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TRUST YOUR READER 

When learning how to write a book that people will enjoy reading, it's important to think about trust. Your reader is putting theirs in you by investing (hopefully money) by buying your book and time by reading your book. Both are quite valuable. In return, the best writers will trust their readers to "get it". Whatever 'it' is. 


Readers immerse themselves into a story and are in a constant state of evaluation as they consume your words. They will pick up on a character's furtive movement near someone's purse or desk drawer and you won't need to push their sneaky actions or criminal nature in anyone's face. They got it. Now we have a sneaky character. What, as a writer, can you do with that? Avoid repetition to keep your story fresh and realistic.


In Stealing Venice, my character Raphielli kept a scarf wound around her neck to hide a secret. I had the scarf slip several times in book 2 Storming Venice and my editor flagged it as repetitive. My plot needed a few people to see her neck so I had to select who actually saw it, and who blabbed to someone else who didn't actually see it. Also, I couldn't keep having her scarf slip or readers would think she was so helpless she couldn't properly tie a scarf. So here I had to repeat something but I sprinkled it around only three times. Once after work, her scarf had sagged a bit and someone saw it. Once a sharp detective surmised she was hiding something and reached forward with a finger and dipped the scarf for a glimpse...you get the idea.


If you tell your readers that a character has anxiety in crowds, you don't have to push it in our faces every time they're feeling anxious. You can sprinkle a few clues, "The office party was in full swing and Brad stood in the doorway holding his warm white wine like it was a talisman." No need to tell us for the umpteenth time, how he felt in the crush of bodies in line a coffee shops, how on train platforms he grappled with his breathing, how in theatres he felt his heart race, how in elevators...you get it. Right?


No need to nag or spoon-feed. Trust.


Think of important points like the herb rosemary. A scant pinch is delicious. More than that and your roast tastes like laundry soap.


-- Anna Erikssön Bendewald  











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