Brian W. Foster's Top 12 Techniques to Make Your Writing More Engaging

[BWFoster78]

My goal is to become a good writer, but that begs the question, “What is good?” Obviously, that answer is subjective, and I’ve defined it for myself as “an engaging writer.” Therefore, I’ve focused my craft-learning efforts thus far mostly on how to make my writing more engaging.

This is what I’ve come up with so far (I’ve tried to put these more or less in order of importance; I’d love a discussion on what I’ve left off, order, things that don’t belong):

1. Seek Clarity – Simply put, if your reader can’t understand what the crap is going on, they’re not going to be very engaged in your story.
2. Filter the Story Through a Relatable Character – Readers don’t care about events because events are facts. Without the filter of a relatable character, the reader doesn’t know what to feel about a fact. For example: a verdict is read. Guilty. Should I be happy, sad, or indifferent? That depends entirely upon whether I supported the victim, believed the accused was innocent, or was an impartial outside observer. (My belief is that a writer, from the standpoint of technique, doesn’t care about what is good or evil but about what is the protagonist seeking versus the opposition.)
3. Add Tension – Edge of your seat action and intense arguments draw the reader in. Slow scenes without conflict don’t. To add tension, give your protagonist a goal, give the protagonist opposition, increase the protagonist’s desire to reach the goal, and increase the opposition. Repeat those last two until the scene is as tense as you want it.
4. Add Emotion – Without the emotion of the characters shining through the writing, the story will hold little interest. Use setting details, thoughts, actions, and, if need be, direct telling to communicate what the characters are feeling.
5. Show, Don’t Tell – Showing is engaging on a different level than telling. While there are times to tell and I’m sure that Steerpike can point me to a book where the author engaged by telling, Showing makes the job a lot easier and should be an author’s default technique.
6. Pace Yourself – Scenes have a pace. Chapters have a pace. Entire novels have a pace. Pay attention to that pace and use it to your advantage. Short = Fast. Long = Slow.
7. Don’t Distract the Reader – Avoid overusing any dialect or punctuation that will draw attention away from the story and onto the writing. Engagement depends on immersion. You want those pages to melt away, and anything that promotes a pause and a chance to withdraw is a bad thing. Even excessive scene breaks can make your novel less engaging.
8. Resist the Urge to Explain – One of the things most readers hate more than anything is to feel that the author thinks they’re stupid. This is the heart of over-explaining. The author either doesn’t trust his own writing or the reader’s ability to interpret that writing. Thus, the author ends up saying the same thing over and over. Anything a reader hates pulls them out of the story.
9. Be Active – Active sentences and verbs tend to be more engaging than passive ones. Is reading about a man existing in a state of walking (was walking) better or is a man striding or marching or sprinting your best bet?
10. Make Every Word Count – Engaging writing is concise writing. Each word you use that does not serve a story purpose is an opportunity to lose your reader. Get rid of all of the extraneous words. Scratch that, Get rid of all the extraneous words. Strike that, Get rid of extraneous words. Wait, How about, Eliminate extraneous words. There.
11. Focus on the Story – Just as every word needs to serve a purpose, each scene needs to fit the story. You have to ask yourself, what does this scene do for my plot? What does it do for character development? What does it do to the tension level? What does it do to the reader’s emotions? How does it impact pacing?
12. Avoid Too Much Description – Description belongs in a story, but, as with words and scenes, it needs to serve the overall story. It should: set the scene, emphasize emotion, introduce plot elements, or control pacing. If it’s not serving one of those purposes (or one equally important that’s escaping my mind at the moment) when that purpose needs to be served, then it doesn’t belong.

EDIT: I think it's important to note that you can create an engaging voice that breaks almost any of these guidelines. These techniques are meant to convey the easiest path to creating engagement rather than the only path.

 

[T.Allen.Smith]

This is an excellent list. I agree with everything in it but I'd add one more.

The use of concrete, specific nouns & descriptors over abstract concepts.

 

[WyrdMystic]

Me again. I think you're spot on. I don't think they belong in any particular order as they are relevant and important and like your edit says all can be broken. One you might want to add based on your edit - be sure to know the rules before you break them.

