by Janice Hardy

A hard-to-read book is a book that doesn’t get read.

My mother was a voracious reader, reading one or two books a day. We were talking about books once and she mentioned she'd stopped reading one because it was “Just too much work.” It wasn't a bad book, in fact, she said it was a great idea and well written, but it did some things that made reading it a chore, not a joy, and she'd decided it wasn't worth the trouble.

Ouch.

Not worth the trouble? That's a hard blow for a well-written book.

But it happens. I've also read books that fell into that “too much work to read” area. Series I loved early on that faltered, books by authors I admired, books with fantastic premises I really want to explore. The only thing "wrong" with them was something they'd done that made reading them more work than the story benefit of doing so.

Is Your Novel “Too Much Work” to Read? 

Before I go on, it's important to note that there's nothing inherently wrong with a complex or complicated novel, or one that does any of the things I'm about to talk about. Tastes vary and what one reader thinks is wonderfully layered another might find tedious to get through. It's all very subjective, and it's up to the writer to decide if the story is working or if it's becoming unwieldy.

If you’re getting negative feedback, though, and readers are saying they’re having trouble getting into the novel, or they skimmed a lot of it, or they never finished it, then “being too much work to read” could be a reason why. 

Here are five red flags your story might be pushing the limits and scaring away your readers: 

1. It frequently requires readers to do extra "research."

This includes having to read inserted newspaper articles, poems, songs, etc. that aren't part of the narrative, but contain valuable information the reader needs to understand the story or plot.

The key phrase here is: “Contain valuable information the reader needs to understand the story or plot.” If the extra pieces are more for flavor or setting, and the reader can skip them and still understand the story, it’s probably fine. But if they need to read all those bits to get the story, then it might be a problem.  

It's the writer's job to convey that information through the narrative, not to make the reader do all the work and feel like they're doing background research for a report. A short bit here and there is usually no problem, but the more these extra pieces appear, the more likely it is the story is asking too much of the reader. 

Books such as epistolary novels, where the whole point is to read the letters or articles don't count here, of course.

2. It has way too many characters.

I stopped reading a favorite fantasy series because the author had introduced at least 50 characters by chapter three and I couldn't remember who was who by then. If readers can't remember who people are, they can't connect to them or even understand why what someone says or does is even important. If it requires a cast of characters list before page one, that's typically not a good sign.

Look for ways to combine or cut some of those characters. Who has to be there?

3. It has way too many points of view.

In the same vein, readers can only remember so much before it all starts to gloss together. If the scenes are constantly changing from character to character, and it's multiple chapters before the same character or plotline comes around again, salient details can and will get lost. Even worse, too many points of view usually go hand-in-hand with too many characters, especially if every point of view has its own cast. It's not long before all those secondary and minor characters are overwhelming.

Frequent point of view switches is also a tension killer, since whatever felt tense and immediate five chapters ago probably doesn’t any more. You might do a fabulous job at building tension, then it cuts to a new character in a new location and all that tension plummets. By the time the reader gets back to it, they barely remember what was going on.

Look for the points of view that are critical to the story, and cut the rest. You can also take critical elements from one point of view and add it to another (with some tweaks so it now fits that point of view, of course).

4. The names are all too similar, or too hard to pronounce.

Names that start with the same letter (Anna, Andrew, Arianna), names that are all the same size (Joe, Ted, Ann), names that look similar, (Lawrence, Terrance, Vance) all make it hard for the reader to remember who's who. Different names with the same ending also feel similar (Jessie, Marie, Ronnie).

It's not a bad idea to list all the names in alphabetical order and see how they look together. It's an easy way to catch potential confusion and change names that might be too similar. 

Genre names can really be a problem here, with names that are unpronounceable or impossible to tell if they're a person, place, title, or item. “After the fall of Drelekomor, when Silith bound the Thay’ne’mahi at Calvenrock, even the Ashen dared not awaken Nyrr.” Did a city fall, a nation, a single leader? Who or what are Thay’ne’mahi? Could be a group, a magic sword, or even the name of a creature. 

