Take Your Reader On A Journey

Author: Richard Mabry

What's the key to keeping the reader interested in your novel? Why not think about it in terms of the questions we generally ask someone who has just returned from a vacation? After all, that's the reason people pick up a book: to escape. To help them do that, take your reader on an enjoyable journey.

“Why did you go there?”

Every good story hinges on the motivation of the protagonist. As writers, we need to make those goals so desirable, so worthy, that the reader will identify with the hero or heroine and be swept along with them as the story unfolds.

Does the heroine have a deadly disease? Is she searching for a miracle cure? When she meets the young doctor, can you make the reader pull for the research to be successful? Will she be cured? Let the reader rejoice. Does she succumb? Make the reader cry.

“What did you do?”

The thing that elevates good fiction to great fiction is a plot that engages the reader and keeps them turning pages. Read every scene of your novel with a critical eye. If it doesn’t develop the plot and move the story forward, delete it.

Hitchcock said that drama is life with the boring bits cut out. His movies could easily hold an audience spellbound for a hundred minutes. The fiction writer has to hold the attention of the reader for hundreds of pages. There’s no room in good fiction for boring bits. Keep the plot moving.

“What did you see?”

As you write, try to put the reader in the middle of the scenes. Take Snoopy’s classic opening, “It was a dark and stormy night.” You might change that to, “The drumming of the rain and the roar of thunder overrode any attempt at conversation.” Don’t simply describe the rain. The reader must hear thunder, see lightning flashes, feel the mood of the moment.

Be sure to do this in the opening scene. Then do the same with key scenes throughout the book, so that they will enfold your reader. Put him or her in the center of the stage, rather than in the audience, giving a three-hundred-sixty degree view of what’s taking place.

“Did you have fun?”

We don’t go on vacations to be bored. We go to have fun. The same is true of reading. We pick up a book expecting to be engaged, entertained, enlightened, have our horizons broadened. The reason most novels are rejected is because they fail to do that. To succeed, your idea must be so fresh, the execution so engaging, that the reader can’t wait to enjoy the next chapter.

“What did you eat?”

You might easily misinterpret this admonition as advice to insert copious details about meals throughout the novel. Not so. But a good meal involves all the senses. The sight of the food, the smells from the kitchen, the taste of that first bite—all these contribute to the total event.

In the same way, good fiction should trigger all the reader’s senses. After you have finished your first draft, go back through the manuscript and look for places where you can insert sensory descriptions: smell, touch, sight, sound, even tastes. But don’t just tell about these things. Present them through the character’s experience.

Nourishing The Reader

The “what did you eat?” question should also serve as a reminder that Christian writing ought to nourish the reader. Scriptures tell us, “Taste and see that the Lord is good…” (Psalm 34:8). Our writing should provide such a taste. Whether in the form of a novel, short story, poem, or a non-fiction work, our words should inspire others to examine and deepen their relationship with God. Don’t make your reader leave the table hungry.