Engaging the Reader

I recently read a book written in the first person in a way like a minister delivering a sermon to an audience. It is not what many readers would expect of a well-written work because of its unconventional writing style and the lack of smoothness or intrigue. Yet the book took the number two place on The New York Time's bestseller list.

The popularity of a book is obviously not about how well a writer writes, but about writing on the right topic and about content. Unless the writer is a celebrity or a famous someone, expecting high readership for what one writes may just be wishful thinking unless the writer has done his or her research to know what topics and content engage readers.

As an enthusiast of the social media, I have managed blogs and social network platforms long enough to understand how certain topics and content are well received while others fall short or fail badly. If the number of followers and comments are a guide to measure popularity and engagement, then analytics may be a good way to help make trending observations.

When I write on topics like healthcare, for example, the number of followers tends to fall far below expectation even with strong digital marketing engagement through campaigning, promotions, and the like. When I write on topics like career or faith, on the other hand, the number of followers increases exponentially even without campaigning.

Engaging readers or audiences in the real world requires knowing what's hot and what's not, what moves the heart or touches a chord, what reaches out and helps meet a need. In a nutshell, a writer needs to do research to know what readers really want before beginning to write.

Reaching the Readers

One of the text that come highly recommended on writing is the book by Kathryn Lindskoog, Creative Writing: For People Who Can’t Not Write. In this book, the author suggested a number of areas writers should pay attention to in order to reach out to their readers.

First, write creatively, because the world will never be starved for want of wonders.

Second, write simply and correctly, not necessarily with large vocabulary, but with untangled thinking to keep sentences from going awry.

Third, avoid pitfalls and pratfalls, as they can make the writer look foolish, sidestepping into the booby traps of misspelling or overwriting.

Fourth, show instead of tell. Make familiar things new and make new things familiar.

Fifth, write something funny or at least interesting. Write things that please the ear, tease the brain or ease the heart.

Sixth, think up ideas that can make some earnings out of writing. Get published, paid and read.

Seventh, let the readers see and hear what is going on for themselves instead of interpreting and summarizing it for them.

Eighth, continue to strive to do better and stretch the limits, because with each new piece of writing, it usually gets more difficult than easier.

All the pointers mentioned above are good advices for writers to put into practice. However, if our wish is to be really good writers, we will need to look into other pointers as well. Here are some pointers from me.

Ninth, get to the heart of the matter. In order for us to get to the readers’ heart, we must write with a heart that cares enough to want to know what matters to them.

Tenth, don’t just write what ease the readers’ hearts or what they like to hear. Share what we have seen and heard that our readers may understand plainly and also learn from us. Even if we are writing fiction, our plot can include true to life examples, like our own experiences or those of other people we know.

Eleventh, understand your target readers, their background, their culture and practices. Remember, if our target is to the masses, then we must write in a way everybody can understand.

Twelfth, use references to substantiate claims if writing non-fiction, and use identifiable traits to describe the behavior of characters in the story when writing fiction.

There are of course many other areas we must also consider as writers. This blog entry merely touches the tip of the iceberg what’s involved in the writers’ craft. In the real world, writing skills are very much dependent on one’s own flair for writing, the degree of our creativity, the inspiration, and the talent given to us as individuals.

Writing and Editing

A writer should not be an editor at the same time, but at a different time, that may be fine.

I am not saying a writer cannot be an editor, or vice versa. The key emphasis here is time, or the proximity of time between the two roles being played. If you are writer for a piece of work, you cannot be an editor for the same piece of work immediately after writing the piece because the same blind spot you as a writer faces during writing will also be unseen and unrecognized by you as the editor.

A writer can edit his own work, but it is best to have someone else does it, especially when there is a constraint of time. If a writer has to be the editor for the same piece of work, then a break or an interval is imperative between the time of completing the writing and the starting of the editing. The writer must, within the interval, free his mind from the pressures, prejudices, and the intensity inherent in a writing environment or during writing, and prepare himself at heart and mind for editing.

One of the best ways of freeing one's mind between the two roles is to go away to a place where nature is visible, where noisy sounds are far away. However, this is not always possible, so an alternative is to get oneself away from the previous piece of work and do something else, preferably less stressful, and then return with a refreshed or renewed mind. Whether you are a writer or an editor, or both, it is always good to have a break between writing and editing.

However, if taking a break is not possible, the best way to perform the two roles consecutively is to write one piece and edit a different piece. Usually, the different piece is written by someone else, and that helps to clear one's mind off from one's own work. There is no conflict in this case between playing the role of a writer and an editor at the same time, since both the pieces are written by different people, and to edit and spot the mistakes in the writings of another is usually relatively easier. However, if this again is not possible, editing a different piece written by oneself is still better than editing one's own piece of work immediately upon completion.

Following the above arguments, a writer can therefore be an editor, and vice versa.