Look at your names out of context and see if they all work together. Is there a variety of letters, sounds, syllables?  

5. There's not enough backstory or reminders of key details in the later books in a series.

Think about the critical elements a reader needs to know to understand a scene, and treat it like it’s the first book in the series. Remind them of what they might have forgotten in the year since the book came out.

The more accessible your story is, the better the chance that readers will be drawn into that story.

The more complicated the story, the harder it can be, but if you take a little extra time to consider how the reader is going to move through the story, you can make that journey as easy as possible.

Have you ever stopped reading a book because it was too much work? What made you stop? Have you read any good examples of books that did anything on this list?  

About Janice

Janice Hardy is the award-winning author and founder of the popular writing site Fiction University, where she helps writers improve their craft and navigate the crazy world of publishing. Not only does she write about writing, she teaches workshops across the country, and her blog has been recognized as a Top Writing Blog by Writer’s Digest. She also spins tales of adventure for both teens and adults, and firmly believes that doing terrible things to her characters makes them more interesting (in a good way). She loves talking with writers and readers, and encourages questions of all types—even the weird ones. 

Find out more about writing at www.Fiction-University.com, or visit her author’s site at www.JaniceHardy.com. Subscribe to her newsletter to stay updated on future books, workshops, and events and receive her ebook, 25 Ways to Strengthen Your Writing Right Now, free.

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by Sarah (Sally) Hamer

What’s the difference between conflict and tension? And why is knowing so important in writing? Because they are so very different. Although they are intimately connected – you really can’t have one without the other – they come from different places.  Understanding – and utilizing both in the correct ways – can shoot a boring book into the stratosphere. We just have to figure out how they both work.

So, first a quick explanation:

What is conflict? 

Conflict is the setup of a book. It’s the human nature tangles of arguments, struggles, battles, skirmishes, clashes, quarrels, tiffs, wrangles, spats, disputes! Why? Because we humans are so darned good at it! 

In real life, we at least pretend to avoid conflict and we try for peace, again and again. 

Which is the right thing to do in real life.

But books are different. The stories we tell MUST have conflict. Maybe, just maybe, it’s because we need to see struggles between others to learn to deal with problems ourselves. 

So, in the movie, Up (Pixar, 2009, animated, Ed Asner starred), Carl has just lost his beloved wife. Her dream was for them to go to Paradise Falls. Carl decides to go on his own. His conflicts abound, from taking on an unexpected passenger, to finding a megalomanic explorer who is willing to kill to prove a theory. 

That’s conflict. It’s a set of plot points that take us from the beginning of the story, where Carl doesn’t know how to accomplish his goal, to the end where he is forced to make a choice. 

But it’s NOT tension. 

In fact, the entire story could be told in a paragraph (like I just did) if it weren’t for the tension. Tension is absolutely essential to storytelling. Not always life-or-death conflict, mind you. But certainly something that is interesting to watch.

Tension is how the conflict is laid out, with each step along the way raising the temperature. Each step sets up the next episode of conflict. And the final step is a big explosive confrontation between your protagonist and his nemesis – whether internal or external – which leads us to a satisfying ending.

Tension. Conflict. Problems. 

Interesting! 

Another example is Misery by Stephen King. Paul Sheldon, a well-known writer, is injured in an accident in a remote area of Colorado and is rescued by a woman – Annie – who is his biggest fan. She nurses him back to health with the pain killer, Novril, but at one point:

He discovered three things almost simultaneously, about ten days after having emerged from the dark cloud. The first was that Annie Wilkes had a great deal of Novril (she had, in fact, a great many drugs of all kinds). The second was that he was hooked on Novril. The third was that Annie Wilkes was dangerously crazy.

