My guest post appears on the wonderful blog: Storeybook Reviews as part of my Great Escapes Virtual Book Tours http://www.escapewithdollycas.com/
THEN,
WHY ARE YOU HERE?
Picture yourself in the stands at a
baseball game, not just any baseball game, but the last game of the 2014 World
Series–winner takes all. You’ve invested a lot to be here, having spent a small
fortune on a ticket (that was very hard to come by) and an entire day of your
life driving, parking, and fighting the crowds, all so that you could
watch this game.
The man sitting next to you, clearly a Giants fan, is decked out in so much
orange and black that he could be an advertisement for Halloween.
In
between cheering for his team, your seatmate observes how quiet you are and
asks: “Hey, man, who are you rooting for?”
“Nobody in particular,” you answer.
The man is flabbergasted. “Then, why are you here?”
Why, indeed? When you have no stake
in the outcome, no skin in the game, why would you stick around? That is the
reader’s dilemma. Authors are asking a lot of them: to invest money in a book
and to spend precious time reading it, but what’s in it for them? What do they
get out of the experience? For a reader to enjoy a book, to be satisfied with
his expenditure of time and money, he doesn’t necessarily have to like the
characters or have anything in common with them, but he must be invested in
them. In other words, he needs to be rooting for somebody, to care about at least one
character’s plight, to wonder how that character will resolve the issues in his
life and whether he will learn anything along the way.
A good example of the reader’s
dilemma is The Kite
Runner, a 2003 novel set in Afghanistan where the protagonist,
Amir, sacrifices (spoiler alert!) his friend Hassan by not rescuing him from
his attackers. Amir not only justifies his behavior, but takes out his guilt by
treating Hassan horribly, causing him to be ostracized, and possibly ruining
his life. This protagonist is not likable or admirable and we are universally
appalled by his actions, so, why do we keep reading to the end? Why was this
book a runaway bestseller? With an initial printing of 50,000 copies, this book
went on to sell seven million copies and was also made into a movie. Everyone
loves Harry Potter, the boy wizard, but nobody liked the jealous, weak and
morally-bankrupt Amir. Even when Amir tried to redeem himself years later by helping
Hassan’s son, the reader felt no respect for him. Too little, too late, we
thought. But we read on–and not just to find out how Hassan’s life turned out.
We kept reading because we were both fascinated and horrified, convinced
that we would
have done the right thing if faced with the same choices. In other words, that
we were not Amir! But then, we wondered whether we would have been too scared
to try to rescue our friend from his vicious attackers, whether we would have
been willing to admit that we stood there and did nothing. The novel struck a
chord because it made us explore our own characters; it made us think about how
we would act in such an impossible situation. How would we deal with jealousy?
With guilt? Would we be willing to risk our lives to redeem ourselves or to
right a terrible wrong?
As readers, we were invested, big
time! But then, just when we thought the stakes couldn’t possibly get any
higher and that Amir’s regret and guilt couldn’t get any worse, we learned that
Hassan wasn’t only a servant boy, he was also Amir’s illegitimate brother!
Gut-wrenching stuff, for sure. And that’s the answer to our question–we stick
around because of EMOTION. A novel without emotion is like a paper doll. It can
be a beautiful paper doll, but it will never be three-dimensional no matter how
hard it tries. Clever dialogue, sharp prose, interesting characters, lovely
scenery, may be enough to hold our interest, but we will always leave feeling
dissatisfied.
My Jamie Quinn Mystery Series opens
with my protagonist Jamie Quinn mourning the death of her mother. Nothing can
pull her out of her depression until her aunt calls in a panic because her
disabled son Adam, Jamie’s cousin, has been accused of murdering his music
teacher. The love Jamie has for her aunt and cousin, the guilt she feels for
not being there for Adam in the past, for not being there for her aunt in the
present, all motivate her to come back to life. In this first book, Death by Didgeridoo,
there’s enough guilt to go around, as well as some jealousy, revenge and
regret, but there’s also playfulness in the dialogue and some fun scenes
between characters. Emotion gives a story genuineness, but not necessarily
realism. Until I wrote my book, I’d never heard of anyone else being killed by
a didgeridoo, so that’s kind of far out there, but the interplay between Jamie
and the other characters, as well as the doubt and insecurity Jamie expresses
are sentiments the reader can relate to.
To sum up, I will quote you an
Amazon book review I once read: “I wasted eight hours of my life reading this
book and I’m writing a review to save you from the same fate!” What a kind
soul, to want to save strangers from wasting their time! As an author offering
advice to new authors, I hope to do the same because, if you’re not going to
write with emotional resonance, then, why are you here?
, cozy mysteries, great escapes virtual book tour, storeybook reviews
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