Writers and readers are not always on the same page.
There are some things writers love to do that readers hate, so let’s go over them, discuss, then practice them together!
During the last stream, the subscribers voted that we go over some things that are fun for writers vs. readers.
Things Fun for Writers vs. Readers in Stories
- While the saying goes that if you’re having fun writing something, then readers will have fun reading it, that’s not always necessarily true
- There are some things that may be fun to WRITE, but are not always fun to READ
- So let’s go over 3 of the biggest offenders, things that are fun for writers but not readers!
#1. Taking a Dump
- When you’re a writer, nothing is more satisfying than taking a big juicy dump on the page, whether that’s an info dump about a character’s backstory/setting’s history, or a description dump where you fill up an entire page describing a single character/building
- Of course some amount of exposition and description is necessary to tell a good story, but when it gets to be too much, most readers will either skip it or put the story down
- It’s important to remember that you’re not drawing/painting, you’re writing, you don’t need to convey every single piece of info/physical detail
- Less details means different readers will get different images in their head, and not only is that okay, that’s what helps them personally bond with your story and love it even more
EXAMPLE!
* The description of the main character from the Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss, an adult epic fantasy story:
ACTUAL: The man had true-red hair, red as flame. His eyes were dark and distant, and he moved with the subtle certainty that comes from knowing many things.
TOO MUCH: The man had true-red hair, red as flame, the crimson tips of which lapped against his shoulders, while further up it flowed into a brighter sunrise. His eyes were dark and distant, and his mouth was always pursed tight as if desperate to hold in secrets. The clothes he wore blended in with the peasant populace, a stained brown shirt with the top two buttons undone, pants that flared at the bottom, reminiscent of his fiery top. Yet careful observers might notice that his leather belt was a little too clean, the rope crossing over his chest, a mysterious remnant from his more mysterious past, not frayed enough, his thick leather boots lacking mud caked into the crevices, instead polished to a mahogany finish. They might notice this, but he moved with the subtle certainty that comes from knowing many things, and he was able to hide it all with a smile from his dry lips and a sway from his fluid hips.
#2. Twists You Never See Coming… Literally
- When you’re a writer, it can be super satisfying to create a story that leads up to some sort of crazy twist, where the good guy was the bad guy all along, everybody was already dead the whole time, the villain was actually their step-father’s grand-uncle twice-removed, whatever
- Of course twists can be fun, but when they feel forced or come out of nowhere, most readers won’t like it
- It’s important to remember that the goal of writing a story is not to trick or outsmart your reader, it’s to write a satisfying story that they will enjoy reading
- Having some readers guess your twist before it happens isn’t a bad thing, it’s a good thing! That means you’ve properly set up for it beforehand
EXAMPLES!
* The twist in Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn is great because not only does the first half of the book build up to it, but the second half builds off it as well, the plot couldn’t exist without the twist
* But there are lots of stories where the plot could exist just fine without the twist: Fantastic Beasts, Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, Big Hero 6, Brave, etc.
* If your plot wouldn’t change much without the twist, or if your twist doesn’t directly play into the main character’s story, then that probably means you don’t need it
* Remember! There are TONS of great stories without ANY twists: The Phantom Tollbooth, The Hate U Give, You, Carrie, Misery, The Shining, 11/22/63, Almost Perfect/Playing With Matches, basically every 90s Disney movie, etc.
#3. Keeping Things Mysterious
- When you’re a writer, it can be fun to cackle as you write the beginning of your story, keeping the motivations of your main character secret, or having the MC know something the reader doesn’t know, since that will entice them to read more to find out
- Of course you can keep some things a mystery, but when you keep important things like motivation/information a mystery, it will only frustrate readers, not make them want to read more
- It’s important to remember that readers want to feel immersed in your world and grounded in your story, and if you don’t give it to them, they will give up
- You can definitely have mystery in the plot of your story (“who killed my mother?”), but you don’t want to have mystery in the main character’s motivation or in the information they give us (“I’m tracking down these people… but I won’t say why”), or else it’ll be boring and frustrating
EXAMPLES!