Oh my gosh! King is really brilliant, even if you don’t read horror. He knows so well how to keep an audience engaged from the first to the very last word. By this time, I’m so worried about Paul Sheldon, I can’t wait to see what happens next. Even when it completely creeps me out!

The conflict is that Annie wants Paul to resurrect the protagonist of his books. She’ll do whatever it takes. But Paul is being held prisoner and, even though he almost escapes, she crushes his ankles and forces him to write the story the way she wants. Paul’s only goal is to get away from the crazy woman. Tension grows as we watch, piece by piece, as Annie nurses him, keeping him comfortable, and making him feel safe. But each sentence and paragraph unveils her mental illness. She gives him too many drugs too often. She makes demands. She finally plans to kill him. But Paul is able to get away.

Tension is what carries this tale. 

Layer upon layer of tension drives the conflict, as the conflict directs the path the story goes. We set up the conflict – Annie’s goal against Paul’s goal – and tension provides the “push” to the next conflict. Go back to the quote. Paul first tells us the conflict in this short scene. Annie is giving him drugs and he’s hooked on them. Then, even though it’s not in this quote, we know he’s in danger. The door opens and Annie comes in with a tray. On it are the pills Paul knows he’ll be forced to take, both because she will make him and because he’s craving them. He has no real choice but to do what she wants. 

That sets up the next conflict. His goal is to get away and he has to figure out a way to do it. Of course, she’s standing in the way, with each action she takes amping up the tension. He’s caught in a trap. And his life is on the line.

Tension is essential.

1. Tension is absolutely necessary (did I beat that horse enough?)
2. Tension comes from both inside and outside your protagonist:
   1. Internal – what drives him or her
   2. External – what happens to him or her
3. There are also two basic levels of tension:
   1. Global – as in the actual set-up of your story
   2. Scene by scene – as in what happens in each scene 
4. Tension is not about car wrecks and sword fights. It’s about things that happen to your characters and how they react to them. 

Tension is not boring!

Think about how you can build tension in your story. Wrap it around the internal goals and motivations and conflicts of your characters. Think about how they will react in different situations. Build tension so that readers will keep turning those pages!

How do you express tension?

About Sarah (Sally)

Sarah (Sally) Hamer, B.S., MLA, is a lover of books, a teacher of writers, and a believer in a good story. Most of all, she is eternally fascinated by people and how they 'tick'. She’s passionate about helping people tell their own stories and has won awards at both local and national levels, including two Golden Heart finals.

A teacher of memoir, beginning and advanced creative fiction writing, and screenwriting at Louisiana State University in Shreveport for over twenty years, she also teaches online for Margie Lawson at www.margielawson.com and for the No Stress Writing Academy at https://www.worldanvil.com/w/classes-deleyna/a/no-stress-writing-academy.  Sally is a free-lance editor and book coach, with many of her students and clients becoming successful, award-winning authors.

You can find her at info@mindpotential.org

by Julie Glover

Since starting to write over a decade ago, I’ve matured a lot as a writer. Not only have I learned a lot about craft and publishing (thanks, in huge part, to Writers in the Storm!), I’ve become more certain of who I am as a writer. And more willing to stand up for myself where it matters.

Younger Writer Me didn’t know as much about what mattered, and I wish I could go back and give her some advice—saving her time, frustration, and stagnation. Because, while you should sponge up all the great writing insights and wisdom available out there, there are three aspects you should never let someone mess with. They are core to your writer self, and you should remain true to them.

What are those three aspects?

Your Voice

What’s your unique voice? Writing coach Michelle Barker noted that:

We each have a voice that we write in, and it’s as individual as a fingerprint. A novel by Margaret Atwood will sound different than one by Stephen King, and while this might be related to both genre and characters, there’s an ineffable quality to each author’s voice that seeps into their work regardless of how hard they might try to keep it out.

A lot of what readers connect to is an author’s voice.

But too often, a well-meaning writing coach, editor, or critique partner suggests changing so much of your prose that, if accepted, a book would lose your voice.