 

[WyrdMystic]

This is an excellent list. I agree with everything in it but I'd add one more.

The use of concrete, specific nouns & descriptors over abstract concepts.

Could you give an example of one and the other - sorry, but I'm not sure exactly what you're getting at??

 

[T.Allen.Smith]

Could you give an example of one and the other - sorry, but I'm not sure exactly what you're getting at??

Sure. Now that I think about it further, this would fall under BWFs list item "Strive for clarity."

Abstract language refers to things that are intangible, understood by the mind, not through the senses, some of which are: truth, God, beauty, friendship, learning, poetry, war, love.
Example:
Truth is the highest aspiration; poetry is the highest inspiration.

Concrete language identifies things identified through the senses (touch, smell, sight, hearing, and taste),concrete language is specific.
Example:
The aroma of bacon sizzling in the pan spread through the house.

Although there are places that abstract concepts are useful, we should strive to use as concrete a concept as possible for most of our writing whether they are nouns or descriptors. Abstract concepts can mean different things to different people where concrete language should be seen as the same by every reader, as the author intended.

Let's look at a description and how being more concrete and specific enhances setting and, in turn, the story.

1) A bed sat in the corner. - Pretty generic.

2) A wooden bed sat in the corner. - More specific but this can be made better.

3) A disheveled bed, rails and posts formed from rough-hewn logs, sat in the corner. - Much more concrete than before. Now the reader will see not only a bed, not only a wooden bed, but a crude bed made from untreated logs that also tells you the owner is not very neat. Furthermore, it gives some detail about the setting as we know that a bed like this may be common in a peasant's hovel while unlikely in a Lady's chamber.

That's not to say everything should be described in this manner. If the object is important to the story though, it should be handled in this manner.

Of course, you can always be more & more specific. That is a goal towards clarity & the reason it should probably fall under that point on the list.

 

[WyrdMystic]

Excellent, thank you!

 

[Lock]

Brooks Landon, Professor of English and Collegiate Fellow at The University of Iowa and Director of the University of Iowa General Education Literature Program breaks down good writing as writing that is both elegant and effective. Acknowledging that the terms are largely a matter of personal taste, Landon describes effective writing as writing that "anticipates, shapes, and satisfies a reader’s need for information." Following that, "sentences that convey more information are generally more effective than those that convey less." Effective writing is "...largely determined by how well the writer’s efforts respond to the situation that occasioned the writing, to the writer’s purpose in writing, and to the reader’s needs."

Landon describes elegant writing in terms similar to how mathematicians describe elegant mathematical solutions: the solution with the the fewest number of steps being the best. It is a matter of efficiency. Yet as writers "the problems we attempt to solve have emotional or affective dimension not generally associated with mathematics." When we write, we ask ourselves questions like: how would this character respond to this emotional stimulus? or what is motivating this character to act the way they are? The answers to which, even in the most elegant of styles, can seem inefficient, as the answers tend to not be straightforward or easily answered.

In my opinion, the best writers tend to be those who have the clearest sense of purpose, a sense of purpose bordering on (or manifesting as) religious fervor. Yet alone a strong sense of purpose is not enough, it is ultimately the conflict between contrasting beliefs and goals that equate the most elegant and efficient styles. When a writer is obsessed with understanding a contradiction they work exceptionally hard to organize and express that contradiction elegantly and efficiently, it being so deeply important to them. But even then, without an understanding of the relational reality they are trying to establish with their audience they can still be lost (though sometimes found and appreciated by later, more sympathetic generation).

 

[Xaysai]

Landon describes elegant writing in terms similar to how mathematicians describe elegant mathematical solutions: the solution with the the fewest number of steps being the best. It is a matter of efficiency. Yet as writers "the problems we attempt to solve have emotional or affective dimension not generally associated with mathematics." When we write, we ask ourselves questions like: how would this character respond to this emotional stimulus? or what is motivating this character to act the way they are? The answers to which, even in the most elegant of styles, can seem inefficient, as the answers tend to not be straightforward or easily answered.

Uh-oh @ underlined portion.

/popcorn

 

[T.Allen.Smith]

Uh-oh @ underlined portion.

