Why We Need Books, Even Our Own

This week has been a tough week up here in Boston, Massachusetts. Working just blocks from the bomb site, watching the tragedies unfold on the news, and then being told to stay in our homes, this week has been like no other. And many of us will continue to feel the effects of the

People say times like these remind you of what is important. I would definitely agree that this week has reminded me. But in addition to the importance of relationships and living our life fully, this week has also reminded me just how important books are. Just how much I need them, and how much we all need them.

Because our world so often leads us into hard, scary, trying situations, I know that for many people books provide a place of shelter. A refuge from daily life, even when life is going so tremendously well. Not all books are happy or easy to read, and they are not meant to be. But books provide the reader with a new experience of the world. They let you slip into another skin, leaving the constraints of your own life behind. They stretch the limits of the self as you experience life through another’s eyes — in another time, another world, another perspective, another worldview. They comfort you. They teach you about others. They teach you about you. They give you a quiet, intimate, connect experience in a way that other mediums cannot. They let you be whoever you want to be. And they embrace you, as a participant, important to the shared transaction between reader and text.

I’m not saying that books will heal all wounds. And I don’t think that books are the only things that matter. Because, honestly, I believe in people, and the need for relationships. I believe that conversations and interactions often do more than anything else can. But I also believe that quiet time, reflection, and new experiences add to the quality of our lives. And books provide all of these. They shelter us in their pages, and they challenge us, each and every time. They help us in hard times, and make good times even better.

So as writers, I think this week provides an important take away. It reminds us of something we’ve known all along but sometimes forget in the busyness of life, and even in the hope of writing a good book. And that is this:

Write what you want to put out into the world. Write what you want to the world to know, what you want the world to feel. Write what you need to write, for the good of your own soul.

By this, I don’t mean writing didactic books that instruct and scold, or even creating emotional elegies of what is or what was or what you’d like the future to hold. But writing something that you want to put out into this world. Something that can potentially last beyond you. A text that conveys your bit of hope for yourself, and for others. The life lesson that you want to offer, or the emotion you want to share, or that tidbit of wisdom that you’ve gained from your experiences.

We never quite know what tomorrow holds. But one thing I know is I want to put something good into this world. Something that will help others to cope or escape or laugh or feel. Something that I might need myself.  

Keep the Reader Reading — Disclosing Information at the Right Time

Providing the right information at just the right time is an essential part of crafting a good story. You want to make sure not to give away to much, to create tension and suspense, and provide a payoff for your reader among many other things. But in order to do all of these things well, one element to keep in mind is the idea of when, how, and how often you provide information that your reader needs to know.

For my current revision process, this is something that has been on my mind. I moved a scene up to make sure the reader has enough information to keep him interested. I studied my order of scenes to make sure each scene laid the foundations for the ones to come. But because my first revision mandated that I delete so many of my initial pages that essentially served as backstory rather than action, in earlier revisions, I really tried to analyze where information was introduced to make sure that the reader knew just enough of what she needed to know, when she needed to know it, so that she would remain engaged and wanting to move forward with the story.

As the story then progresses, however, it is equally important to make sure that while you provide the necessary information for your story, you also are not repeating the same information again and again. Of course, you want to make sure to give your reader all the necessary clues and reminders so that the story remains understandable and fluid, but repeating information can also become redundant. Even though certain characters might not know what your reader might already know, it is important to be aware that to simply restate the information for the sake of an unknowing character can negatively affect the reader's experience of your novel — because they already know.

This was something that my mentor brought to my attention for my current revision. Because my protagonist is keeping a secret from many people, as he begins to reveal the truth, I need to be continually conscious of both the way in which he does it —meaning word choice and the analogies he uses — as well as how much information is revealed, and potentially repeated, each time. The more I thought about this, the more I realized he was right. Of course while I was writing I thought it was important to make sure my protagonist explained things to the important people in his life. But with the reader standing in a place of dramatic irony, these conversations or revelations need to be abridged, or perhaps portrayed through indirect dialogue rather than a repetition of what has already been said.

Essentially, what I am saying is this: You don't want to sacrifice your reader for the good of a character. The reader is the one who must stay engaged. She is the one you want to make turn the page, and she is the one who you don't want to bore with your over description or constant reminders of what she already knows.

