Checking in with Your Reader by Annette M. Irby

woman reading*

You’ve put your outline beside you, if you plot first. If you’re more of an SOTP (seat of the pants) writer, you’ve got energy and instinct to keep you writing. We have a lot of story elements running through our minds as we work, all the things we need to remember. And we may have a deadline or a personal goal pushing us on. But how often do we consider the reader while we write?

Recently I read a rough draft of a scene where at the beginning of the passage I knew where the characters were, but by the end, I couldn’t recall. The author had lost the reader, left the reader out. We can help our readers follow us by checking in with them, or in a sense, involving them. Considering them as we work.

Here are some tips for checking in with your reader throughout a manuscript:

* Reminders—as you’re writing a scene, you likely picture the setting in your mind and see your characters moving around. Readers rely on us to show them what the atmosphere is like. We can do that via the five senses. What I’ve noticed is many times writers only describe the scenery at the beginning of a scene. But you can check in with the reader by reminding them the characters are, say, outdoors by mentioning a cool breeze, or a flitting butterfly, or whatever is fitting for the tone, setting, and POVC’s (point-of-view character) voice for your scene. Another practical reminder is a quick mention about who someone is to our main characters. You can do this subtly so the words don’t feel like reader-feeding. Now, some say RUE (refuse the urge to explain), and I agree to some degree. Still readers appreciate being reminded that so-and-so is Susie’s second cousin’s brother’s bff. ;) If you only tell readers once, they may not remember and worse, may not recall where to find the info on this guy.

* Meeting their expectations—what do readers expect from the genre you’re writing in? If you’ve previously published, what do your readers expect from you, from your voice? I’m not suggesting we be predictable, but that we satisfy readers. So, you “check in” with them by considering whether the work will meet their expectations (and/or exceed them). Ask yourself how others might perceive the story. Get feedback. Involve readers.

* Ministry—checking in with readers can also mean praying about the best way to minister to them and letting the insights influence the work. Jesus used story to minister, so this is true of fiction writers as well as non-fiction authors. We can ask ourselves: how can my theme and plot illustrate what God has shown me?

There are several other ways to check in with readers. How have you done it in your writing?

Write on, friends! 

Annette M. Irby

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Annette M. Irby has two published books and runs her own freelance editing business, AMI Editing. Her next book releases in early 2015. She is also an acquisitions editor for Pelican Book Group. See her page here on Seriously Write for more information.

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photo credit: woman reading a book by Naypong; freedigitalphotos.net

 

Burying Old Bones with Deep POV by Tanya Stowe

Tanya Stowe

Hey, writers! Are you old enough to remember being taught to use two spaces after punctuation? Or to use plenty of detailed description? (Oh, the adjectives.) Writing trends and expectations keep changing. Even now, the phrases "she thought" or "he wondered" are being phased out as editors prefer deep POV. Today's guest, Tanya Stowe, offers some insightful tidbits on deep POV. Read on! ~ Annette

Burying Old Bones with Deep POV

by Tanya Stowe

I’m a dinosaur. I thought when I reached fifty that I’d arrived at the status of a collectible, but now I know I go much further back.

I started writing when the classic form was still popular. Narrative methods were used—maybe overused—and author insertion worked. As a dutiful student, I learned to think and write as an author “observer.” Even though I was considered a bit of a groundbreaker with my scenes starting in the middle of action and dialogue, I still found myself garnering comments like “too passive, be more active” or the dreaded “show don’t tell.”

With the onset of e-Publishing, readers have an expectation of faster reads with even more immediacy. As an e-Published author, I knew it was time to shed those old “dino” bones and raise my writing to a new level. But where to start?

I belong to a writers’ organization that does a very good job of educating its up and coming writers. At many conferences and online classes I’d attended workshops about deep point of view. Old-timer and experienced writer that I am, I naturally assumed deep POV meant getting deep into the psyche of your characters.

And that, dear friends, is why my old bones were rattling!

I jumped into some serious research on deep POV and found that it’s definitely about delving into your character, but it’s much more. The technique tells the story from the protagonist’s stream of consciousness, revealing events from inside, through the character’s thoughts and actions.

With deep POV, the character unfolds different personality traits through quirky thoughts, repetitive actions or intense internal reactions with opposing external actions. Imagine the explosion going on inside James Bond as he delivers one of his one-line comebacks to the bad guys! Or maybe Mr. Bond really is just as calm on the inside as the outside. With the use of deep POV, the possibilities for rich, multi-dimensional characters are endless.

Deep POV is great for characterization but it also makes the story more immediate by eliminating the insertion of the author’s thoughts and presence in the middle of the story. No outside narrator exists between the reader and the protagonist. The reader lives the story as if she is the protagonist.

But be careful. Deep POV is not a continuous stream of conscious monologue. That can be as boring and off-putting as author intrusion. An occasional word or phrase in italics accentuates deep POV and brings depth, insight, or emotion to a scene.  It doesn’t eliminate the need for good descriptions or snappy dialogue but deep POV will eliminate almost all of those pesky “show-don’t-tell” pop-ups that can plague even the best of writers.

Personally, I’m counting on deep POV to bury some bones so deep they never come back to the surface.

Tender Trust

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Tender Trust

Alex Marsden dragged Penny Layton out of the gutter and promised her a happily-ever-after love with a house and a white-picket fence. But the Civil War changed their paths. Separated twice by circumstances beyond their control, Penny learned to survive on her own, but lost hope. Five years later when Alex miraculously returns to her, Penny doesn't believe in happy endings or miracles. Will Alex's faith and love be strong enough to drag Penny out of the gutter one more time?

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Tanya Stowe is an author of Christian fiction with an unexpected edge. She fills her stories with the unusual…gifts of the spirit and miracles, mysteries and exotic travel, even an angel or two. No matter where Tanya takes you…on a journey to the Old West or to contemporary adventures in foreign lands…be prepared for the extraordinary. Connect with Tayna here: 

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