Testing What Makes a Story Compelling (And What Doesn’t)
This post is specifically geared to other writers since the topic is about storytelling. Earlier this year, I came across a YouTube video where the person mentioned how she realized she had a lot of books on her device that she never read. Instead of buying any more books, she decided she would start reading each book on it, and as soon as it bored her, she would remove the book then move on to the next one. She was surprised by how many books she lost interest in within the first couple of chapters. Her point in mentioning this was to tell other writers that it’s crucial to pay attention to how you setup your story. You don’t want to lose your reader early on by writing stuff that takes the story off the rails.
About two months ago, I decided I would do something similar, but my goal would be to read a book until I lost interest. Not only would I stop reading, but I would take note of where I lost interest and why. On the flip side, I also started noting what books hooked me in right away and kept me going through to the final page. More importantly, I ask myself “why”.
As you can expect, this started getting expensive since I wasn’t even getting past the first few chapters on most of the books I picked up, so I decided to become a Kindle Unlimited reader. I will pick up free books if I find them, so that is how I have discovered wide authors.
So if I find a wide author who is offering a book for free, I am inclined to get the book. I did break this rule and purchased a $0.99 book only because the vibe to it was something that I really like. (I would not have purchased this book at the $4.99 regular price because this is an author I’ve never heard of before. But the sale, along with the book description and genre piqued my interest. In short, I was a huge Goosebumps fan back in high school and even in college, and this book delivered on the same premise. Anyway, I enjoyed this book so much I subscribed to the newsletter and pre-ordered the next book in the series. So if anyone wonders if running a promotion works even at $0.99, the answer is yes. You also don’t have to be in Kindle Unlimited to attract a readership if you are able to find your niche. I will add that this book is not a big seller. In fact, it’ll be hard to find in a search. That is why the ad paid off. I found this book on BookDoggy promotion list. They email promotions once a day. I look through these every day and have found most of my reads this way. I like BookDoggy because it gives me a range of genres. As I mentioned in another post, I’m exhausted from reading romance, probably because I have read so many in the past and write this genre. I have picked up a couple of romances, though, because they do sound interesting enough to try. I’ve enjoyed a couple of them, too. And I do ask myself, “Why?”
The why is the key to everything when you are a storyteller. The goal of writing a book is not to appeal to everyone. That is impossible. You can, however, find your audience. The way to find that audience is to make the book something they want to read to the end of the book. If you can tap into why you lose interest in a book, then you can write to avoid those pitfalls in your own story. Likewise, if you can tap into why you kept reading, you can use those elements in your own story to make the story more engaging for your specific audience. Please note: I am not talking about stealing another author’s work. I am talking about the elements in storytelling that can apply to any story.
Let’s say, for example, your mind starts to wander when Chapter 1 in the book goes into a heavy backstory about the character’s life. Now you know not to do this in your own story. Perhaps you find your mind wandering if the characters in a scene are doing a lot of talking with very little action or internal thoughts. Now you know that you should be sure to balance action and internal thoughts in with the dialogue. Or maybe the story was going along really well, and all of the sudden, you are thrown into a chapter that makes no sense at all to the stuff that came up before it. You know that you don’t want to do that in your story, too. There are many reasons why we could lose interest in a book. Those reasons can help you fine-tune your own storytelling.
And discovering what it was about the books you did like can be just as helpful. If you love a lot of description and the slow build, then this strategy will serve you as the writer. If you would rather start with some action to get things rolling, then this will be a better way for you to go. Maybe you realize you don’t like a certain character type. Like I was trying to read some romances with the super hunky, rich, and powerful hero who pretty much tells the heroine what to do. I should know that would never appeal to me because I wouldn’t tolerate that kind of thing from my husband. I am just as capable of doing things as he is, and I want him to realize it. I’m sorry if that sounds harsh. I am not trying to be harsh in stating it that way. I almost deleted it. But then I realized that kind of statement illustrates the “why” in the kind of hero I should be writing. So let me flip this around to smooth things over a bit because I really don’t mean to step on anyone’s toes. Some people have found the beta hero (which is my preferred hero) to be a spineless simp who lets everyone walk all over him. I don’t see the beta hero that way, but I can see how some do. If you see the beta this way, this is your “why” on why you should write the alpha hero. You might see the alpha hero as a strongly attractive man who isn’t afraid to rise to the challenge.
Anyway, you can use other tropes to figure out what you like or don’t like. Do you enjoy an enemies-to-lovers setup? Do you gravitate toward a serial killer horror novel? Do you enjoy reading books where you explore new planets? What is it about all of these core elements in the stories you read that keeps you going? Is it the building of suspense? If the answer was given too quickly, why do you think that? If the answer was given at the perfect moment, why is that? Do you enjoy thinking on new ideas, like how would a political or religious system work on an alien planet? Did the author present something you found plausible? Why or why not?
There are many ways to dissect elements within the story and think on how the author did, or did not, pull it off. It all boils down to “why” something works or doesn’t work for us. In the end, you should be writing for people like you. I like to think that we are our first primary reader. If the book can engage us from start to finish, then we have successfully written a compelling story for the specific audience we wish to reach.
