What's at Stake? How to Make Readers Care About Your Story

By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy

This week's Refresher Friday takes an updated look at making readers care about your story. Enjoy!

Like many writers, I have story ideas languishing in my files that I really like, but haven't been able to make work yet because they don't have an answer to the "who cares?" question: Why should the reader care about this person and this problem?  Until I figure out a way to make the stakes personal, to make me care, those stories will stay languished.

I know I'm not alone in this. I do a lot of critiques for a wide variety of writers. One of the most common comments I make is about the stakes. Why does this matter? Why should the reader care? Often I can see the stakes in the story, but they're general and vast, so they don't make me care. The author could put any protagonist into the lead and nothing about the consequences really changes.
Continue ReadingWritten by Janice Hardy. Fiction-University.com