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Search So What? Making Readers Care About Your Story

By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy
Nearly 3,000 articles to
help you take your
writing to the next level! Give readers a reason to care and they'll read on. Problem is,
sometimes you can have all the right pieces of good
Developing Your Novel storytelling in place and the reader still doesn't care, but
Ideas and Brainstorming
you're not sure why. This often equates to the dreaded "it was
Story Development and
Theme well written, but it just didn't grab me" type comments and
Character Development rejections.
Structure and Outlining
Plotting
So how do you get those pesky readers to care in the first
Goals, Conflict , Tension,
and Stakes place?
Setting
World Building Four things.
Genre
Word Count
Series and Trilogies 1. Stakes
Writing Your Novel
"Go to bed" doesn't get much of a response. "Go to bed or else" does, because the "or
Voice and Style
Dialogue and else" could be something bad. The fear of that something bad forces a reaction. When
Internalization the reaction you want is fear and worry (which leads to caring), you have to dangle
Point of View (POV) something bad as a threat.
Description
Pacing
Foreshadowing Let's say you have a scene where Joey is sitting at the dinner table, and his babysitter
Flashbacks is forcing him to eat his broccoli. He refuses, she insists. This is going to get ugly and
Tone and Mood one person is going to end the night unhappy. Even though they both have strong goals
Common Writing to drive the scene, do you care if Joey eats his vegetables? Probably not. It doesn't
Problems matter if he does. Nothing will happen to him if he doesn't.
Show vs. Tell
Backstory But let's say Joey is highly allergic to broccoli. He tells the babysitter, but she doesn't
Infodumps
believe him. Joey knows if he eats that broccoli, he's going to wind up in the hospital.
Hooks
Lack of Conflict Heck, maybe he has some weird anaphylactic reaction and it could even kill him.
Lack of Action
Lack of Goals And the babysitter is not above holding him down and shoving it down his throat. She's
Lack of Tension a lot bigger than poor little Joey, and she's known throughout the neighborhood for
Lack of Motivation
Lack of Stakes being the meanest babysitter in town. The chances of Joey avoiding that broccoli are
Stalled Stories slim.

Editing Your Novel

First Drafts
Revision and Editing
Word Choice
Trimming Words
 Critiques and Feedback

Selling Your Novel

Query Letters
The Synopsis
The Submission Process
Marketing and Promotion
Publishing
Self Publishing

The Writing Life

Being a Writer
Motivation and
Productivity

Regular Columns
How They Do It
Indie Author Series
The Writer's Life
WIP Diagnostics
Curious what happens now? Probably, because the stakes are much higher now. Eating
his vegetables has real consequences that matter on a large scale.
Not everything has to be life or death stakes, but if the outcome doesn't matter to the
person it's happening to, why should it matter to anyone else? But if the outcome has
dire consequences, we'll read on to see what happens.

Follow @Janice_Hardy
To care, we have to worry about (or wonder) how things will turn
out.
MOST POPULAR POSTS
To worry, the outcome has to matter in ways that will strongly affect someone --
10 Traits of preferably the protagonist or someone important to the protagonist.
a Strong
Antagonist
By Janice Common Caring Failures: Low stakes dressed up to appear high. The protagonist
Hardy, feels it's life and death, but it really isn't, and the stakes end up looking melodramatic.
@Janice_Ha Another one is having the stakes too high. Saving the universe is so huge that it
rdy I love villains. And
becomes impersonal. It's hard to care about billions. It's too abstract.
anti-heroes. I even love
natural disasters that
don't care one way or the (Here's more on What's at Stake? How to Make Readers Care About Your Story)
other ...

