What Writers Gift To Readers
When you buy a book, you get more than just a story. You establish a connection with the writer. You’ll receive many gifts from the writer. This is what this article is all about.
The Magic Between Writers And Readers — Part 2
This relationship between writers and readers has its special kind of magic. For example, have you ever asked yourself why a certain writer has this special appeal to you? After all, there are millions of great stories out there. But why do you binge-read some, while disregarding others?
It’s not just the storyline. It’s not just the pretty cover or the clever title. It lies in the magic bond between writers and readers. Some writers just seem to do more for you than others. Give more. And that’s just it. This bond relies on the exchange of gifts.
This is a two-part article series. The last time, we looked at the readers’ gifts to the writer. Today, we check out all the awesome gifts writers offer to their readers.
What Writers Gift To Readers
To understand these gifts, you need to look beyond the physical book. You need to think about what needs to be done before you start writing. What goes into that book. And what happens when the book is being read. Let’s start at the beginning.
1. A meaningful experience
A book is a term for a physical thing you can buy. What the reader truly wants is a meaningful experience. Now, this is where it gets tricky for us writers.
Meaningful experiences mean different things to different readers. They can mean entertainment, identification, information, escapism, and confirming (or challenging) your readers’ values and experiences. All these experiences are equally important. So how do writers create meaningful experiences for as many readers as possible?
Easy. You must think of your book as a suitcase. The German critic Marcel Reich-Ranicki once said that you open some books, like some suitcases, and you spot all the contents immediately. Easy entertainment. Books from Barbara Cartland are like that, for example.
Other suitcases appear to be empty at first sight. Until you discover the secret compartment. You lift the inside bottom of the suitcase, and then you find a myriad of things. Those are the books that make you work when you’re reading. It takes time to discover the hidden bottom. An example is James Joyce’s Finnegan’s Wake.
The third kind of books yield the most satisfying experience: you open them, you discover interesting content, and then you read them again, and you discover the secret content. To me, fairy tales belong to this category or Shakespeare’s plays.
To provide those miracle suitcases, writers must collect as many meaningful experiences as they can. For some writers, this means having a life before they even start writing: Some need to have more than one job, some volunteer, travel, indulge in hobbies, or have a rich family life. Whatever you need to do, get as many experiences as you can. Then gift them to your readers by writing about them.
Pro Tip: Don’t believe you need to put your life on hold to write. What happens around the act of writing is extremely important, too! Life is not a distraction, it’s a prerequisite. But it needs to exist side by side with the writing — or your book just won’t get written.
2. Authenticity
All those meaningful experiences in writers’ lives contribute to their authenticity. They know what they write about. That authenticity is another gift writers present to their readers. Why is that important? Because your readers will know.
A study in journalism proved that readers couldn’t tell which parts of an article were well-researched. But they could certainly put the finger on the parts where the journalist was sloppy. Readers know exactly where you’re beating about the bush, where you’re waffling. So, all your heartaches and wisdom need to go into your book.
Pro Tip: Write about what you know — you’ve probably heard that one before. It doesn’t mean you should only write about your own life; your book doesn’t have to be a diary. This is not about factual information. What it means is that you should write about the emotions and thoughts that you know. Dare to be authentic.
3. Reliability
When readers pick up a book, they do that on the premise that authors will keep their promises. The first and most important promise is the title of the book. It usually tells you about the genre, the main character, and the storyline. It’s the reason the readers buy the book in the first place. Imagine what happens when the title doesn’t deliver.
There’s a second promise. It has to do with the ‘suspension of disbelief.’ It means readers are willing to accept the writer’s rules for this fictional world. The writer, in turn, promises to deliver a story where this world-building eventually makes sense and provides a meaningful experience to the reader. If that story doesn’t make sense according to the rules of this fictional world, then, again, the reader is disappointed.
Pro Tip: Keep these two promises under all circumstances. What happens if you don’t? Your disappointed readers won’t finish the story. They might never buy another book from you.
4. Large chunks of time
Just as readers invest their time in reading, writers need to devote their time to learning their craft and to practise it by writing their stories.
This is the formula: the faster the reader can read your book, the more time writers need to put in to hone their craft, and to edit their stories. The reward is a satisfying occupation for the writer and a meaningful experience for the reader.
Pro Tip: Be patient with yourself as a writer. It takes time to finish a story, and it takes even longer to find readers. That’s why authors must enjoy the act of writing. The act of selling books is a bonus.
5. Time-travel
Reading a book enables you to leave the confines of space and time. Until scientists invent beaming like in Star Trek, I know of no other experience that can do that.
Books help us connect with other cultures, walk in someone else’s shoes, reconnect with our history, and live in a distant future. It happens when writers create such an absorbing world, that the readers are whisked away as soon as they open the book.
To do this, all of the above-mentioned gifts have to be presented to the reader, together with a gripping style, an absorbing plot, and characters that seem to leap off the page.
Pro Tip: Readers know that this is the ideal experience any book can offer. They know that not every book will do that (remember the suitcases?). So don’t worry that your first novel might not live up to those high standards. But do give your best to live up to these expectations. Make it clear what readers can expect from your book. And then, keep that promise.
The Take-Away
Stephen King once said ‘Books are a uniquely portable magic.’ I believe that much of this magic lies in the bond between writers and readers. Only when writers truly appreciate the gifts of the reader, and offer their gifts to their readers, can they write better books. And create ‘uniquely portable magic.’
Abracadabra!
