Too many writers of fiction don't give the reader enough credit.
If you care about [the characters] as if they were real, that always helps.
And that's the way of a real tale. Take any one that you're fond of. You may know, or guess, what kind of a tale it is, happy-ending or sad-ending, but the people in it don't know. And you don't want them to.
There's something exciting about weekly strips in that you're following the way the story reveals itself to the writer week by week. All the possible directions it could have taken are there; it's a kind of participatory reading that I think books discourage.
Remember, if you don't feel passionate about the characters and subject of your story, your readers won't either.
It can be hard to write a skillfully entertaining fiction, but a great book wants to be more, and wants more from us.
My job is to entertain the readers in such a manner that, when they reach the end of the book, they feel like they've gotten their money's worth.
As a writer, you have to realize that people want to like the characters, so you have to be careful to keep them involved.
Reader loyalty will stay because I'm not changing.
The demand that I make of my reader is that he should devote his whole Life to reading my works.
Imbuing fiction with a life that extends beyond the last word is in some ways the goal: the ending that goes beyond the ending in the reader's mind, so invested are they in the story.
I'm writing for entertainment. I like people to reach the end and feel they got their money's worth.
Choosing the narrator for a first-person story like 'Downriver' is a crucial decision because the voice has to be one the reader wants to listen to, and the voice has to be a match for the emotion you want the story to carry.
I'm writing for my ideal reader, for somebody who's willing to take the time, who's willing to get lost in a new world, who's willing to do their part. But then I have to do my part and give them a sound and a voice that they believe in enough to keep going.
I try to make the readers feel they've lived the events of the book. Just as you grieve if a friend is killed, you should grieve if a fictional character is killed. You should care. If somebody dies and you just go get more popcorn, it's a superficial experience isn't it?
If there are 100 people, I don't anticipate all 100 liking my scenario - but I write it so at least one or two of them will love and get really into that particular story.
What any writer hopes for is that the reader will stick with you to the end of the contract and that there is a level of submission on the reader's part.
People have told me that they cannot put down 'If I Stay' after reading it, and readers have become very invested in the love story between Adam and Mia.
If the reader cares, I don't think it matters so much whether your hero is in fact an anti-hero.
Whenever you have two characters in a book, whether it's a novel or nonfiction, you run the risk that the reader is going to like one more than the other. They're going to read one chapter and say, 'I can't wait to get back to the other guy.'
If the characters are compelling, readers will follow anywhere.
I think, what's the point of writing a book that you would get in one sitting?
If there is no love between the author and the story, there is no love between the reader and the story.
I want to write a story for people where they finish it, and it sticks with them.
I remember how a man once got in touch with me to tell me that he was so engrossed in my book that he had to take a day off from work just so that he could finish reading it. Such kind of responses from my readers is extremely endearing, and it keeps me going.
