Readers Want to Live Your Story

Your story needs great characters, but you also need enough time with them for your reader to become emotionally invested.

I have always been a voracious reader, but through my years as a writer, I read a little differently now. Some stories grab me and I don’t notice flaws, some I’ll put up with, and some are enough that I don’t feel compelled to continue.

I’m reading a story now that falls into the latter category. It flips between three characters, sometimes together, sometimes apart and writing letters to each other. It’s a format I have enjoyed in other books, and the author has great characters, fully realized, with depth and backstory and complications. The dialogue is good, the narrative is well done. But . . .

But she’s covering a lot of years in one book, and I simply don’t get enough time with each character. The letters back and forth are sometimes long and chatty and give me a feeling of being there, but sometimes are brief catch-up letters that only tell me what’s happening instead of letting me get involved. And as a reader, I want to get involved! Other scenes are in narrative with great dialogue and tension, and I am pulled in emotionally, but then we never get back to it. The next scene will be a month or two later with a recap of what happened.

This isn’t the first book I’ve read like this—some have been written by famous authors who just condense things too much for my tastes. I think for the most part, readers want to be pulled into the story, to be living it along with your characters, not kept at a distance. So as you write, keep this in mind and give your readers a chance to be part of the story.