How do you persuade people to read your story? That’s the question all writers struggle to answer. Even the most experienced writers still fear losing the attention of their readers half way through the work. It’s a common concern. After all, readers are very capricious characters. They want you to impress them along the entire way. As soon as your story starts sagging, readers leave you right on the spot.
Thus, millions of books are left unfinished just because their writers failed to engage the reader throughout the story. You don’t want such a thing happening to you, right? Hence, you better learn these seven writing tips on how to engage the reader.
- Have a hook
Writing the beginning is often the hardest part of the journey. Yet, it’s those first few lines and paragraphs that play a crucial role in your future success. Often, you have just about a minute or two to interest people in further reading. Hence, many writers use a hook to grasp people’s attention. A hook can be anything from an unusual twist of events to a mystery you set early on in the plot. Some writers start with a hook while others introduce it after a few pages. Yet, a hook must be present somewhere in the first chapter. Overall, hooks give an idea of what type of story this is going to be or what problem we are about to solve.
- Follow the storytelling rules
Writing is nothing but effective storytelling. Knowing how this process works will earn you the attention your book deserves. People are best at perceiving things when they are told as stories. Hence, learn in great detail about the common rules that make storytelling the most effective. Overall, good stories should evoke human emotions yet have the right pacing and solid structure.
- Show progress
Your story needs to have some development happening. Note, we are not talking about the plot moving forward. We are talking about the story and the characters’ progress. Both areas have to evolve, get more complex, interesting, and stronger. For example, you can’t start and end a story with an unchanged character. Your plot has to reveal some new aspects to their personality, history, etc.
- Emotional connection
You can have the most interesting story in the world with lots of twists and great character development. Yet, even that doesn’t mean people would follow it till the end. Do you know why? All readers need to have an emotional connection with the story. Hence, your work needs to speak to the readers on an emotional level. You can find such a connection by appealing to common emotional experiences, like being in love, grieving, or something else. Also, using language that communicates strong emotions, such as anger, fear, hate or love, will help readers feel the full scale of said emotions.
- Set a question to answer
You need to have a big bang in the end that everyone is waiting for when reading. Think of all the detective stories. These books often end with readers finding out who the murderer is, right? Apply such logic to each book you write. Even if the entire book is not so great, most people will still suffer through it to get their answer. Moreover, we are ready to finish all oxessays.com reviews just to find out their final opinion on the subject. We do that only because there is nothing worse than an unanswered question. So promise your readers a big revelation by the end of the book, and don’t disappoint them in your last chapter.
- Be open and truthful
Paper doesn’t bear any lies. If you are not 100% sincere in your text, readers will know. They will catch you on the lies right away, and they won’t forgive you. Often, the best way to engage readers is to show your vulnerability. The writer’s craft requires a lot of sacrifices. One of them is complete honesty with the readers. Be open with the readers, and they will pay you with loyalty and respect.
- Edit
Lastly, editing plays a huge role in capturing your readers’ attention. First of all, you shouldn’t have any mistakes or errors in your test. Having those will portray you as unprofessional and lazy. You can even find professional editors and ask them, “Can you do homework for me and proofread the text?” Next, you should cut every piece that doesn’t serve your main plot. Be fearless when it comes to editing. Leave only the core of your story. Everything else is only a distraction on your readers’ way to finding the truth. How many such obstacles can a reader tolerate before giving up? Not many. So, edit with passion.
