Betty's theory of readers
And here I am speaking not of my experience of readers, but in my experience as a reader.
What a reader is giving my fic, before the feedback, and praise/criticism, and love/hate, and fanart/public mocking, is attention. First, a reader gives my fic whatever increment of attention they feel is appropriate to evaluating new fic: five minutes, thirty seconds, whatever. I have that time to make the reader interested enough to keep giving me her attention. At no point does the reader necessarily commit the whole of the attention required to read the fic. I have to lure the reader along, moment by moment, by making it worth his while. And unless my reader has printed out my fic to read on an interstate bus trip, I have plenty of competition. This is the internet; there's always a flash game, instant messaging, porn, or most horribly, someone else's fic to distract them.
What can I do to get a reader's attention? Well, write a compelling fic; easier said than done. But that aside, one specific things I can do is not make the reader's attention have to leave the story.
To sum up, thank you for reading this far! I seem to have held your attention, but maybe the internet was boring today.
Tell me why I am so wrong I am not even the opposite of right, where you would agree, except for one thing, or tell me what I'm missing.
What a reader is giving my fic, before the feedback, and praise/criticism, and love/hate, and fanart/public mocking, is attention. First, a reader gives my fic whatever increment of attention they feel is appropriate to evaluating new fic: five minutes, thirty seconds, whatever. I have that time to make the reader interested enough to keep giving me her attention. At no point does the reader necessarily commit the whole of the attention required to read the fic. I have to lure the reader along, moment by moment, by making it worth his while. And unless my reader has printed out my fic to read on an interstate bus trip, I have plenty of competition. This is the internet; there's always a flash game, instant messaging, porn, or most horribly, someone else's fic to distract them.
What can I do to get a reader's attention? Well, write a compelling fic; easier said than done. But that aside, one specific things I can do is not make the reader's attention have to leave the story.
- Any time a reader has to stop to figure out what you mean, his attention leaves the story, and is applied to sentence construction. Sentence construction is probably not as compelling as your story. Your reader may very well stop at this point and decide, screw it! I am not saying you should write using only simple sentences, or treat your reader as stupid. I am saying that any time you have troubles with a sentence, can't quite figure what's wrong with it, and decide it's probably clear from context, stop, think again. It probably is clear from context, but this requires the reader to go re-examine the context. Get a second opinion on the sentence, or try deleting and re-writing it.
- Anything that is jarring may jar your reader's attention right on to another web page. This could be technical errors like anachronisms, poor characterization, and spelling mistakes, but I assume none of you would make any of these errors. But also, consider the associations readers might have with a word. Sometimes you want to use a new and fresh word, sometimes a word seems right to you, but if your beta tells you that "her verdant eyes," makes her think of algae, take that seriously. Your beta may have an unhealthy interest in wetlands, or she could be in the majority. Get a second opinion. Your lively figure of speech may be a bit too lively.
- Any time you leave a gap to be filled by your reader's imagination, you risk contradicting the reader later. I'm not saying you need to describe your character in minute detail; frankly, your reader probably won't be imagining him in minute detail either. But it's a good idea to sketch the basics of the setting from the start, unless the mystery setting is part of the story. When the reader thinks Frank and Joe are having a conversation while hanging off a cliff, and it turns out they are speaking in a gas station rest room, it forces her to go back and mentally re-stage the bits she has already read. If a character's gender is going to come up later, (as it generally does for most characters who have more than a single line) why not introduce it early?
- Any time you deviate from canon, (and I love AUs, so go for it) unless it is a big mystery reveal, make it clear earlier rather than later that this is what you are going to be doing. You needn't specify exactly how, but give your reader a clue so that they aren't half-way in before they realize this is a story about Buffy the Girl Scout Leader.
- Signal before turns. When you switch POV character, make that clear early on. When there is a scene break, it doesn't hurt to start it with, "The next day, in the locker-room, Jane wondered as she unhooked her bra, why..." And for heaven's sake, please always make sure dialogue is clearly attributed, especially if there are more than two people speaking.
To sum up, thank you for reading this far! I seem to have held your attention, but maybe the internet was boring today.
Tell me why I am so wrong I am not even the opposite of right, where you would agree, except for one thing, or tell me what I'm missing.