(Your reader should care about the protagonist’s decision, and ideally shouldn’t see it coming.)Īn effective short story (or poem) does not simply record or express the author’s feelings rather, it generates feelings in the reader. At the climax, what morally significant choice does your protagonist make?.
(Narrators in stories aren’t looking at video being live-streamed from a floating drone that follows them around everywhere, so they can’t report “A smile lit my face” or “My eyes darkened.” See Writing Dialogue.)
A short story can’t possibly tackle that kind of character development, but a character who faces internal obstacles and must negotiate messy moral trade-offs is more dramatically interesting than the hero in the white hat who has to use the right weapon to defeat the villain in the black hat.) Yes, Harry Potter defeats Voldemort, but first he has to mature into a leader with the moral clarity and teamwork skills necessary to defeat Voldemort. (Simply having a rival is not that interesting. What obstacles must the protagonist overcome in order to reach the goal?.(Your protagonist should already have made a conscious choice, good or bad, that drives the rest of the story.) When the story begins, what morally significant action has your protagonist taken towards that goal?.Visit our report for more on the rise of e-reading and the general reading habits of Americans and browse through the host of resources on the new libraries section of our site: /internet.(The athlete who wants her team to win the big game and the car crash victim who wants to survive are not unique or interesting enough.) One compelling summary thought came from a respondent who declared: “I love being able to get outside myself.” Those who talked about personal enrichment used phrases like “being able to experience so many times, places, and events.” Others expressed pleasure at living a “life of the mind.”įor many, reading was a proud lifestyle choice: “It’s better for me to imagine things in my head than watch them on TV.”
#When reading a play the reader has to imagine the movie#
Those who talked about quiet entertainment tended toward phrases like “a stress-free escape,” “a nice way to relax,” “I read because it’s not work,” “diverting, entertaining and educational,” and “It draws me away from reality.” That was echoed by a respondent who said reading “takes you away, like a movie in your head.” One wryly said he liked reading “because it helps me with my temper and relaxes me.” One respondent noted: “I am an English teacher, so I read to save my sanity from grading essays.” In their own words, respondents were eloquent and touching.2% cited the physical properties of books – their feel and smell – as a primary pleasure.3% said they like being mentally challenged by books.4% said they enjoy finding spiritual enrichment through reading and expanding their worldview.6% liked the variety of topics they could access via reading and how they could find books that particularly interested them.12% said they enjoyed relaxing while reading and having quiet time.12% said they liked the entertainment value of reading, the drama of good stories, the suspense of watching a good plot unfold.15% cited the pleasures of escaping reality, becoming immersed in another world, and the enjoyment they got from using their imaginations.26% of those who had read a book in the past 12 months said that what they enjoyed most was learning, gaining knowledge, and discovering information.
They gave a host of reasons that ranged from the highly practical to the sublime. In our recent report on the rise of e-reading, we asked those who had read a book in the past 12 months to tell us what they like most about book reading.
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