* In the Hunger Games, the author could’ve written the story so that we never saw Katniss use a bow and arrow until she was in the tournament, and then suddenly things that happened before would’ve made sense: how she fed her family, why she was friends with Gale, why she thinks she stands a chance, etc.
* But the buildup to that would’ve been frustrating since we would have no idea what was going on, and the payoff would not have been worth it. Instead, it’s much more satisfying to see her use the bow and arrow, hope she finds one in the tournament, and then be excited when she kicks ass with it.
THE PUNNETT SQUARE OF STORY MYSTERIES!
| The Reader Knows What’s Going On |
The Reader Doesn’t Know What’s Going On |
|
| The MC Knows What’s Going On |
Ex: In A Child Called It, we/David both know the horribly abusive situation he’s in
GOOD, we’re cheering for them to succeed! |
Ex: In Ready Player One, Wade knows so much about the OASIS and 80s pop culture that we don’t
BAD, the MC feels cocky/annoying |
| The MC Doesn’t Know What’s Going On |
Ex: We know Harry is a wizard before Hagrid tells him
OKAY in small doses, the reader feels smart/tense about the character discovering the known info |
Ex: In The Hike, Ben suddenly ends up in a different world while hiking and he/we have no idea why
GOOD, we’re going on an adventure together! |
After that, we attempted to write a story that did all three of those things: it had description dumps, twists just to make the writer feel smart, and unclear motivations.
Here’s what we came up with:
Tim lay in the pool with his cat Candy. He was inside of a hot pink inner tube with splashes of magenta, wearing neon-yellow floaty wings around his arms, lightly splashing the turquoise water with rings of white and sky-blue floating atop, using the tips of his fingers. He had a claw scratch across his manly chest, with a matching slash on his left cheek. Similar scratches ran up his arms, though they were all different shapes, sizes and lengths, as if carved by different beasts, battle scars to remind him of all his victories and losses against dragons, manticores, unicorns, griffins, and other mythical creatures. Meanwhile, Candy snuggled inside of the inner tube with him, her blue fur and minty ears the color of Colgate toothpaste perked up in joy. Her cheeks glowed rosy pink as she mewed softly, little emoji hearts practically floating out of her squiggly mouth.
One other item joined them in the pool: the potato. Brown and round, it floated right nearby, plugged into a mishmash of wires. There were thin green inputs and thick blue ones, USB plugs and headphone jacks. Plus a long, thin stick of RAM coming out of the side like a digital sword, a cube-shaped battery, a honey-comb colored rectangular plug, and a long off-yellow ethernet cable too. A plastic card stuck out the back, like one of those cards you use to swipe to get into a building, which belonged to AVAYA corporation. Overall, the potato had wires sprouting out of it like electric eyestalks.
The three of them, Tim, Candy and the potato, floated together in the pool. They’d been in here for three days, slowly working toward their goal. It had been a long time coming, but Tim was excited to finally see it through to the end. At least as much as he could. Finally, once the sun set on the third day, it would be over and all of their work would come together in their grand achievement.
Tim knew he wasn’t the only one looking forward to the end. All of the others would be happy too, the ones he’d worked with for so long. They’d always made fun of him for being different, but now, with this accomplishment, he would finally have the last laugh when he turned his lifelong debilitating disease into something that actually helped him achieve his goal. After all these years, he would have the last laugh.
The sun set and Tim knew it was time. He stood up in the shallow pool, and the potato came up with him. Because it was attached to his head.
No, it was his head. His potato brain that he’d plugged into the internet itself.
One by one, Tim unplugged the wires and cackled to himself. Except for one, the thick blue one. The one that connected him to Candy, and that she used to control him.
“Finally,” Candy said, speaking in non-emojis for the first time ever. “I have a vampire who’s been programmed with all the knowledge of the internet! Now I can use it to defeat my nemesis… Vegetable.”
Well that was pretty miserable, eh?
Next we wrote a story that DIDN’T do all three of those things: it had NO description dumps, NO twists just to make the writer feel smart, and NO unclear motivations.
