• Café Life is the Colony's main hangout, watering hole and meeting point.

    This is a place where you'll meet and make writing friends, and indulge in stratospherically-elevated wit or barometrically low humour.

    Some Colonists pop in religiously every day before or after work. Others we see here less regularly, but all are equally welcome. Two important grounds rules…

    • Don't give offence
    • Don't take offence

    We now allow political discussion, but strongly suggest it takes place in the Steam Room, which is a private sub-forum within Café Life. It’s only accessible to Full Members.

    You can dismiss this notice by clicking the "x" box

Why Do I Care?

Invest in You. Get Full Membership now.
Status
Not open for further replies.

Katie-Ellen

Full Member
Blogger
Joined
Sep 25, 2014
Location
UK
LitBits
0
England
Why might your reader care enough to read on?

That's largely the crux of the Pop-Ups...but it's always going to be subjective. There will always be those who wouldn't read your book even if it won prizes, even if it were to become a bestseller. It's not their cup of tea.

That said,@AgentPete challenged me with this very same question some years back. 'Beautiful writing,' he said, and then came the kicker, 'And why do I care?'

If he cared for the main character or his situation, maybe he would care. So the challenge was clear. This was a story with a plot, but essentially it was a character driven story. So I had to do a better job of offering a reader what Peter terms a 'cookie- an emotional reward or incentive. Emotional. A reason to feel something.

Why do any of us care about anything we read? Readers respond to whatever they respond to, and the writer can't predetermine that. But, speaking entirely as a reader, it's clear that a writer can learn how to write from the heart or the gut without it being about themselves.

It comes OF them. It comes THROUGH them. But it is not ABOUT them.

First there is the flame then the control of the flame.

Tweeted recently by literary agent Jonny Geller.

'Don’t write for a market; write for a reader. The reader is not a fan or a relative, but someone who trusts that you will take them to a new place, in an unexpected way. Keep that person in mind when you re-read your manuscript & you will view the work objectively. '

A-writer-is-one-who-communicates-ideas-and-emotions-people-Emotional-Communication-Art-Idea-Qu...jpg

Criss Jami

Be objective in your subjectivity.

What could be easier? *cough*

Once more unto the breach, my friends!
 
Last edited:
Yes, there's that too, isn't there? I read to learn something new or have it presented to me in a new way...without ever getting the sense of being taught.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Further Articles from the Author Platform

Latest Articles By Litopians

  • The Shadow Durian
    As a lifelong foreigner, I’ve learnt that being open to new things smooths the path considerably. ...
  • Goodbye Eeyore, Hello Tigger
    Granny was churchy. She grew up in an era that saw living by the Bible as an important British chara ...
  • 21st Century Song of Summer
         It’s sobering to think that while summer is celebrated in some parts of the world with mus ...
  • Falcon Theory
    “So,” said Goethe to his friend Johann Peter Eckermann, “let us call it a Novelle, for what i ...
  • The Joy of Lit Mags
    While my first novel is tentatively making its way towards agents who already have too much to read, ...
  • Advertising and Social Media
    There has been much discussion in writing circles about how much a writer has to self-promote these ...
  • Future Abstract: Fights at Night
    SATIRE ALERT: The following abstract is entirely fictional and does not represent actual events or s ...
Back
Top