Katherine Rawson

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve started a book and gotten a couple chapters in only to put it down and never pick it up again. There are usually two reason for this; 1) nothing has happened to grasp me, or 2) pre-dic-ta-ble.

I hate that sometimes I happen across one of these partially read books and I think, I really should finish that book. I feel an imaginary obligation as if NOT finishing the book will leave me unfulfilled as a person. Why is this? It’s not like anyone will ever know whether I read it or not.

Here’s my point. I’ve noticed through the years I am a detail oriented person. I tend to tell the reader too much. I came to this realization from reading A LOT. I had a painful experience last Fall when I sat down to read a novel by a legendary author (name intentionally omitted as not to offend). I say painful because every paragraph seemed to repeat itself. It was told in third person with four different viewpoints and each viewpoint restated the last. By chapter three I was convinced – this was a 25,000 word book stretched into 100,000. There are many ways to say the curtains are red, do we really have to be told that they were crimson, matched some girl’s toe nail polish and made the room look like Elmo threw up?

Let’s just say I’m working on trusting the reader enough to see between the lines and imagine the story without having to spell everything out, accidentally giving away the ending in chapter one. Hopefully, this will build some inherant suspense no matter what genre I’m writing. Something has to keep the reader engaged, wanting to turn the page and ultimately, coming back for more.

Copyright © 2009 Katherine Rawson. All rights reserved.