/popcorn

Lol... You crack me up.

I actually agree with that statement for the most part. Efficiency is a good goal for writing. This may seem in contradiction with my explanation about concrete descriptors and the examples put forth (since the sentences about the bed keeps getting longer) but it isn't. I'm not suggesting every little detail should be described in this manner. Only the important details, those that are important to the story and serve a specific purpose.

 

[Penpilot]

1) A bed sat in the corner. - Pretty generic.

2) A wooden bed sat in the corner. - More specific but this can be made better.

3) A disheveled bed, rails and posts formed from rough-hewn logs, sat in the corner. - Much more concrete than before. Now the reader will see not only a bed, not only a wooden bed, but a crude bed made from untreated logs that also tells you the owner is not very neat. Furthermore, it gives some detail about the setting as we know that a bed like this may be common in a peasant's hovel while unlikely in a Lady's chamber.

That's not to say everything should be described in this manner. If the object is important to the story though, it should be handled in this manner.

Of course, you can always be more & more specific. That is a goal towards clarity & the reason it should probably fall under that point on the list.

I agree 100% with what T.A.S. said. But I'd also like to add to his example. His example was of something physical. The abstract applies to the emotional side of things too.

When I saw the wounded cat, I was sad . -- Abstract and imprecise because how sad were you? There are varying degrees of sadness.

Better
When I saw the wounded cat, I cried. -- expressed a certain degree of sadness.

When I saw the wounded cat, I dropped to my knees in tears. -- greater sadness.

 

[Philip Overby]

I'm going to do one of these breakdown analysis things here because I see other people do it and it looks like fun.

1. Seek Clarity – Simply put, if your reader can’t understand what the crap is going on, they’re not going to be very engaged in your story.

Very true. If a beta reader or critique partner ever says, "I don't get what's happening here" it's not their fault, it's your fault. An author's job is to communicate a story. If it can't be communicated due to murky language or "too much going on" then it's going to be a chore to read.

2. Filter the Story Through a Relatable Character – Readers don’t care about events because events are facts. Without the filter of a relatable character, the reader doesn’t know what to feel about a fact. For example: a verdict is read. Guilty. Should I be happy, sad, or indifferent? That depends entirely upon whether I supported the victim, believed the accused was innocent, or was an impartial outside observer. (My belief is that a writer, from the standpoint of technique, doesn’t care about what is good or evil but about what is the protagonist seeking versus the opposition.)

I would also note that relatable doesn't have to mean likeable. Just a character that the reader can get behind one way or another. For me, Cersei Lannister isn't likeable at all. She's actually quite detestable. But Martin fans love to hate her and her POVs because she is relatable in some way. She feels she should be ruler because she is best fit for it. But she lives in a man's world of brutes and simpletons. She can be incredibly relatable for a lot of readers.

3. Add Tension – Edge of your seat action and intense arguments draw the reader in. Slow scenes without conflict don’t. To add tension, give your protagonist a goal, give the protagonist opposition, increase the protagonist’s desire to reach the goal, and increase the opposition. Repeat those last two until the scene is as tense as you want it.

Something I strongly believe in. Conflict has to be present in fiction at all times. If you don't have conflict, then it's just like regular life. If you have a scene and Joe says "Hey, Bob, how are you today?" and Bob says, "Pretty good. Want to watch football?" "Yep." It's boring. But if Joe says "Hey, Bob, you want to watch football?" and Bob says, "Don't think I want to watch football with a guy that my girlfriend is having an affair with." OK, now we have something brewing!

4. Add Emotion – Without the emotion of the characters shining through the writing, the story will hold little interest. Use setting details, thoughts, actions, and, if need be, direct telling to communicate what the characters are feeling.

This can be tough to do, especially in a first draft. Ramping up emotional scenes is key to a good revision. If people are just doing stuff without any emotional reaction to it, readers may get confused, bored, or disconnected.

5. Show, Don’t Tell – Showing is engaging on a different level than telling. While there are times to tell and I’m sure that Steerpike can point me to a book where the author engaged by telling, Showing makes the job a lot easier and should be an author’s default technique.

