The Place For My Writers Notes

aka Cutting Circles?

Great ARCS, at least. See, as you pound out the words for nanowrimo, sometimes you may want to lift your head and check on the reader. Are you keeping them interested? What's their motivation? I know, I know, it's hard enough to keep track of the characters' goals, motivations, and conflicts, now I'm asking you to think about the readers motivation, too?

Let's keep it simple, okay? Just four little bits -- ARCS! Not the ones you drew in geometry, nor the great circle arcs that we all learned about in geography. No, this is an acronym. Take a look at it this way:

Attention
Relevance
Confidence
Satisfaction

And here's how you can use it. First, get and keep your readers' attention. You know -- fireworks, surprises, hooks, change of pace, and all that jazz! Excitement, thrills, chills -- and maybe a little touch of romance to keep the sighs coming? Right, grab their attention. And keep it focused with questions, complications, suspense, cliffhangers, and all the other twists and turns that you can come up with. Remember that a bored reader won't keep reading -- so toss a firecracker under their feet every now and then, or something!

Second, readers like things that are relevant. We like to identify with the protagonist, and to some extent with other characters. So help the reader understand what the protagonist is doing, and give them a chance to sympathize, to think "I would do the same thing." Let the reader agonize and struggle with problems and complications that the character is facing. Make sure that some of the conflicts and problems are ones that the reader knows. Sure, maybe your protagonist is saving the world from the gray blobs that are eating reality, but your also gets flat tires, struggles with acne and dandruff, and has to wade through oceans of spam to find the urgent e-mail from the president. Don't just have the blobs eating missiles, have one of them eat the litter box -- now your hero (and your readers) have got a real problem, placating the cats. And don't imagine that a shredded newspaper is going to be an acceptable substitute. Make your characters, conflicts, and plot relevant to your readers.

Third, readers like confidence. They like to think they know what kind of a story it is, and that you are playing fair with them. Part of what that means is that if you start out pitching a romance, suddenly switching over to action or mystery or some other genre can be upsetting your readers. Another part of it is how you set the hooks or questions and answer them. First, you don't want to resolve things too fast -- let your readers wonder about the questions or hooks for a little bit -- but you do want to answer some of them as you move along, partly to reassure your readers that you're going to do that. Remember that you want to get their attention and build suspense -- but you also need to show them that you aren't going to just tease them forever. Sometimes I think it's like bouncing a baby -- you can drop them a little bit, but then you have to catch them and give them a hug. If you drop them too far, they get scared. Readers want you to give them little surprises, but also show that you're going to treat them right. Build your readers' confidence -- pose a puzzle, tell them a joke, make them wonder, and then show them that you are going to resolve things -- with a bit of a surprise and flash, but not by dropping them.

Fourth, we all want satisfaction. Payoffs, rewards. Part of the problem with shaggy dog jokes is that they make you think something is going to happen, there must be a reason that this character wants a pink ping pong ball, and then they end. Without a clue. And most of us have a certain homicidal impulse towards the person who dragged that joke out until they could run away. But your story can give those rewards, those payoffs. We want to see good rewarded, we want to see the person who perseveres winning, we want to believe that the world makes sense. And writing lets us give that kind of satisfaction. Your climax, your resolution, your theme provide the reader with satisfaction. Varied types of payoffs, but they are there.

So -- attention, relevance, confidence, satisfaction. ARCS! While you are writing your way around the nanowrimo marathon route, use ARCS to make sure that the readers keep pace with you. Some surprises, something that feels familiar, a little reassurance that we'll like the story, and a resolution that makes the reader glad they read along. Some guidelines for the writing.

tink
(about 800 words)
Swing yo' partner, doh-see-doh . . .