adjectives. Things I skim over or skip entirely when I’m reading.
Someone wise once told me, “The reader owes you nothing.” They do not have to buy your book, and just because they’ve bought it doesn’t mean they will read it. Just because they make it past the first page doesn’t mean they’ll finish it. They probably won’t read it the way you intend them to, and they’ll definitely focus on different things that those you care about.
So, here, Writer Me, is a list of 10 tips from Reader Me, who has the attention span of a gnat:
If I’m not dropped right into the action, I don’t care.
If your dialog is good, I don’t even read the tags about facial expressions.
I skip over long paragraphs if it seems like I won’t miss much.
I stop reading if you interrupt the main story with too many flashbacks.
I speed read 100,000 words a day, so stop talking about the weather.
I don’t read first-person POV stories.
I really don’t read second person stories (and yet I write them).
Your characters must feel real, not be vehicles of the plot.
I don’t even see adverbs anymore. What are they even?
Great writing is invisible. I’m not stopping to admire a sentence.
This rant brought to you courtesy of JetBlue WiFi.