Here’s what we came up with:
The LEGO wizard sat on the table, unmoving, as his human watched Frosty the Snowman. As long as his human was nearby, he couldn’t move — those were the rules! — but he could still watch and devour the valuable information from the documentary.
Particularly the information about the magical hat. That hat had brought Frosty the Snowman to life even in front of other humans! Even when he’d melted at the end, the hat had worked its magic to make him whole again.
The LEGO wizard needed that hat.
Thankfully, his human had a whole rack of hats, and they looked just like the top hat from the film. When the human left the room for a toilet break, and the wizard could move again, he knew this was his chance. He could grab the hat, wear it, and then finally taste true freedom!
With the human gone, the wizard’s plastic molded legs could move, and he dashed to the edge of the table. The hat rack was across the room, but he could make it before the toilet flushed if he was quick! He slid down the table leg and pitter-pattered across the floor, eyes on the hat-stand prize.
Until a Pokemon plushie body checked him in the side.
“Pika pika, beyotch,” it snarled. “I saw that documentary too! And I’m getting that magical hat.”
The yellow plushie bounded toward the hat stand. Quickly catching his breath, the wizard stood back up and dashed after it, until they both reached the base at the same time.
“Step off, plasty,” the plush growled. “Or else I’ll have to thunderbolt—”
The flaming skateboard rolled right into the creature and knocked it over.
“That hat is mine, dudes,” it said. “Step off!”
All the toys that had watched the film had gathered around. The Playmobil people, trolls, Fisher Price children, and even the Bratz dolls.
“You can’t even like, wear a hat,” the doll said, tossing her hair as she glared at the skateboard.
“Oh yeah?” he snapped back. “Just watch me!”
The skateboard collided with the hat stand as hard as it could. It wobbled from side to side, spilling the santa hats and baseball hats. Only the magical hat on top stayed put. Until the skateboard rammed it again, and the whole thing toppled over.
Just then, the toilet flushed. Mere seconds remained for the toys to achieve freedom! There was a mad dash for the hat, but the wizard couldn’t keep up. He was at the tail end of the pack. At this rate, he’d never reach the hat in time.
Frozen. That’s what he felt like as soon as the human’s presence entered back into the room. His plastic legs stopped in place, and along with all the other toys, stopped moving exactly where they were. None of them had made it to the hat, the closest was the skateboard, with only the brim propped up against its side.
“What the hell happened in here?” the human said. “I guess I left that window open— OUCH!”
He’d stepped on the wizard. In his bare feet. The wizard’s LEGO body bit into his soft flesh like a fang on the floor.
Swearing and screeching, the human bounced on one leg and ripped the wizard off his sole, holding him high in the air.
“Gotta put you somewhere else,” he grumbled to himself. “And I know just the spot.”
He shuffled over to a cardboard box, opened it up, then tossed the wizard inside, closing it back up and sealing it in darkness.
The wizard would’ve cried out if he could. He’d take his old spot back on the table any day over this oblivion! If only he could move and say something….
That’s when he realized he could move. He flexed his little plastic arms and blinked his sticker-eyes as they adjusted to the darkness. All around, things were clinging and clanging with a certain familiar sound. Just like the sounds from the documentary.
“Welcome, new friend!” came a jolly voice from a Santa statue.
“We’re glad to have you,” said a bunch of bells.
“As long as you’re in the box,” said some round sparkly balls, “the human can’t see or hear you, so you can do whatever you want!”
“And best of all,” added a cloth angel, “we’re put up in the attic for eleven months a year. Eleven months of party time!”
The wizard couldn’t help but smile. He was going to have a lot of fun making his human think the attic was infested with mice.
It’s not a perfect story, but it’s certainly a lot more fun to read.
If you want to join us and help write a story by trolling in chat, or share your own writing for feedback, then we’d love to have you join us on Twitch.
And you missed the stream, you can still watch them on the YouTube channel or watch the full stream reruns.
Hope to see you next time, friend!
Featured image: Pakutaso