What are you looking for in a writer?

[BWFoster78]

I enjoy reading. If it's a choice between a good book and almost anything else, I'll take the good book. When I'm in the middle of such a read, especially if it's a series, my wife has to force me to put it down.

The fact is, though, that it is extremely difficult to find books that engage me to that degree. It takes both a compelling story and adequate technique, and, frankly, most of the stuff out there, traditional and especially self published, simply doesn't make the grade.

To win me as a reader, you pretty much have to do the following:

Put me in the head of a relatable character. Get me close to that person. Dive deep into the POV. I want to see your world through your character's eyes and emotions.

Keep the pace fast and the writing tight. Sloppy technique and scenes mired in endless description or lacking proper tension bore me quickly. Too much boredom, and you lose me.

Don't do stupid things that take me out of the story. From formatting to logistical mistakes, there are tons of ways that you can make me stop and go, "Wait. What?"

Make me feel something. Put me so close to the characters that I experience their emotional shifts.

None of those things are easy. They take lots of work to achieve; I understand that. My pursuit of works that do accomplish these objectives, however, is what makes me so adamant about helping others elevate their writing.

What about you? When you're looking for new authors, what's important to you?

 

[Philip Overby]

I usually look for the following:

1. The book hooks me from the beginning. The phrase "the first 5 pages" is not an exaggeration for me. I need something to grab me from the beginning in some way. A writer who most recently did this for me was Saladin Ahmed, whose novel Throne of the Crescent Moon is an excellent example of this. I got a taste of his writing style, his world, his characters, and his setting all in the first half dozen pages or so.

2. Keeping a good pace. Not neck-break speed, but not treading water.

3. Give me one new thing. If a writer can offer me one new thing I can't get from other writers, I'll stick with them and buy lots of their books. This can be sort of an intangible "it factor." Something I can't place, but I'll know it when I see it. For me, China Mieville, Steven Erikson, Joe Abercrombie, and Andrzej Sapkowski have that "something."

4. Characters of course. Good, relatable (not necessarily likable) characters. A strong protagonist with goals and a stronger antagonist with goals opposing those goals.

5. Goals.

6. I can't say technique and such bother me as much. If it distracts me or pulls me out of the story, then that would be an issue.

7. Some kind of sense of humor. I like grim fiction, but even the grimmest fiction has some humor injected into it. Right?

Those are just a few things that I look for when trying out a new writer. If I think of others, I'll post some more!

 

[Penpilot]

When I pick up a book, the biggest requirement is entertain me, regardless of style.

I gauge books like movies. Sometimes I like serious, thought provoking drama. Other times, I want some laughs. Still others, I just want to turn off my brain and watch things go boom.

The only show stopper for me is when an author tries to justify the plot direction with BS reasoning. To me that's treating the reader like they're idiots and I can't stand that.

Other than that, it's open season. I'll read anything.

 

[The Dark One]

Pretty much agree with all of the above, but something I'd add is - I like writers who can shock me. Obviously I want interesting characters, a decent premise and good pace - but I want you to surprise me within the rules of the world you have created.

The curse of being a writer myself (and no doubt everyone here has this problem to some degree) is that I am very hard to surprise. Too frequently I anticipate every twist and turn and have usually guessed the outcome of a story before I get to halfway. I just love it when I find a writer talented enough to keep their plot cards close to their chest and play them in a way that amuses and astounds (without breaking their own rules). I haven't found such a writer for years.

An example of breaking the rules is The Sixth Sense (movie). Many people raved about how clever that story was, with its amazing revelation etc, but not me. I felt completely ripped off because the writer/director applied different rules to the MC. He could see (and we could see) the death wounds of all the other ghosts, but he doesn't see his own (nor do we) until the 'revelation'. Also, the kid is terrified of the other ghosts, but tolerates and engages with Bruce Willis, even if he is also trying to avoid him.

Easy to be clever when you break the rules.

 

[CupofJoe]

When I pick up a book, the biggest requirement is entertain me, regardless of style.
I gauge books like movies. Sometimes I like serious, thought provoking drama. Other times, I want some laughs. Still others, I just want to turn off my brain and watch things go boom.
The only show stopper for me is when an author tries to justify the plot direction with BS reasoning. To me that's treating the reader like they're idiots and I can't stand that.
Other than that, it's open season. I'll read anything.