This is one of those that can be debated, and has been done several times on this site. I'm more in the "show" camp myself, but there are moments where telling something can be done well. For a beginning writer, it's best to probably show more than you're telling. When you get a bit more seasoned, then you'll know when it's OK to tell and do it well.

6. Pace Yourself – Scenes have a pace. Chapters have a pace. Entire novels have a pace. Pay attention to that pace and use it to your advantage. Short = Fast. Long = Slow.

Another difficult thing to work on during a first draft. If scenes are too fast, the reader may not have time to digest anything. But if the scenes are too slow, they'll put the book down and go do something else. Modern readers have many quirks, but if the book is paced where the scenes that should be fast balanced well with the slower ones, then it all works out in the end.

7. Don’t Distract the Reader – Avoid overusing any dialect or punctuation that will draw attention away from the story and onto the writing. Engagement depends on immersion. You want those pages to melt away, and anything that promotes a pause and a chance to withdraw is a bad thing. Even excessive scene breaks can make your novel less engaging.

Using dialect is another thing that people may debate. Mark Twain used it to good effect, and some modern writers do it with orcs or hillbillies or whatever. But I'd agree mostly here that if you are relying too much on gimmicks for your writing, people may not want to read what you have to offer in the future. I personally can deal with dialect if it's well done. Another beginner writer thing to avoid, but I think some writers have used this well in the past.

8. Resist the Urge to Explain – One of the things most readers hate more than anything is to feel that the author thinks they’re stupid. This is the heart of over-explaining. The author either doesn’t trust his own writing or the reader’s ability to interpret that writing. Thus, the author ends up saying the same thing over and over. Anything a reader hates pulls them out of the story.

If a reader has picked up your book, then they probably want to be taken on a journey. They may not want to read about the history of elves or anything like that. If you have to talk about the history of elves, why not reveal it through dialogue or setting? There are ways to show your world without just straight narration about "In the time of yadda yadda ya..."

9. Be Active – Active sentences and verbs tend to be more engaging than passive ones. Is reading about a man existing in a state of walking (was walking) better or is a man striding or marching or sprinting your best bet?

Active sentences rule. But if you look at a lot of published books nowadays, there are a lot more passive sentences than I would expect. It's nearly impossible to write a manuscript without ANY passive sentences, but I agree here as well. That's what editing is for. If you can change a passive sentence to a more active one, it's probably a good idea.

10. Make Every Word Count – Engaging writing is concise writing. Each word you use that does not serve a story purpose is an opportunity to lose your reader. Get rid of all of the extraneous words. Scratch that, Get rid of all the extraneous words. Strike that, Get rid of extraneous words. Wait, How about, Eliminate extraneous words. There.

Another thing important when editing. For the purposes of first drafts, I say use as many words as you feel like. Just write about emerald glistening eyes with a bit of dusty gray. It's not going to kill you or anyone else. However, when editing, you can clean up a lot of this. This doesn't mean be less descriptive, I don't think, it just means if you use a specific word, there should be a reason you are using it.

11. Focus on the Story – Just as every word needs to serve a purpose, each scene needs to fit the story. You have to ask yourself, what does this scene do for my plot? What does it do for character development? What does it do to the tension level? What does it do to the reader’s emotions? How does it impact pacing?

Double agree. Triple agree even. Scenes should all be building blocks that create your plot. I personally love the method of Action/Reaction. It's a simple method, but it provides efficiency with scenes as you are always having something happen and then the characters reacting to it. If these Action/Reaction scenes tie neatly together, then you have, hopefully, a good plot-line. If a scene just seems to be floating out there unconnected, cut it loose.

12. Avoid Too Much Description – Description belongs in a story, but, as with words and scenes, it needs to serve the overall story. It should: set the scene, emphasize emotion, introduce plot elements, or control pacing. If it’s not serving one of those purposes (or one equally important that’s escaping my mind at the moment) when that purpose needs to be served, then it doesn’t belong.

