"I think new writers are too worried it has all been said before. Sure it has, but not by you."

~Asha Dornfest~

xoxo

I think every writer can agree that our readers are important. Honestly, I don't think people realise just how crucial they - as a reader - are to a story. Personally, I listen to my readers (as I'm sure most writers do). I listen to what they want to see happen, I listen to what they don't want to see happen, I listen to what makes them laugh, I listen to what makes them cry, - both happy and sad tears - and I take what I learn and put it into my writing. Sometimes, I can't even be given all the credit for a certain idea in my book because it was actually prompted by something one of my readers said. 

We write for many reasons. Some write just because they like to, others write to tell something important, others write to entertain. Good writers write for all three. 

An important thing to remember is that if you don't feel what's happening in the book, neither will your readers. If you don't cry writing a sad scene, your readers won't cry when they read it. I find it so important to relate what I'm writing to something I can actually feel. I know that sounds a little confusing, but let me explain.

For example, I get very emotionally involved with my characters. When they're angry, I'm angry, when they're sad, I'm sad. They're like my children. So when they're crying, I go "okay, so what does crying actually feel like?" Not very hard, since usually, I'm crying as well. So I describe what I'm feeling at the time, in order to describe what my character is feeling.

A little secret between you and me. If you ever read in one of my books that a character is hurt in a specific place (usually some kind of sore muscle), it's usually because I've recently hurt that place too and I've written about it because it's something I can actually describe instead of doing guesswork - an example of this happening in my book Innocence: when Falcon hurt his forearm muscles by clenching his fists too much, it was because I had sore forearm muscles as well.

I don't know if that made any sense, but I hope it did.

I get a lot of people asking me what makes a story good. To be completely honest, I have no idea whatsoever. I have a few theories about what makes a book good, but I don't know if it's the truth or not.

Something I hear a lot is "I don't want to be cliche," or "I want my book to be original." But honestly, from my experiences, you can't get very far by being a completely new writer with an amazing, completely original story. I think this is because readers are human and they get a little unsure of what they don't know. Usually, as readers, we have a few kinds of books that we like and a few that we don't. When we're faced with something completely new, some of us are brave enough to give it a go, but most of us will stray away from it and read what we know we're going to enjoy.

I think there has to be some level of 'cliche' about a story, especially when you're a new writer. You have to start with what people know, gain their trust in your writing and then you can pull out the big guns and showcase your more interesting stories. 

I tried writing a lot of books at first that I've now had to put into the background because they were good stories, but people wouldn't read them because they weren't classic wattpad romances. As soon as I made Innocence, however, people suddenly started reading my books. 

And let's admit it. As much as I love writing my stories and I try not to make them stereotypical, they are.

To sum my long rant up: In order for your readers to feel something, you have to feel it and don't be scared to make your book a little cliche in order to gain readers. Go with what you know works, but make sure you love writing it.

xoxo Naomi