What You 2. Likable Characters

Should
Know About Even the highest stakes won't matter if readers don't like your character. The worry
the Three
comes from them not wanting to see bad things happen to this person (even though we
Act
Structure love it when bad things do happen to them). Readers like to see the struggle, to know
By Janice Hardy, the win was earned. And they want to know the person winning is worthy of the victory.
@Janice_Hardy Story
structure is a useful tool
This also has a flip side. If readers don't like a character but are intrigued by them,
for developing and
writing a novel. The first they'll read to see what they do or if they get their just desserts. This is a lot more
time I learned about challenging however.
story st...
Common Caring Failures: Perfect characters who have no flaws and do everything
10 Signs of
a Great right. Overly flawed characters who do everything wrong. Characters that have no
Protagonist redeeming qualities at all.
By Janice
Hardy,
So now we have someone we like, who faces something bad happening to them if they
@Janice_Ha
rdy At the heart of every fail. But you also need...
story is a person with a
problem, and the more (Here's more on The Triangle of Likability: How to Make Your Characters Come Alive )
compelling that person
is, the better th...
3. An Interesting Situation

5 Common The nicest guy in the worst trouble won't hold attention long if the problem is boring.
Problems What's worse, readers are inundated with so many stories every day, that even exciting
With
Middles problems can be boring if readers have read/seen/heard of them too many times. They
By Janice can predict how the story will play out.
Hardy,
@Janice_Hardy The
Common Caring Failures: Offering the same old same old. While you can make an old
middle is where most of
a novel happens, which idea fresh, similar ideas done in similar ways rarely hold attention. Another common
is why they're often so failure are situations that the writer find really cool, but their characters are just there
difficult to write. F... to act out that cool idea. There's no story.

The Inner
Struggle:
Create a situation readers haven't seen before (or a new twist on things they have),
Guides for give them a character they like, and give them terrible consequences if they fail, and
Using you'll have readers caring about what happens next. That is, as long as...
Internal
Conflict
That Make Sense (Here's more on What Writers Need to Know About Hooks)
By Janice Hardy,
@Janice_Hardy Here’s an 4. The Protagonist Cares
easy way to develop
character arcs in your
novel. Years ago, I sat in This is where a lot of "why should I care?" stories fail. They have the first three down,
on an amazing workshop but their protagonist never worries that much, or stresses over the situation. Readers
at an ...
get their clues from the protagonist, and if that protagonist isn't that worried about
4 Mistakes
something, readers won't be either.
that Doom
the First But if the protagonist is all wigged out, the reader will be too -- even if they know the
Page of
situation isn't as dire as the protagonist thinks. The worry -- the caring -- comes from
Your
Manuscript knowing the protagonist is worried and not knowing what they might do about it.
By Janice Hardy,
@Janice_Hardy Your A protagonist who always wins, never struggles, knows he'll come out on top no matter
novel’s first page is the
what he faces, is about as boring as you can get. There's a reason they gave Superman
last chance you get to
hook your reader. Writing Kryptonite. It's not really about watching someone win. It's more about watching them
your first page might be trying not to lose.
one ...
Common Caring Failures: Forgetting the emotional component to a story. Stories are
Broken, but
Still Good: more than just what happens, they're about how people deal with it.
3 Ways to
Create (Here's more on Whose Story is It?)
Character
Flaws
By Janice Hardy, To get readers to care, give them things to care about.
@Janice_Hardy Choose
the right flaws and Find out more about conflict, stakes, and tension in my book, Understanding
weaknesses to round out
your characters. There's
Conflict (And What It Really Means).
an old saying: "I'm ...
With in-depth analysis and easy-to-understand
Do You examples, Understanding Conflict (And What
Have Too
It Really Means) teaches you what conflict really is, discusses
Much
Dialogue? the various aspects of conflict, and reveals why common advice
By Janice on creating conflict doesn't always work. It shows you how to
Hardy, develop and create conflict in your novel and explores aspects
@Janice_Hardy I
that affect conflict, as well as clarifying the misconceptions that
received a lot of fantastic
questions on Friday, so I confuse and frustrate so many writers.
have plenty of topics to
keep me busy this This book will help you:
month,...
Understand what conflict means and how to use it
At-Home
Tell the difference between external and internal conflicts
Workshop:
Revise Your See why conflict isn't a "one size fits all" solution
Novel in 31 Determine the type of conflict your story needs
Days
By Janice Fix lackluster scenes holding your writing back
Hardy, @Janice_Hardy
Welcome to the home
page for the Month-Long Understanding Conflict (And What It Really Means) is more than just advice on
At-Home Revision what to do and what not to do—it’s a down and dirty examination and analysis of how
Workshop. If this is the
conflict works, so you can develop it in whatever style or genre you’re writing. By the
first you're he...
end of this book, you’ll have a solid understanding of what conflict means and the ability
Expect the to use it without fear or frustration.
Unexpected
: Creating Available in paperback and ebook formats.
Plot Twists
By Janice
Hardy, Janice Hardy is the award-winning author of the teen fantasy
@Janice_Hardy I'm up trilogy The Healing Wars, including The Shifter, Blue Fire,
against a deadline this and Darkfall from Balzer+Bray/Harper Collins. The Shifter, was
month to get a
manuscript finished, so chosen for the 2014 list of "Ten Books All Young Georgians
I'm dipping into the Should Read" from the Georgia Center for the Book.
archi...
She also writes the Grace Harper urban fantasy series for adults
under the name, J.T. Hardy.

