The successful novel writer creates a relationship between the lead character in his/her book and the reader.
It’s a one-way relationship.
The lead character in the book doesn’t know the reader, but the reader comes to know the lead character by reading the book and the reader learns to care—-what happens to the lead character.
If you’re a beginner in fiction writing, you have to learn this, hopefully early-on.
Beginners often make the same mistakes, and one of the most serious is the failure to develop a rapport (relationship) between the lead character in the book and the reader. The success or failure of your book will depend on the emotional relationship you develop between your lead character and the reader.
If the reader likes your lead character, there’s a good chance the reader will like your book.
Great novels have in some way characters you care about and it keeps readers turning the pages to find out what’s going to happen to them in the end.
The reader has to care, someone they can “root” for, to make a goal or to avoid ruin.
If your lead character is a villain the same applies. You can pit a villain against a worse villain… so the reader roots for the first villain (the lead) to win.
In movies of the 1940’s and later this came to be called being an “anti-hero.” The anti-hero like Humphrey Bogart in movies such as Casablanca exhibited negative traits like cynicism, selfishness and questionable morals, but deep inside was still a decent guy whom the audience came to admire.
Similarly, in a novel there are hundreds of plotting possibilities. A villain should still have a human side to them like a good person, so the reader can find a trait they can identify with. Perhaps your villain loves dogs for example.
The reader must care about the character.
A reader not caring is deadly.
A novel works best with from one to five main characters, not 35. The exception to this is the historical novel based on real incidents. I did a novel about World War I that had many of the major European world leaders in it.
Another mistake of the first-timer is the slow start. You spend the first 10 pages of the book describing in detail the setting of your book (town, forest, mountain whatever), or the routine of a character making their coffee in the morning, taking a shower, page after page, on and on.
I like to start a book fast.
I just completed a novel about a giant mutated wasp in Peru (it will be out later this month), and I like to start my novels with a bang—-action. On page two the giant wasp attacks and kills a villager in gory detail.
Too much of anything including action without a letup will only bore a reader and plotting a novel is a balancing act. You learn to alternate action with calmer scenes, or scenes that build character development (their traits, weaknesses, strengths, foibles whatever), along with scenes that build tension. If this was a landscape it would be hills and valleys.
Most important of all, do not tell the reader what the character is (for example writing that he was angry). Instead, show the reader he was angry through the character’s actions and dialog.
More on beginners’ mistakes next week.
John Sammon is a freelance writer and the author of 41 books, many of which can be foundhere on Amazon. He is a resident of El Dorado Hills. His commentary is the first in a series on the trip of self publishing.
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