Friday 29 July 2011

Creating Story Appeal

Tell Me A Story



AJ, how do I make my book more interesting to readers. I've invited friends to read it, but they went vacant afterwards. I realise they didn't think much of it, even though they made the right 'noises' about it.
Oh dear, Annie. You need to hook your reader’s from the opening paragraph. Look at books by successful authors to see how they achieved it and why you found them interesting. 

Remember, characters are the most important ingredient in any story. Adventure means nothing if you don’t care what happens to characters. You should burrow into each of your protagonists until they become 'real' to you. How can they feel real to others if they aren’t real to you? Develop them so they exist as people in your mind. Know everything about them, all their faults, assets, likes and dislikes, their favourite music, food, films etc.

Unless YOU feel your character's problems are real, no one else will. 


Before you start to write, go over the story in your mind until you're in the correct mood. Feel the emotions you want to generate in the story, be at one with your characters and the problems they're facing. Have empathy.

You must also make sure you have a central problem running throughout the story. It must be a problem that can't be resolved until the very last few pages of the last chapter of the book. Make the problem one that is of paramount importance to the central characters, something that affects them if it cannot be

resolved. Criss-cross this major problem with minor problems that are resolved within a few chapters.
In this way, reader's keep turning those pages to find out what happens to the story people they have come to care about.

Hope you found this useful.... and keep writing. 
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