How To Connect With The Reader

Today's post is about how to make your idea come alive, for yourself and for your reader. It is important that you become a fan of your story first. Why? Because writing a novel is a long process. As I have said before, it is a thankless job that can last for years without any reward. So for that reason, you must make the process its own reward if you want to finish your manuscript.

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The story you love

I believe that it is easier and makes more sense to write a story from your own interest and aptitude. For example, I am not a romantic person in a general sense. So it would be absolute torture if I should try to write a romance novel. I prefer thrillers, adventures and horrors which can come in any form: sci-fi, historical or contemporary. Give me a rogue spaceship, a deserted island or a haunted mansion anytime. So the first thing you must do as a writer, is know your own preference for stories.

This process is super fun because you can engineer a story the way you want it to become. For example, I started with one book in the Iban Dream series and ended up writing three because I managed to combine some of the things I love the most in the first story. These are folklore, history, nature and ancient technology.

What type of stories are your favourites? Not sure because you have never given it any thought? Make a list of your favourite titles and see if there is a pattern. For example, I love non fiction travel stories such as The Travels of Marco Polo and Faxian's A Record of Buddhist Kingdoms, as well as fiction ones such as Tolkien's The Lord of The Rings and a Chinese Classic, Journey to the West. So it is natural for me to write about quests or expeditions.

Connecting With The Reader

Now that you have connected with yourself, you must next think about how to connect with the reader. Are you writing a book for school-going children? Then their textbook is a good source of inspiration. It is easier for children to follow a story if the topic is about something they understand. For example, when I wrote 'The Nanobots and Other Short Stories', I try to write the complicated topics in a way that makes sense for children. One quick way to decide how to do this is to go through their Science textbook and understand how science experiments teach them about observation and conclusions. This process is not as complicated as it sounds. Sometimes introducing something totally new is unavoidable. When that happens, use images that are familiar to them from well-known animation programs. This way they can visualise the story seamlessly.

Young adults are older teenagers, so their needs will be different. When I write for this group, I will pick a subculture to showcase then try to familiarise myself with the philosophy related to that culture. Teen culture is more than just music. Older teens use the way they dress to express their life philosophy. There are the Goths, Hipsters, Emos, Gamers, Religious types etc. Never, ever write from the standpoint of an adult looking in, because they get that from their parents and teachers all the time. Try your best to write from their perspective. One way is to connect with your teenage self. If you have always been a moral and responsible teenager, but you want to write about a gothic teenager, then I recommend that you write from the moral teenager's perspective. How would the goth type affect your responsible character? Young children accept the idea of good and bad without question from the adults around them. But teenagers question these ideas, so writing a moral story for them can be very tricky. You can read an earlier post, "How to Write a Moral Story" for more tips.

If you are writing for the general adult population, a good way to understand their interest and logic is to watch what news is trending. What is acceptable, what is unacceptable? What are the issues on gender bias or racial tolerance? If you write sci-fi, Science and Technology news are really exciting nowadays. I know that there are a lot of made up fable-style stories in social media but I do not recommend getting too much inspiration from these. Why? Because they are usually moral stories told in the traditional style. People share these short snippets because they validate something that the reader believes in or lives by. These are okay for instant impact, but there is very little wiggle room for growth in your story. The strange thing about moral stories is that, if you change the outcome, you will frustrate a lot of readers. However, if you don't explore the limits, your readers will be bored because your story is predictable. This is just my personal opinion, because I have not figured a way yet around this conundrum. 

What Work Do You Do To Relax aka Your Hobby

What do you like to do when you relax? Do you garden? Do you craft? Or paint? You can use this knowledge that you have accumulated instinctively in your writing. I call this the humanising element of the story. It is the activity that your protagonist can turn to when she is upset or thinking. The hands-on, reality based activity can make your character more relatable. Another thing this can do is prevent you from using a cultural trope. For example, maybe you are a software engineer but you like to socialise with family and friends in the real world. You can write about a hacker who is also extroverted and make her believable. Just the act of breaking free from this simple trope will widen the scope of themes and plots you can use for your story.

Keep in mind, tropes work in movies because there is very little time for character development. Character introduction must be quick and simple, so that the movie can start moving along. Book readers are a different kind of audience. They want to read about complex characters.

I hope today's tips are helpful.

Start writing, keep writing. Good luck.