Getting Attention

So, I've been helping a friend out recently and it's brought to mind something a mentor told me 3 years ago.

We all have a story within us. We all want to share that story because that's what we do as humans - we are storytellers. Goes right back to before writing and heiroglyphs, etc.

But the one thing that stood out to me 3 years ago is all the traffic that we have to drive our story through to get to a reader.

Yes, I'm going to use a driving analogy. Because writing a story is a journey. It's a journey from the first idea, whether it's a dream or something you've thought of, doesn't matter, to the "printed" word being either on a screen or in a book. It's a real task to go from the first kilometre or mile to the destination - I did think about putting "final" there but decided against it!

So, you've got your book written. You've gone through it maybe once and you're happy with it. It ticks all the boxes. Now you have to get people to read it. Once upon a time, that was pretty easy to do. There was just music, festivals and conversation. Now, it's a whole lot different. Even with the advent of television, people still read a lot. Now? Too many distractions. Let me list them.

Facebook

TikTok

SnapChat

Twitter/X

YouTube

WhatsApp

Instagram

Tindr

Tumbler

Telegram

Streaming TV/movies

Gaming

And a whole heap more.

So, before you've even published, one of the things that is important to think about is - will people read my book?

The next important thing to think about is - how will I get their attention off ALL of those other distractions to commit to reading my book.

This is the hard part. Getting people to focus on what you've written rather than all the guff that's out there - especially the stuff written by a robot or a computer program.

There are various ways of doing this, but the main thing is to keep your writing interesting, concise and engaging. The plot of your book - doesn't matter if your a pantser, plantser or a planner/plotter - must go from start to finish. It must be clear, even if there are side plots along the way. Flashbacks, if you have any, should be appropriately placed and signposted - otherwise, your reader might be lost in the back roads of your story.

And this is where a good beta reader, editor and proofreader come in. Between them, they can guide your story to be better than you can possibly imagine. They can help you address any issues, however minor. They can hone in on where a reader might get lost in the side quests your story introduces and end up wondering what happened in a minor situation rather than focusing on the plot you want them to.

So, keep these distractions in mind when you're going through your second draft. Keep thinking of what potential readers might be doing instead of enjoying the world and story you've created. Bear in mind that your characters are crying out for people to meet them and these other activities distract them and draw into your story ways in which people will want to keep turning those pages - will want to keep learning what is happening to your characters. Because those characters are a part of what drives the plot and they are, generally, what people relate to more than anything.

Give your readers something to latch onto. Something that the hook ties into and keeps them interested long after they've been drawn to that hook.