Much like my last post about keeping a reader emotionally engaged, you also want to respect the reader's intelligence and ability to make connections and remember what has already occurred. Sometimes, as the writer, it is hard to see it from the reader's perspective or as someone reading it with fresh eyes. We already know the whole story. But in this part of the revision stage, it is important to really look at your manuscript as if you'd never seen it before. However hard that may be, it is important to constructing the reading experience you want your audience to have.

But being aware of what's already been said will only serve to make your novel stronger. You want your manuscript to be as interesting as possible. And information that someone already knows doesn't have have the same appeal as the new information that can be found on the next page. One of the most important things for us authors is to keep your reader reading. And if taking out a repeated section of dialogue, or extracting information that's already been established will do that, then by all means, take it out!

Disclosing information in the right places can be like a balancing act — making sure there is just enough over here to balance a lack of something over there. But it will all be worth it in the end. When you're reader keeps turning the page, and there is no boredom to be found, then the tinkering and the revising will all be worth it. So ask someone to read your work. Or pretend you're a first time reader and see what you find. I can guarantee your novel will be better for it!

Tracing the Emotions — Keeping Your Reader Emotionally Involved

As of this past week, I have completed my third round of revision on my manuscript and am about to begin my fourth. It's amazing to see just how much the novel has come along. It's definitely been a lot of hard work, especially with each revision is on such a tight schedule. But, while I am slightly exhausted to be sure, it's nice to be able to see the fruits of the work paying off!

This week, in my letter from my editor, one element that he highlighted for the next revision is to make sure to track the reader's emotional involvement with certain characters. In essence, I need to take a careful look at the emotional progression of certain characters, but also begin to consider the way in which readers will respond to those characters.

For instance, one of my characters, Tate, is the best friend of my protagonist. For the majority of the novel, however, Tate is angry at Carter for something he's done, and struggles to believe Carter's professed reason for why he did it. Now, I know this doesn't give you lots of insight into the greater situation or the dynamic between the characters, but it provides a good example this type of revision. Throughout the novel, Tate's anger manifests itself in a variety of ways. So as the novel progresses, and his anger changes, I need to make sure that his emotions are consistent and relative to the situations playing out around him.

Going through the scenes in which he appears, cataloging a list of his actions, and listing his emotional responses are all part of creating the emotional map for any character. Of course, I know people do this in a variety of different ways, including color coding, using index cards, or creating extensive outlines. But really whatever works for you is great, as long as you are making sure to carefully go through all of the places in which your character appears since even the smallest of actions can convey a world of emotion. You want to gather as full a picture as you can of the emotional life of your character.

But tracking a character emotionally is not only about following their emotions, but also being aware of how the reader responds to their emotional progression. One of the things my mentor said about Tate was that in a few instances, he has begun to come across as mean. And if he comes across as mean, then the reader loses sympathy for him, which in turn, lessens their sympathy toward my protagonist. Evaluating reader response to your character's emotional lives is just as important as the character's emotions themselves. Of course, it is not always about making your character likable, but instead, about remembering their emotions go beyond just the characters themselves.

Sometimes we become so caught up in moving the plot along and ensuring the value of each scene, and even each sentence, it can become easy to forget your reader's response. For my character, I didn't necessarily have a problem with Tate acting mean, but I do want to make sure to protect the reader's connection with him, and thus don't want his meanness to break the bond that has hopefully formed.

Because this type of revision shifts some of the focus away from the story itself as it exists on the page and onto the response of the reader, it is definitely a revision that should come later in your process. In the case of flat characters, who never really change or only make a cameo in one scene, there role doesn't merit this type of scrutiny. But all the other characters who play a main role in the action or even in the development of your protagonist can be evaluated in this way.

Secondary characters' emotions can often be just as important as the emotions of your protagonist. Like the real world, all of our characters exist in an interpersonal web of relationships. And, this web includes your readers' relationship with the characters. One of the best parts of the reading experience is that you get to lose yourself in a whole new world of friends and action and fantasy. So you want to make sure to keep your reader connected. Their emotions matter, too!