This is one of those matters of taste. I like to think of description like a hamburger (I saw something similar to this somewhere else, so credit given wherever I saw it). A good hamburger has the meat, the buns, maybe some mustard and mayo, lettuce, and onion for me. That's a pretty reasonable hamburger. It's when you start putting BBQ sauce, olives, feta cheese, blue cheese, onion strings, etc. etc. when the burger starts to lose it's taste and just become a bunch of confusing flavors. Compliment your hamburger with what you like and compliment your sentences with descriptions that you like. But just because you like BBQ Blue Cheese Jalapeno Wasabi Burgers, doesn't mean other people (your readers) are going to as well. I can probably safely say most people (that eat meat) like a pretty basic burger. You can add a little bit of bells and whistles, but don't go overboard with all the flavors less someone toss your burger (sentence) in the trash.

Overall, great list Brian! I think this is an excellent guide for a beginning writer and something to think about for those that have been writing a long time and have kept running into the same issues with their writing.

 

[T.Allen.Smith]

Nice breakdown Phil.

I'd also like to thank Brian as this list has just replaced the list pinned to my wall beside my desktop screen as its more complete.

 

[BWFoster78]

Me again. I think you're spot on. I don't think they belong in any particular order as they are relevant and important and like your edit says all can be broken.

Maybe, but I still find it fun to discuss. Sorta like Rank your ten favorite movies.

 

[BWFoster78]

Nice breakdown Phil.

I'd also like to thank Brian as this list has just replaced the list pinned to my wall beside my desktop screen as its more complete.

Glad it was helpful. I've been thinking on it for a long time.

 

[Anders Ämting]

Anders's Top 2 Advice For Writing In General:

1: Never generalize anything.
2: That includes the above advice.

Case in point:

1. Seek Clarity – Simply put, if your reader can’t understand what the crap is going on, they’re not going to be very engaged in your story.

I dunno about this one. When I read Patricia McKillip's Cygnet books, I had no idea what was going on half the time. I still really liked them, though, and the fact that they were extremely poetic and hard to understand was part of what made them fascinating.

Amusingly, I don't seem to be alone - most reviews seem to basically go: "What the heck did I just read? It was awesome!"

 

[T.Allen.Smith]

What he means by "clarity" is that what the reader experiences is the exact same thing that the author intended.

The "movie in your head" playing while you read is as the author intended it to be and not up to a too broad interpretation.

 

[Philip Overby]

@Anders: I think Brian's advice is awesome for beginning writers. I'm sure these Cygnet books you're mentioning are not written by a beginning writer. Meaning she probably knows the craft well enough to do things a different way. Yes, advice, tips, and rules in writing aren't absolute. But if I was just starting out as a writer and saw Brian's tips, and actually used them, I'd start off a better overall writer. Writing isn't rocket science, but it's also not one of the things that's easy to do. No writing advice is perfect, but I think for people that struggle a lot with their writing and can't seem to figure out what they're doing wrong, this advice is pretty solid.

 

[BWFoster78]

Anders's Top 2 Advice For Writing In General:

1: Never generalize anything.
2: That includes the above advice.

Case in point:



I dunno about this one. When I read Patricia McKillip's Cygnet books, I had no idea what was going on half the time. I still really liked them, though, and the fact that they were extremely poetic and hard to understand was part of what made them fascinating.

Amusingly, I don't seem to be alone - most reviews seem to basically go: "What the heck did I just read? It was awesome!"

Anders,

I'd be curious to know your advice on how to improve writing.

As for the rest, did you read this part?

EDIT: I think it's important to note that you can create an engaging voice that breaks almost any of these guidelines. These techniques are meant to convey the easiest path to creating engagement rather than the only path.

 

[T.Allen.Smith]

I think he's confusing clarity of understanding the story goings-on before they unfold & clarity of language.

Granted, I haven't read the books he's talking about but it seems as if Anders is describing an author that intentionally took the reader on an unusual trip.

 

[BWFoster78]

I think he's confusing clarity of understanding the story goings-on before they unfold & clarity of language.

Granted, I haven't read the books he's talking about but it seems as if Anders is describing an author that intentionally took the reader on an unusual trip.

I was more concerned with the attitude that you should never give anyone tips. If it doesn't help him, fine, but the kind of information I expressed helped me a lot in the past and is still helping me. Just last night, I read something that helped me in a scene I'm editing today.

Frankly, I don't get his viewpoint.