October 2025 …
One of the aspects I enjoy about being in a writers’ group is being prompted to explore the deeper ideas about why we read novels and stories, and how authors create reading pleasure.
A recent meeting revolved around the topic of reader emotions. Following responses to the drafts of my two novels from my alpha-readers, it became apparent how the emotions experienced by the readers influenced their reading pleasure. Many responses were along the lines of ‘couldn’t put it down’, ‘it grabbed me from the start’ – which is what I was hoping for. Other responses helped to crystallise why this was the case.
Many readers expressed feeling anger or outrage at the behaviour of some characters, while cherishing the developing relationship between others.
Invoking a sense of anger towards some characters was intentional; akin to putting a black hat on the evil cowboy.
Readers’ engagement in the developing relationship, while intentional on my part, surprised me in terms of how much it was noticed and appreciated. It wasn’t a straight-line romantic story, but one born from stressful situations for both key characters. The pair discovered an unexpected connection because of a preparedness to reveal hidden aspects of themselves as they faced challenges.
The story is, of course, constructed. I wanted to show these two characters developing a relationship. The best way to portray it was to show the ebb and flow of feelings between them. Tension and frustration would build to a breaking point, only for them to pull back and appreciate each other’s qualities. I understood that their emotional journey might feel intense to a reader, maybe exhausting, or even boring and predictable. By injecting moments of humour, tenderness and vulnerability, I created light and shade in their emerging story – time when readers could relax their focus, laugh out loud and see other facets of the characters.
I then realised that other significant characters were missing those light and shade moments; they also needed times where they could show tenderness, shame, regret, humour and vulnerability. Inserting these moments has made those characters richer, more vivid and relatable, and more engaging to the reader.
In some ways an author is like a magician working with emotions, using words to lead readers to feel a certain way. Just as the emotional path begins to looks familiar, the author can insert something new to create a new emotion in the readers. The primary response any author wants to avoid in readers is boredom, as that is the moment when the half-read story is set aside.
The discussions in our writers’ group encourage the search for these story-telling truths. We write for pleasure; sharing the product of our imagination in the hope that our readers will experience some of that pleasure as well. Understanding how the careful selection of words stimulates the readers’ imagination and feelings, allows the development of a story to be more intentional. It’s not about flooding the pages with description, but letting the readers’ imaginations fill out the story in their own way. Becoming emotionally invested in the story and characters creates reading pleasure and drives people, willingly, to read to the end.
That’s when the author has succeeded.