Stop Flinging Rewarmed Hash on the Screen Hoping Someone Will Read It

Your readers are carnivores. Give them fresh meat or die.

This morning I attempted to read another tired story with the same eight quotes about writing from Stephen King, Anne Lamott, Seth Godin, et al. Ad nauseum. I couldn’t force myself to read far enough to see if the writer had anything of value to share between the quotes because the very fact that she used quotes every writer over the age of 13 has digested repeatedly told me she wasn’t capable of feeding me what I craved.

I am your reader. Feed me your thoughts. I want to know who you are and why your words matter. Picture me deep in the recesses of my cave, starved for the meat of everything that matters to me. Don’t cover it with sauce trying to make it more palatable for the masses. I want it raw and angry and honest. Give me your heart.

Enough with the graphic meat analogy

I hope you got the picture. The point I am trying to make is that your readers are probably far more sophisticated than you think they are. And even if they aren’t, they think they are. Let that sink in for a minute.

You might know in your heart that some of your readers need the information and wisdom you are attempting to impart, but using old material to make your point is like talking baby talk to them. And they will not stand for it.

Here’s a fresher way to build a story

Let’s examine the entire process, start to finish, looking for ways to avoid the rehash.

Start by vetting your idea

Have you seen anything vaguely familiar to your targeted idea on any platform or in any publication lately? Google your working title. I did that with my title and got this result: “It looks like there aren’t many great matches for your search.” I did a happy dance. That’s what you want.

Oh, wait, you didn’t think you were supposed to only write about popular things, did you?

Here’s your vetting rule: Your idea should be positioned within a topic with broad appeal, but focused on the one tiny sliver of that topic other writers haven’t already covered.

What that looks like in real life: Hay stacks are popular. Needles in haystacks are trite. Edible mushrooms that grow under haystacks that are worth a bazillion dollars an ounce is a brilliantly focused idea.

Fit your one-of-a-kind, newly vetted idea into a comfortable template

Formatting is where your reader needs comfort. Even tigers drag their kills into a safe spot of brush before they dine. While your idea must be crazy fresh, your formatting absolutely has to be familiar.

You thought all those formatting rules were because editors are picky? Um, no. It’s because they know their readers need a comfortable place to settle in to digest the brilliance of their publication and your writing.

The same can be said for language particulars. Your writing must match publication standards or it won’t be read. It really is that simple.

Spice it up with your voice, your story, your emotions

No matter how intriguing your idea is, readers today want the reality-TV version. They want to read about the layers of pig shit those mushrooms were growing in, how the stench of it lingered in your nose for days, and how you felt like an illicit drug dealer exchanging your shrooms for a stack of cash at the farmer’s market.

Back it up with an unusual authority

I love Stephen King — and I don’t even read horror. I think he may very well be one of the best novelists of my lifetime. But y’all, he has had a whole lot more to say than most writers give him credit for. His best quotes are not from his book about writing. His most intuitive words of wisdom are spoken in his characters’ voices.

I like this one from Salem’s Lot to illustrate the importance of putting emotion into your work: “If a fear cannot be articulated, it can’t be conquered.” Learn to articulate both your own fear and that of the reader, and you can conquer all you dare to write.

Takeaways:

Even if you are writing a kindergarten reader, you shouldn’t write it like every other kindergarten reader. Find the one thing kindergartners will giggle at that nobody else as offered them, put it in the format they are comfortable with, and give them a story they will remember until the next recess break.

The process does not vary with the age or the knowledge base of your reader. Every single reader who encounters your work should leave surprised by both the story you tell and the way in which you present it.