5 Ways to Wield the Black Art of Reader Temptation (Bored Readers Rejoice!)

Fiction-Zone: Leaps in Fiction Mastery by Diane Holmes, Chief Alchemist of Pitch University

#1  Tempt your readers by paying attention to what they yearn to know next.

It’s never about what you’re trying to do as an author.  It’s not even about your story and what your characters want to do next.

Nope, it’s about creating an effect for the reader, a mental reality, and then caring enough about their reading experience to give them the story they’re hoping you’ll tell.

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If your reader grows bored, you can’t combat that by explaining what you, the author, need to “have happen in this scene.”  You can’t un-bore the reader by pointing out that your characters have to “be true to themselves.’

But you can solve boredom by  the one big truth:  it’s your job to give readers what they’re interested in.

The good news, of course, is that as a master of writing craft, you build the story in such a way as to shape their thoughts.  Their interests come from the smoke-and-mirrors you control.

#2 Tempt the reader with emotion.

If your characters don’t care, neither will your readers.

But the emotion has to be full of truth, not just a collection of clichéd expressions, not just obvious, one-note reactions.  The world is not easy.  Life takes on weight.  And no one knows themselves in simple terms. 

Readers know this, even if authors don’t.

#3 Tempt the reader with great unknowns. 

Nothing sells a story like the knowledge that there are secrets, lies, mysteries, and  really worthwhile “unknowns” that’ll be powerfully revealed.

Readers read to find out what happens next.  That in itself is a mystery.  The unknown next moment.

Every book is a mystery for the reader.  Or should be.  Otherwise, the reader isn’t even “needed” to help put the pieces together or bear witness to events.

It’s a very subtle, unconscious understanding between reader and author:  the story events require someone—the reader—to make sense of them. 

#4  Tempt the reader with the unexpected.

Readers love story.  But they need authors because they can not imagine the unexpected.  For that, they need you.

Give them the unexpected.  It’s the biggest gift you have as an author.

#5  Tempt the reader with the exceptionally well-observed detail.

The present moment is so fleeting.  It is one of the deepest realizations of being human. 

And try as we might, we can only freeze an instant for observation,  hold it still to capture its power and meaning like a photo forever blurred by motion.  And then it’s gone.

In story, we capture the immortality of human experience with the perfect, well-observed detail, with description that is so authentic it captures emotion and experience as much as facts.

That transcendent ability is the story of being human. It’s our story.  And it’s worth telling.

clip_image004Diane writes two alternating columns for Freelance-Zone:Fiction-Zone: Leaps in Fiction Mastery and Marketing-Zone:Marketing-Zone: Marketing Yourself and Your Book.