How do you write immersive stories?

My one specific top tip: Staying invisible. Not lifting the veil. The less a reader sees of you, the better. I’ll be digging into this in my upcoming newsletter tonight, so if you want to catch that, sign up here. Writing immersive stories is a choice. I strive (and sometimes fail) to fool you into belief. Ideally, you’d turn the last page and only then remember that it was all a book. In other words: Don’t tell your readers that you exist. Super easy! Like laying a puzzle with burning boxing gloves. In space.

Accidentally lifting the veil happens when you mess up point of view (POV) The most common spellbreaker is when writers have clearly chosen a mind to nest in, but keep writing things that wouldn’t be in that character’s head at all. Culprit number one: describing things a character wouldn’t see: «She was cold. She hurried along, hair bouncing behind her». Eyes in the back of her head, well done. You’ve got sticker action going on here: «Remember: this is just a story.»

What your characters can sense, is only the surface, deeper down it’s about what they would think, and how we need to avoid dumping info in their thoughts that they would never need to explain to themselves. More on that in the newsletter.

I’ve been told that I’m a brutal storyteller. That I drop people in unfamiliar territory from page one, like they were the Bear Grylls of fantasy. They say I have no glossary and provide no explanation. There’s only one answer to that: Thank you, I love you, too! 🧡