# The Writer's Circle – Week #13 [Make your readers stick around]



## Commissar Ploss (Feb 29, 2008)

The Writer's Circle – Week #13 [Make your readers stick around]

First I want to apologize for the lack of Writer's Circle posts these past two weeks. I've just gotten back from a surprise trip to Hawaii that my GF sprung on me(not that I mind, it was Hawaii after all! lol). But I know some of you have been wondering where is was, what with the sudden break from schedule and everything. Sorry to keep you all waiting, but I really NEEDED that vacation. Even being in Hawaii I couldn't escape my work. I got calls almost daily about my game writing and upcoming meetings with designers and such, and barely had a chance to relax, but whatever, the weather was nice and the women even nicer (I hope my GF doesn't read these >_>) lol Even after all of that, I'm back where I started; sitting at my desk, listening to my old Styx albums and making up for lost time. Seems I'm always making up for lost time. Anyways, lets get started. 

Hello everyone! Welcome to an new, albeit late, week of the Writer's Circle. Week #13 brings you an article by John Edward Ames called “Make your readers stick around.” It talks about what to do after you've written that wonderfully engaging beginning and want to follow it up with something equally interesting. How do you keep your readers engaged? Lets read on and find out! We've got an extra big article this week to help keep your minds stimulated! WooT! Stimulation!

Make your readers stick around
By. John Edward Ames



> Personality is an unbroken series of successful gestures, the narrator of F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby instructs his readers, and I'm struck at how easy it is to substitute “writing” for the word “personality.” This analogy also shifts the creative emphasis a bit. Many well-in-tended writers of mainstream and genre fiction focus on the stupendous “opening hook” without considering that reader interest is almost always strong in the beginning. The more serious problems creep in later on, when the flashy hooks are forgotten and enough hard jolts in the narrative flow might rudely remind readers of the writing process they're supposed to forget.
> 
> Creative writing is, after all, an illusion and, like Fred Astaire's seamless dancing, it must be sustained from start to finish. Breaking the spell can bring the audience crashing back to dull, thudding reality. Reflecting on nearly 30 years as a novelist and student of writing, I've zoomed in on six suggestions, each one designed to hold readers long after you've hooked them.
> 
> ...


Discussion Questions:

1. Which part of this article spoke to you the most?

2. What part of this article (if any) brought up points you are going to work on in your own writing?


How was that for a return article! I must say that that is one of my most favorite articles yet for the Writer's Circle. It covers a whole range of points and is very well thought out. Tomorrow i will post a "Before and After" section and a "Workout" section that compliment this article. I'll just add them here as replies. Keep your eyes peeled! Thanks for sticking around while i was gone! I'll make sure to keep up the schedule again. 

write on,

Commissar Ploss


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## waltzmelancholy_07 (Sep 30, 2008)

I love the article CP!... And I might say, it's the best... About the parts that spoke to me the most, well I think all of them actually... 

I don't get the second question though... Could you explain it CP?...


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## Commissar Ploss (Feb 29, 2008)

waltzmelancholy_07 said:


> I love the article CP!... And I might say, it's the best... About the parts that spoke to me the most, well I think all of them actually...
> 
> I don't get the second question though... Could you explain it CP?...


when i say that, i mean, is there anything that you notice you are doing? Like explaining yourself twice, or do you cut off the dialogue and tangent off into another direction? things like that. things that you wanna work on, or things that you are gonna improve upon.

CP


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## bobss (May 18, 2008)

One thing I wanted to ask was this:

When I right my own fiction i normally get very exited and weak at the knees as I allows me to open my little box of words that sound cool and generally no-one knows what the f- they mean. 

However Is it important to kinda have a balance of an awesome array of cool adjectives, metaphors and similies yet still make it understandable and basic? not just spam loads of words to make it sound like a poem about death and destruction?

p.s. Me and my friend every friday night have a competition to see who can right the coolest stuff ( yes, yes, sad as it may be )- its normally based around war, fantasy and death, any advice?


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## Mossy Toes (Jun 8, 2009)

Hmm...I can't say that this week's one is really clicking with me. All the more reason to answer it, then, to improve my self-criticality!


1. Which part of this article spoke to you the most?
- As I said before, not many parts of it. All are well-reasoned, and I largely agree, but minor exceptions niggle away at my thoughts.



CP said:


> Likewise, much of the art of writing is in not writing. Don't wear down readers by overexplaining. Prefer the telling detail over the camera-eye approach. A novelist once described the aerial view of Las Vegas simply by mentioning the explosion of billboards everywhere. H.P. Lovecraft took self-restraint even further, making his monsters more terrifying by assuring his readers they were too horrifying to describe.


This, I suppose. It is one of my stronger points in writing, in both my mind and in what people have told me. Meanwhile, the dialogue aspect of this point...I need to work on, to some degree. It's not that I think that I do it poorly, but, well, I'd like to improve any aspect of my writing sub-par, and I also like to raise par pretty frequently.


2. What part of this article (if any) brought up points you are going to work on in your own writing?
The aforementioned, again, of course. Also, question number six. Rewriting is one of the most important aspects of writing, and it's also one of them that I practice the least. My ego tries to sneak things through by stroking itself into believing it has a Midas touch upon the keys, and the lower standards of fan-fiction (than professional fiction) don't demand that I act harsh toward my sentimental dross that could - no, should - be dropped. So I'll be working on that, definitely.

On a side note - I dare you to repeat Point Five to any Ayn Rand fanatic...


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## Commissar Ploss (Feb 29, 2008)

ack! i'm so ashamed! I'm sorry that i haven't gotten a chance to get another article posted yet this week, i've gotten SOOOO busy with my job and my business that i've had almost no free time. This is about the first chance i have gotten, to sit down and get anything else accomplished. Just wanted to let you know that i haven't forgotten about you all or the Writer's Circle discussions. I've sorta run out of interesting articles to pull from, so i've started grabbing excerpts from books for our discussions. I will post week #14 later this week. Thank you for your patience and understanding.

@Mossy; thank you for posting your opinions on the article, because that is what i've been looking for in these discussions. These discussions are meant to provoke thoughts about your own writing, so it means a great deal to me that i have been able to achieve that (to a point). 

@bobss; i don't think that getting together with friends for writing competitions is a bad thing at all! i wish i could do that with some of my friends! it sounds like you are having fun with it. What kind of advice were you looking for?

Commissar Ploss


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