Blog Block: Question for the New Year.
Blog block now unblocked! My question is why is it so hard to write what readers want to read?
In her book “Wired for Story” Lisa Cron writes that our brains naturally respond to stories; through stories we learn by vicarious experience. Readers are hungry to know “what happens next” and “how does it end?” Why then, do we as writers find it difficult, and a learning process, to write good stories? Funny how our brains work—or don’t!
As readers, we follow a story and are not usually noticing the underlying construction the author has used to attract and hold our attention.
As writers, we know the whole story we want to tell, but we also must make it appear that what the characters know and feel is credible. For the writer it’s a balancing act of characters and who knew what—and when.
The writer must also show how the characters react in advancing the story. And every part of a story must have a bearing on the plot, character development, and progress of the story line. It’s a big job for a writer—whew! And readers are quick to pick up on something that doesn’t fit the ongoing action or slip-ups in the plot.
The writer must make it easy for a reader to identify with the characters and care about their stories. In order to do so, the writer must express characters’ feelings in words on a page. Techniques for doing this are not obvious because a story well done flows smoothly.
To show feelings, body language is extremely important. For techniques on showing feelings, I refer my writer friends to another helpful book: “The Emotion Thesaurus: A Writer’s Guide to Character Expression” by Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi.
In her book “Wired for Story” Lisa Cron writes that our brains naturally respond to stories; through stories we learn by vicarious experience. Readers are hungry to know “what happens next” and “how does it end?” Why then, do we as writers find it difficult, and a learning process, to write good stories? Funny how our brains work—or don’t!
As readers, we follow a story and are not usually noticing the underlying construction the author has used to attract and hold our attention.
As writers, we know the whole story we want to tell, but we also must make it appear that what the characters know and feel is credible. For the writer it’s a balancing act of characters and who knew what—and when.
The writer must also show how the characters react in advancing the story. And every part of a story must have a bearing on the plot, character development, and progress of the story line. It’s a big job for a writer—whew! And readers are quick to pick up on something that doesn’t fit the ongoing action or slip-ups in the plot.
The writer must make it easy for a reader to identify with the characters and care about their stories. In order to do so, the writer must express characters’ feelings in words on a page. Techniques for doing this are not obvious because a story well done flows smoothly.
To show feelings, body language is extremely important. For techniques on showing feelings, I refer my writer friends to another helpful book: “The Emotion Thesaurus: A Writer’s Guide to Character Expression” by Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi.
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Sheila
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Jan 09, 2018 06:18PM
I feel like balance is at least part of the key - balancing conveying information with forwarding the plot, so the reader doesn't overbalance into too much information or too little interest. Does that mean writing is like learning to walk the high wire?
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I think so. Some writing advice I've read lately does seem to walk a tight wire amid almost conflicting guidelines. It's all a toss-up!
