Earning A Reader’s Time

By Randy Susan Meyers

Most readers have more choices than time, so here’s the question: why should they spend that time with you? My advice? When you ask that question, be hard on yourself.

A few weeks ago, I led a discussion about the covenant between readers and writers with a group of (non-writer) readers and writers. I jump-started the discussion using thoughts from the above link (a post I’d written) and Salon’s controversial piece: A Reader’s Advice to Writers. (The piece elicited comments that ridiculed the idea of writing for the reader—shaking their online heads in sorrow at what they considered advice on how to dumb-down one’s writing)

No one should tell a writer what to write, but should authors listen to reader’s recommendations regarding how to make their books exciting and interesting? After all, advice streams in from MFA programs, workshop leaders, conferences, books, and magazines. What about smart and constant readers; don’t they get a vote? What would they like to tell writers? In the workshop I led in Marshfield Massachusetts, when I asked, “What do you want to tell writers,” they said the following:

1) “Please don’t fancy it up. Use the word red for red sometimes. Walk, don’t perambulate. Have your characters ‘say’ things, don’t let them ‘opine.’”

2) “Don’t introduce too many characters in the first chapter. If I can’t keep track of them, I’ll close the book.” (My addition: if character’s names start with different letters, it’s far easier for the reader to track them.)

3) “Avoid long pointless descriptions of settings—they make me feel like the writer is just trying to show off that they can do it.”

4) “What makes me keep reading is when something bursts inside me—something I can recognize in myself. I respond when I sense the writer has revealed a deep truth.”

5) “Get to the point. If the book starts with pages and pages of rambling, I put it down.”

I agree from both the reader and writer sides of my brain.

Our books must be the very best we can make them. We can’t slough it off on our agent or editor’s improvements. It’s us. We can’t make them  ‘good enough or ‘I’m done, and that’s it!’

Never try to fool yourself. If it doesn’t ring right to you, it sure won’t ring for the reader.

Learn and practice good craft and then incorporate those methods. Know the rules before you break them. Read, read, and then read more. Read broadly, read in the genre you love best, read about writing, and read beyond your comfort zone. Strip down what you read. Figure out why a book worked for you, or why it didn’t.

Whatever you write do, write it honestly and well. Choosing a genre doesn’t mean choosing mediocre vs. excellent. There is terrible literary fiction out there and fantastic vampire romance. Being a snob doesn’t equal interesting. Never ‘write down’ thinking you’ll make a buck.

Passion shows and passion attracts. Whatever reader you’re courting, open up those veins. The best writing comes when you’ve accessed the hidden places. Provide your readers with pops of recognition.  Worry less about saying it fancy and more about exposing the dark corners of the soul.

Originally appeared on Beyond the Margins March 23, 2010