Writers, think of readership!
Authors should be considerate of all types of readers…This is not going to be a flattering post, but it’s authentic. See if you find yourself with me in one of these.
Light enough for slumber-readers. Talking to other readers, I’ve learned I’m not alone in reading-myself-to-sleep. I believe the rise of the reading tablet owes a lot to bedtime readers. A Nook or Kindle won’t be bonking you in the skull when you fall asleep and your hands let go. Reading in the dark on a tablet is better than having to rouse yourself to switch off the reading lamp.
In this instance, however, I’m not judging by a reading’s physical weight or whether or not it’s an e-book. When I say “light enough for slumber readers,” I mean, a book that reads well for the drowsy among us. For many, the only chance we have to read is bed time.
If a book’s too convoluted or the writing too bloated with pyrotechnics, there are instances a reader will have to give up on it. “Yeah, it was great, but not a night read,” someone told me of a book recently.
Confession: I often fall asleep reading and then dream my way through a book. Sadly, when my dream narrative is better than the springboard book itself, I ditch the book and find another.
Episodic and periodic and otherwise honestly “put-downable.” Again, busy people read in bursts. It might be while waiting in the school pickup line or in a line at the grocery store. One might find a moment to read on a bus or subway, or over a quick bite at lunch. Some people sneak a chapter in at work just for escape.
Writing that’s going on and on is hard to follow. No matter the bookmarking, if you have to stop in the middle of a chapter, it’s sometimes a disjointed mess trying to pick up where you left off. The re-reading to catch up to the drift is going to take precious time from the episodic readership, and time is that readers most precious commodity.
Confession: my dad read a novel a day, and much of that was “potty reading,” when he would escape to the bathroom for a quick read. For some folks, that time is the only time they have that’s unperturbed and private and just right. My wife reads sometimes during time-outs in a hockey game. Those readers love a quick chapter or passage that’s clearly delineated.
Escape hatch, chicken-out, and adventure readers need to get away from it all. I know literary fiction is slice of life stuff that we can relate to, learn from, and through which we can experience vicarious edification. Some readers like to be pulled down into the thick of life and have a heart wrenching, mind-bending Experience.
Other readers just want the hell out of the kitchen. “Waiting for the water to boil for the pasta, I’ma feel like an Egyptian god for a sec.”
Face it, life can be pretty mundane. Burdens can stack up until they’re soul-crushingly heavy. Souls can be so lonely, so burdened, so overwrought that sometimes getting away from it all is better therapy than a literary bender.
Flights of fancy are all full-up. We’re always seeking something fresh, liberating, entertaining!
Confession: one of the most mundane jobs I had was driving tractor on the high plains. Sometimes a single round in the field might take 45 minutes, and all I had to do was keep the front tire in the rut from the one-way’s previous lap. It was absolutely mindless, soulless work, and I needed an out. I read all of C.S. Lewis’ fiction on the seat of that tractor one summer.
Reading can be so joyful!
Inspiration is a breath of fresh air. Akin to escapism in general, I personally need to be inspired. I need heroes as big as I can get them. I need to be lifted up. Sure, a gritty crime novel or a rough and tumble action read might be fun, might help me escape a spreadsheet, but at the end of the day, I am bone weary and woe begotten and wishing there were really good people out there making a better world.
Confession: This is from my favorite movie, My Favorite Year, not a novel, but it speaks to this need in me (and dare I say, in many others, too). Watch the whole movie, but here’s The Scene.
Here’s the transcript, from IMDB:
Alan Swann : Stone... I'm afraid. I'm afraid. That's why I couldn't get out of the car to see my Tess, my child.
Benjy Stone : Alan Swann, afraid? The Defender of the Crown? Captain from Tortuga? The Last Knight of the Round Table?
Alan Swann : Those are movies, damn you! Look at me! I'm flesh and blood, life-size, no larger! I'm not that silly God-damned hero! I never was!
Benjy Stone : To *me* you were! Whoever you were in those movies, those silly goddamn heroes meant a lot to *me*! What does it matter if it was an illusion? It worked! So don't tell me this is you life-size. I can't use you life-size. I need Alan Swanns as big as I can get them! And let me tell you something: you couldn't have convinced me the way you did unless somewhere in you you *had* that courage! Nobody's that good an actor! You *are* that silly goddamn hero!
So, this post is just telling it like it is.
Sure, there are times it’s great to have a literary masterpiece, the Great American Novel, to wade through and savor. I spent decades investing in such reads, and I still do. However, it’s important to acknowledge ALL READERS and to craft work EVERYONE can enjoy.
