Tears and Surprise

Readers are essentially looking for one thing. Entertainment, in whatever form. To be entertained, they have to want to read the story. I myself have skipped over long paragraphs of a story I actually enjoy because it was too detailed or simply set aside a book on account of it not creating the desire to know what happens next. Inversely, I've clung to a book, unable to read it fast enough even though I know how it ends.

Delivery. That is the key to captivating readers. Sometimes delivery in the form of how or why.

Of course, different readers look for different things, but if a writer follows a type of captivation, such as story or love of a character, then they can hold onto readers. So how does a writer follow their set captivation? What if they don't want to stay in that set? Or they're using a mix? Be brave. Be bold.

Robert Frost said something I keep in mind whenever I write. "No tears in the writer, no tears in the reader. No surprise in the writer, no surprise in the reader."

I've found that when I'm surprised, horrified, overjoyed or whatever else, my readers usually are as well. If a writer delivers the characters or issues in a way that's real and strong, then the story goes forth in a captivating matter. People make stupid choices. Deliver stupid choices. Deliver what happens because of them. Whatever you do, just deliver. And if you're the reader and you find the writer isn't delivering, find someone that does.

But that mostly just covers events and such, not the style or the storytelling itself. We can go into that some other time because I'd rather not talk everyone to death. Until next time.

Return

There has been a deep neglect here, for which I apologize. Sincerely, I have had a troubling time on top of not entirely knowing what to put here. However, I assure you that had been remedied. There shall be a post in a small amount of time.

Introductions to Reality

Shall we?

It is said that writers, the ones of merit, at least, develop an understanding of people. Who they are inside and who they are outside. The pretenses and the actual motives. But do readers not engage in the very same practice as they learn of the characters and come to understand them? It seems they do.

And so we have just touched  the purpose of this blog. Sight. Should you expand the concept to a broader meaning, you can say we're trying to understand what is and what isn't. But of course, one step at a time. No one likes getting a headache over it all. Well, some do, but the point is that we're learning to see, to comprehend, to investigate what lies beneath.

So let us venture into the reality of the dream.