A reader prances into your story, feeling pretty good about themselves, when suddenly...
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BOOM.
You blow them up. Ideas, characters, settings... they land like, well, that.
You didn't mean to make them cry—you're just doing your thing—but it happened. So what went wrong?
Your reader isn't on your level when it comes to your book. They're a newbie. They're not you.
No one knows the plot and characters in your head. You must always think, "WHAT IS THE READER THINKING NOW?" For every action you write, ask yourself, "Does this make sense? Am I assuming the reader knows what I know? AM I LEAVING SOMETHING OUT?"
Things you need to make clear:
◆ Character motivation
◆ The setting
◆ What things and people look like
Don't "dump" these details in all at once, but slip them in to your scenes. Keep the reader well-fed without interrupting the flow of your story. Your goal is to keep your readers engaged, and for that you need two things: context and a flowing story.
Context and a flowing story are interconnected, though. You can't have one without the other. You may have a lively fast-paced story with witty dialogue, but if we don't know what anyone looks like or why the characters are acting a certain way, readers won't really care. It's like a bad Hollywood movie. And conversely, if your story is non-stop details, blocks upon blocks of it, people will get bored. The plot needs to get going. That's how a lot of people feel about the "Lord of the Rings" books.