Years ago, I attended a workshop by a marvelous presenter who taught me so much, but thankfully, a colleague pulled me aside at some point and said, “Great stuff here, but don’t let them mess with your voice.” (Although, to be fair, she didn’t say “mess” but rather a word that begins with f.)

I have long felt grateful for that fellow writer letting me know that it was more than okay to protect my unique author voice. I could say no at times to suggestions made by this person, who knew far more than I did about writing, because at the end of the day—I knew me.

For your writing to stand out, you have to protect your author voice. What makes your writing identifiably yours? Make sure you honor that uniqueness, for yourself and for your readers.

Your Process

How do you write books? Some people believe you should write every day, while others believe you should write when inspiration strikes. Some believe you must plot, while others suggest you write “by the seat of your pants” (plotter vs. pantser). Some tell you to vomit your first draft onto the page, while others champion editing as you go.

Meanwhile, one of the best books about writing I ever read was Process: The Writing Lives of Great Authors by Sarah Stodola. Why? Because this journalist looked at how various successful authors wrote, and it turns out that there’s no one way to write a book.

The right process is whatever works for you.

After signing with my dream agent, we were unable to sell my first book to publishers. I pitched another idea, a cozy mystery, and my agent suggested that I send her a scene-by-scene synopsis. I was resistant—because that’s not how I wrote—but after some coaxing, I decided to give it a try. The result was a great outline for a cozy mystery … and zero desire to write the book. For me, the joy of writing included discovery as I wrote!

I’m not blaming the agent. She had good intentions and wanted to make sure I could write a great book that she could sell. But I let her mess with my writing process and, in the end, lost more than a year of progress on that book.

By all means, try out different ways of writing, but once you figure out your process, stick to it. If you know what works for you, own it and protect it.

Your Theme

What’s the theme of what you write? As Jane Friedman explains:

A thematic statement is what your book is about. Every book is about something. Every writer, whether they initially realize it or not, is making a point. A great way to get at theme is by asking yourself, "What’s the point?”

Theme can change from book to book, but more likely, you have a main point that threads through all or most of your books. Examples of major themes include:

• Love conquers all.
• You’re stronger than you think.
• Everyone is redeemable.
• Family is the people you choose.
• You always have a choice.
• You must fight for what you get.

In my case, I nearly signed with a publisher to put out my first YA contemporary novel, Sharing Hunter, but after some back and forth, I realized they saw the theme differently from how I saw it. To me, the message was about the importance of friendship and standing up for yourself, while the publisher wanted love-conquers-all to be the focus.

I walked away because I wouldn’t compromise on my theme, and I’ve never had any regrets. While someone else might believe fully in that theme, it wasn’t what I wanted to get across.

Ask yourself what the point of your book or books is? What message do you want readers to glean from what you write? And don’t depart from that goal!

Final Thought

If I thought long and hard, I might be able to come up with a fourth and fifth aspect you shouldn’t let someone mess with. But these three have long stood out to me.

Figure out who you are as an author regarding your:

• Voice
• Process
• Theme

And then hold to that. So much else is negotiable, but if you surrender any of those, you’ll likely be unhappy with the result.

Which aspect speaks strongest to you? And is there another aspect of one’s writing self you would add to my list?

About Julie

Julie Glover is an award-winning author of young adult and mystery fiction. Her contemporary YA includes Sharing Hunter, Daring Charlotte, and coming-soon, Pairing Anton, and she has written several YA paranormal stories. She has also co-authored five supernatural suspense novels and two short stories in the mythology-based Muse Island series under her pen name Jules Lynn.

Julie holds a master’s degree in counseling, has taught conference workshops and online courses, and serves as sidekick and sometimes-host for Cruising Writers, an incomparable writers’ retreat at sea. A native of Texas, she now lives in Denton with her hottie husband, her loquacious cat, and her large collection of cowgirl boots.

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