When she's not writing novels, she's teaching other writers how
to improve their craft. She's the founder of Fiction University
and has written multiple books on writing.

Website | Facebook | Twitter | Pinterest | Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes &

Noble | iTunes | Indie Bound

Labels: making readers care, stakes, t, w, WN, z

17 comments:

Wen Baragrey 4/11/2011 8:45 AM

I'm really worried about poor Joey...

Reply

Paul Anthony Shortt 4/11/2011 8:58 AM

Love this post. Excellent points.

Reply

Paul Anthony Shortt 4/11/2011 8:59 AM

And yeah, Wen's right! What happened to little Joey??

Reply

Teralyn Rose Pilgrim 4/11/2011 9:47 AM

Great post!

Reply

Natalie Aguirre 4/11/2011 1:00 PM

Great points. And ones that we should definitely consider at the beginning when we are
developing our story ideas.

Reply

Myne 4/12/2011 1:21 AM

Great post, I'm learning a lot.

Reply

Miss Fletcher 4/12/2011 11:32 AM

This was great! I learnt something, which is great after reading 60 posts where I didn't
lol.

Reply

Cat Moleski 4/12/2011 11:57 AM

As always, just what I need! Thanks.

Reply

Janice Hardy 4/12/2011 12:42 PM

Thanks all! I might have to put Joey in a future post just to see how it all turns out...

Reply

Stephanie@thecrackedslipper 4/12/2011 6:11 PM

Love the emphasis on balance in this post: nice but not too nice, high stakes but not too
high. Thanks, Janice!

Reply

Jennifer Spiller 4/12/2011 7:15 PM

I'm going to have nightmares about poor Joey, and possibly need to buy a nanny-cam,
but great post!

Reply
 Taurean Watkins 4/13/2011 11:56 AM

This is surely one of the questions that I fear and dread the most.

It's a fair question, and yet the answer can be hard to come to, and downright
depressing when your answer doesn't measure up in the eyes of those swap stories with.

As much as I loathe writing query letters, trying to answer this question is even higher
up on my list of pet peeves.
Reply

Janice Hardy 4/13/2011 3:04 PM

Stephanie: Anytime. The adage hold true: All things in moderation.

Jennifer: LOL, who knew Joey would have such a following?

Taurean: It can be rough. There might be lots of reasons for the author to care, but that
doesn't always transfer to the reader. Quite often because the things the author finds
care-worthy don't always make it to the page. It's in their heads, but the reader doesn't
get to see the characters or story the same way.
Reply

Unknown 2/29/2016 10:05 AM

Interesting posts about the basics of how to attract the readers to the story.

Reply

Replies

Janice Hardy 3/04/2016 8:30 AM

Thanks!

Reply

Christine E. Robinson 1/12/2018 2:37 PM

Janice, thought about this when I started to write the story in the third person
limited.Happy to know I got the "first three down." Working on the protagonist stressing
over the situation. The stakes involve other characters and she takes on the challenge to
make the situation right. Thanks for making me think about this and make sure I get the
"emotional worry" in there. Christine

Reply

Replies

Janice Hardy 1/23/2018 9:14 AM

Most welcome! Always makes me happy when an archive post is just what
someone needed :)

Reply

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