I want stories that pull me in and hold me until the very end when I cry, “Oh, I don’t want it to be over.” So how do I write that way?
That’s an essential question for writers, and I haven’t seen it discussed much (perhaps it’s so essential it’s assumed to be the basis of all writing advice).
This is a great way to explain to young writers why editing is important. As readers, we don’t want to be pulled out of the story by writing errors. We don’t want to be aware of the writer at all. The writer needs to vanish, as the story inhabits us.
How do we become invisible as writers? Here are a few pieces of that puzzle that I’ve found:
Clean, carefully edited, smooth writing. Skilled, with enough of both action and emotional involvement to keep us enthralled. Nothing awkward or bumpy or annoying or just plain wrong. Nothing that pops us out of the story. There’s enough going on around us that will, like doorbells and barking dogs, laundry and dishes and, god forbid, work and school.
Let the story pull us in and hold us until the very last word.
Maureen