I've been blogging about how to write in a more literary fashion. This week's point is a little more basic than that. I've been saying step one to good writing is to make the reader care. To do so, you need to make a character care about something or someone--fiercely, if possible--then, show they are broken in some way, often that their heart is broken. If the character isn't broken, the world needs to be, something that needs to be fixed. At the very least, there ought to be a compelling question to move the story along. Something needs to drive the narrative, or the reader will drop out. Else where is the story? But it turns out there's something even more urgent that needs to be established. And that is a clear center of gravity. Above all, the reader needs to understand what is going on and who the characters are, so they can begin to care.
I have read a few novice manuscripts in which nothing is clear. Because it's not clear, I have a hard time caring and will often drop out. It may be because the writer is trying to keep mysteries from the reader or are trying something mindbending in their manuscript, like "Loki" season 2. It tries to bend the mind so hard that the audience can't tell what's going on much of the time. "Loki" season 1 works so well because we first understand what's going on and care. Mindbending can work if the audience/reader has something onto which they can hold. It may be a character, a situation, a relationship. Something to hold onto, something to care about. But if the reader doesn't have that, it's hard to keep rule number two, which is to make the reader care.
Rule numbers one and two create a firm foundation for everything to come. Mysteries in the mind of a reader can keep the pages turning if the mysteries are useful and not just to confuse. The reader wants to know you're working with them to reveal the truths of the narrative rather than against them by confusing them. If you can make the reader both understand and care, then, you can do all sorts of things with the narrative to come. Establish a character. Build that character and their world to a convincing and believable degree. Show the character's normal world, the relationships that show why they should care. It helps to show loss and pain but only if they matter, if they affect the character on a deeper-than-surface level. Basically, start in a place that makes sense and helps the reader invest in the character(s) and their world.
Only after you invest the time in your character and their world, enough to get the reader invested, can you take them where you want them to go. Hamlet's mind games with he court and particularly his uncle/stepfather work only if you understand what's really going on in his mind first, the way his father died and why that matters to Hamlet. You need to understand what's really going on to understand what comes next. Movies like "Across the Spiderverse" or "Inception" can go wild with mind-blowing events simply because you first have something or someone to care about.
You may have achieved both of these items in your mind, but does the clarity and feeling in your text extend beyond your mind? Sometimes, what we're writing seems to be clear and gutwrenching, but is it really? It's critical to have readers confirm that they both understand and care. It's helpful to read your writing aloud to and with others. It's also good to get others, including a writing group, to support your confidence in your fulfillment of both rule one and rule two. Take your piece to someone else, possibly several someones. Ask them if you achieved clarity and caring. If so, wonderful. Proceed. If not, ask your reader what you're missing and fix it.
