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Fellow authors, gather ‘round. I have something to share re: a segment of the reading population you may not have thought about much before: we’ll call them the Distracted Readers.
Until a few years ago, I was an incredibly fast and immersive reader. I could finish a novel in four hours if in one sitting and as few as three days in three sittings.
When you read like this (as I suspect most authors do), you fall *all* the way into the author’s world.
When you read like this (as I suspect most authors do), you fall *all* the way into the author’s world.
Immersive readers know your characters deeply. They get the shape of your world in aggregate. They remember details, like if a minor character’s story doesn’t match from Chapter Three when you’re in Chapter Fourteen. They may have just read Chapter Fourteen!
Immersive readers may be tired, but they generally have the brain space to think about the book as an intelligent questioning reader.
Distracted Readers do not read like this. Let me take my present situation as an example. I’m single mom running own business taking care of a five year old half time in fourteen hour days with no backup. I read because I love books, but I read to my daughter longer than to me.
In practice this means I’m reading in smaller chunks, frequently interrupted. I might go three or four days without reading on a fiction book, especially if work is going well and I’m doing research/reading client projects for that.
It changes how I read dramatically.
It changes how I read dramatically.
I often have only vague recollections of what happened in Chapter Three by the time I get to Chapter Fourteen. If your big reveal depends on me remembering, your book will fall flat for me right now, not because I don’t care or I’m not smart, but because I’m distracted.
I have limited ability to sit through the “linking” scenes in which nothing much happens, much less so when there’s a lot of worldbuilding that requires a lot of me as a reader. If the pace or character connection slows, I have ended up reading the same page...
...literally five times over three days and just can’t seem to make it past that. I’m stuck somewhere in the middle of Gideon the Ninth right now because of this, for all the overall worldbuilding is astonishing and for all it’s gotten brilliant reviews from most everyone I know.
(This is no criticism of Gideon the Ninth, given that I myself have written similar scenes heavy on worldbuilding “for color” and have read them from dozens of talented authors.) The point is that, if you don’t think about your Distracted Reader, you too might write many like it.
This in no way means you can’t be demanding of a Distracted Reader or that you need to spoon feed them. @aliettedb ‘s rather amazing Seven of Infinities had a *very* rigorous world, with lovely layers and technologies and expected me to come along. But...
She also made the minor character who becomes a major character later *memorable* enough that I could connect them without having to think!
Your Distracted Reader loves books or they wouldn’t be reading under these kinds of circumstances at all.
If anything I am MORE grateful to a book that transports me successfully right now than I ever have been, because it’s harder. I will be a diehard fan of authors who do it.
If anything I am MORE grateful to a book that transports me successfully right now than I ever have been, because it’s harder. I will be a diehard fan of authors who do it.
So how do you hook (and keep) a Distracted Reader? Good craft.
One, make important things memorable. Character A chews gum when she shows up on stage every time, or you see the suspect with the red hat.
You can also just remind the reader, of course, but clunky.
One, make important things memorable. Character A chews gum when she shows up on stage every time, or you see the suspect with the red hat.
You can also just remind the reader, of course, but clunky.
Two, and I say this to myself: cut the fat. Find ways to let every scene do more than one thing. A cool setting isn’t enough; make the action happen in the cool setting, and something about that setting affect the action strongly.
Conflict and open questions also go a long way.
Conflict and open questions also go a long way.
Old me would have gladly read a whole book for a couple of open questions and a mystery and loved it. Distracted me is tired and needs a small question opened and answered every five to fifteen pages. (Good scene structure can serve this purpose since the twist asks questions.)
