What Do Readers Want? a Post by R. Clint Peters

There have been no submissions for The Author’s Club newsletter, so I thought I’d ask a question raised by Nancy Kress in Write Great Fiction – Characters, Emotion and Viewpoint:  What Do Readers Want?

According to Ms. Kress, some readers want fast-paced excitement— and will put down a slower-paced book that examines the same reality as their own lives. Others want thoughtful insights into reality— and will put down fantasies of nonstop adventure. Some want to read about people they can identify with, some about characters they will never meet. Some seek clear, straightforward storytelling, and some cherish style: the unexpected phrase in exactly the right place. Some want affirmations of values they already hold, and some hope to be challenged, even disturbed.

The magic key is character.

Characters are the common denominators of fiction. As many parents and librarians have been delighted to discover, a fascinating character in a fascinating situation (more on that connection later) has led nonreaders to devour J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter books. Compelling characters are responsible for the crossover best-sellers, in which people who don’t ordinarily read mysteries will seek out Janet Evanovich’s hilarious Stephanie Plum novels. And characters, complex and real, are what keep Jane Austen and F. Scott Fitzgerald in print decade after decade.

In fact, without believable and interesting characters, you don’t really have fiction at all. You may have names walking through plot, but without the essential animation of character, a historical novel becomes mostly a history text, a mystery becomes a police report, and science fiction becomes a speculative monograph. Literary fiction simply becomes unread.

Character is key.

Every drama— and fiction is always a kind of drama— requires a cast. The cast may be so huge, as in Leo Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina, that the author or editor provides a list of characters to keep everybody straight. Or it may be an intimate cast of two. (In “To Build a Fire,” Jack London managed with one person and a dog.) Whatever the size of your cast, you have to assemble it from somewhere.

Where do you get these people? And how do you know they’ll make good characters?

You have four sources: yourself, real people you know, real people you hear about, and pure imagination.

Kress, Nancy (2005-03-03). Write Great Fiction – Characters, Emotion & Viewpoint (p. 1). F+W Media, Inc.. Kindle Edition.

In the next post on The Author’s Club blog, we’ll discuss where to find our characters.  And remember, you can use the blog to let your fellow authors know what you’re doing.

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