How To Make Your Readers Care About Your Story

Every writer knows that if your readers don’t care about your story, they won’t enjoy it - it is as simple as that. No matter how your book turns out, what obstacles your characters face or what lessons, worldly wisdom or unusual perspectives you portray in your book, without engaging your readers, making them invest emotionally and caring there is no way your readers will keep on reading.

But how do you make readers care about your story? It’s easier said than done. While you might think you have a great idea for a book, there are many elements that are necessary to create a fantastic story, and each one must be executed in such a way that they all work together. Doing so will make sure your book delivers an impact and will have your readers effortlessly invest in the plot, the characters, and the story as a while.

So what must authors do to ensure their readers care? Here are some things to think about:

Your characters

The most important and obvious part of your book to pay attention to is the characters that you create within it. Each character you introduce the reader to must have a purpose, but more than this, they must be sufficiently interesting and engaging that readers become curious about them, and as the story goes on your readers must care about what happens to the characters you create. They don’t have to love them all, they don’t have to wish them all to be happy at the end, but they must care and be sufficiently interested in how the story turns out for them that they keep on reading until the end.

Your world

To bring your characters and your plot to life you must create a fascinating, detailed, believable world for the characters to live in and the plot to unfold in. The world is the background, but without being written in such a way that your readers feel truly immersed in it, they’ll find it distracting and difficult to focus on anything else - thus making it tough for them to care about your story as a whole.

Your Story

If you readers don’t care about what is happening in your book they aren’t going to want to keep reading. Your characters can be the most intriguing, engaging, exciting characters of all time, but if you don’t make anything happen to them, then your book will fall flat. Make sure your story is full of highs and lows, of unusual twists and turns, of moments of joy and elation, of sadness and fear. Your readers want to come along for the ride, and to be part of the adventure, so make sure that there is one to be had.

Your ending

There is nothing more tragic than getting to the end of a good story only for it to have an ending that lets you down. Make sure that you make your readers continue to care right up until the very last word on the very last page, so they are left still reeling, still overcome and still totally in love with your book.

Bethany Cadman -author of 'Doctor Vanilla's Sunflowers'

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