Reading has been a magical experience for me ever since I sounded out the riveting details of my first Dick and Jane book. Every time I open a book, I'm going on a new adventure, one where I can participate merely by following along with the words and turning the pages.
I love learning info about the writing craft, but right now I'd prefer it enter my brain subliminally. After I close the covers of a book, I can muse about how lyrical the prose was, or marvel at how all those adverbs made it past the grammar police. As a writer, I like to go back and research exactly how the writer accomplished all the technical things I admire.
But first, I want to fall in love.
I want to be absorbed, engaged, immersed in a story that feels more lifelike than all the things waiting for me once I'm forced to return to reality.
I want an author to do that smoke and mirrors thing to distract me from the manufacturing aspect of a book. Make me care so much for these characters that I can't think of anything else, especially when my nose isn't buried in that book. Make me rush back to that story, cutting phone calls short, cutting people off in traffic, cutting back on chores, all so I can hang out with these fictional people once more.
If I am emotionally engaged, I will love your story, even if it's not a genre I normally read. If you engage my heart and mind, I will want to read everything you write. I will hang on every word, breathless to get to the end, while dreading it at the same time.
Since this is what I want from a book, it's also what I am striving to give to readers of my stories.
Now I'm looking at each scene to see what I can do to draw the reader in deeper, to lure them into a chapter so far they can't find their way out except to seek The End.
How can I make the reader care just a little bit more? How can I make them feel the same joys and pangs that my characters are experiencing? How can I provide nonstop enjoyment?
As I work on this, I try to keep in mind: It's not the technique or the words that engage the reader. It's the story.
Totally agree...one must tell a good story. No matter what else one does, or how one writes...the story is the main course.
Posted by: Maureen O. Betita | July 04, 2011 at 02:16 AM
Yes, story is king. :) But not just TELL a good story--make it irresistible, unputdownable, breathtakingly awesome. Easy enough, right? LOL
Posted by: Donna Cummings | July 04, 2011 at 09:15 AM
I love those totally engaged reading experiences and I'm always trying to figure out how the writer does it -- after I regretfully close that last page! I've been on quite a reading binge this summer and it's been hit or miss. With one book, I had to cut short a visit with my mom to get back to my engaging book. In the last book I read I felt engaged in the story for the most part -- the romance part between the main characters -- but for the rest, which had more secondary characters than I could count (a whole town full), I merely scanned the pages. I probably missed a lot of "pretty" language in the skipped over part.
But even though I didn't find non-stop enjoyment, it was "good enough," which doesn't sound exciting but I find this kind of perversely encouraging from a writer's perspective. It's less intimidating. LOL It's like we can aspire for and reach great heights, but if we slip into a not-so-engaging-part by someone else's standard it's not going to be a bad book, as in stop reading. I always feel like my secondary story is engaging to ME, but I suspect this is the risky area for disengaging readers.
Very interesting topic! Happy 4th!
Posted by: Melissa | July 04, 2011 at 02:23 PM
Melissa, I think those totally engaged reading experiences don't happen as often anymore, so I really do appreciate them when I get one! And I know exactly what you mean about "good enough" being encouraging to us writers. :) You explained it perfectly.
And it's funny, I just did a post for H&H where I described some secondary characters that I love, and I think they stole the show. LOL I wonder if it was meant to be that way, or if it wasn't something that could be changed. I really like them, so I'm glad it's that way -- but I read faster thru the parts with the primary hero/heroine so I could get to the ones I liked. LOL
Posted by: Donna Cummings | July 04, 2011 at 03:40 PM
oh I love getting lost in a story. Nora does that for me.....i'm in her setting, i'm with her characters, i laugh and i cry. that's a damn good book that does that. =)
engage me scotty!
(oh wait, is that beam me up?)
=)
Posted by: carrie | July 04, 2011 at 03:52 PM
LOL, Carrie -- if you've been so engaged that you've been beamed into another world, that's a good thing!
Posted by: Donna Cummings | July 04, 2011 at 04:16 PM
Getting lost in a story is quite simply one of my most favorite things. Whether in book or movie or theatrical form, it's intoxicating. I actually get giddy from happiness after reading something wonderful. Then the inevitable I will never be able to do that sets in and I feel the need to dissect every word to see how the author did it.
Posted by: Kari Marie | July 06, 2011 at 08:48 PM
I love getting lost like that, Kari Marie, and I do get envious of the writer's talent and ability. LOL But I like to see HOW they made me get lost in the story, and I research it, just as you said--once I've got my head out of the clouds. :)
Posted by: Donna Cummings | July 06, 2011 at 09:29 PM