This is pretty much what I was going to write.
I like sparse dry prose and the purple verbose.
I like stories that are realistic and gritty as well as those utterly fantastic or comic... it just has to make an internal sense.
If there is something that turns me off... writers trying to impress me with how "well" they write. It's sort of like listening to a musician playing fiddly bits just for his/her mates at the back of the room. It's probably indefinable but I gets to me when I see it.

 

[PaulineMRoss]

I look for three things:

1: Some original twist in the world-building. That doesn't mean the author needs to create a whole raft of new languages or religions or social structures from scratch (although good luck for anyone who attempts that), but I do like something a bit different. A second moon. Some original titles for the nobility. New birds/animals/trees. Maybe some unusual clothes or food. Anything but the basic all too predictable pseudo-medieval setting. Or pseudo-anything, for that matter. It's fantasy, it doesn't have to resemble anything.

2: I like realistic characters who behave in believable ways. Not necessarily relatable (how do you relate to a mage anyway? Or a shape-shifting half-elf?), but characters who are recognisably human (if appropriate) or 'other' (if non-human), and whose actions are determined by their own desires and personalities, and not just the needs of the plot.

3: Emotional engagement. I need to care about some of the characters, about what happens to them, about whether they live or die. If a main character dies, I should be upset about that.

Interesting discussion.

 

[BWFoster78]

Interesting discussion.

Thanks!

I think it's important for two reasons:

1. As authors, we need to have an understanding what qualities our audience finds most important.

2. To emphasize how difficult it is to draw an audience. Just because you write it doesn't mean anyone want to read it. You have to give the readers what they want.

 

[Steerpike]

I like all of the things mentioned above. In addition, I look for a unique voice. I don't mind lots of description, if it is engagingly done. I don't mind lean prose if it is written in an interesting way. What I've really grown weary of is the number of writers whose "voice" all sounds the same. The prose is generic and interchangeable with any number of other authors on the shelf. I'm interested in finding authors who can express themselves in a way that is distinctive, and that also have compelling characters, stories, and so on.

 

[Ankari]

I like all of the things mentioned above. In addition, I look for a unique voice. I don't mind lots of description, if it is engagingly done. I don't mind lean prose if it is written in an interesting way. What I've really grown weary of is the number of writers whose "voice" all sounds the same. The prose is generic and interchangeable with any number of other authors on the shelf. I'm interested in finding authors who can express themselves in a way that is distinctive, and that also have compelling characters, stories, and so on.

I just finished A Memory of Light and I was saddened by the generic voice of that book. I bought the book expecting a grand feast, only to find rice cakes shaped and colored into a banquet.

To the original post:

1) I hate it when the good guys, no matter how inexperienced and naive they are, somehow find a way to overcome a situation that requires extensive skill. Taking an example from The Wheel of Time (this is done throughout the entire series), I didn't like how both authors go on and on about how so much knowledge was lost during the end of the Second Age, but our new protagonists somehow create powerful magic because it "feels right". Really? And all the other Aes Sedai (magic users) never felt right?

2) I need balance. The antagonists are not fodder dressed in dark clothes with wearing hoods that shroud their faces in shadow. Antagonists need the same chance of winning as the protagonists. Beyond the point of realism, authors create a flat counterweight to their protagonists. The reader isn't reading about a cast of characters trying to one up one another, they're reading how protagonists, with all of their (implied) dynamic investments, overcome obstacles that happen to take the form of a human (or other living thing). Invest into your antagonists like you would invest into your protagonists.

3) I need real human motives and emotions. There are those who would sacrifice their lives for the cause of "good", but there are those who would join the cause of "good" for baser reasons. There are cowards, and there are heroes. There are greedy and generous people. There are intelligent and dumb characters. Why do all the good traits fall on the side of the "good" side and the bad traits on the side of "evil"?

4) Don't give me a sword fight that lasts over ten minutes. I would prefer a maximum of two, but I'll give the author some room to embellish.

5) Give me a world of wonder. I don't want paper thin settings. Worlds are characters.

6) Give me something to chew on mentally. I don't want to the author use the story to spread his philosophy, but I do want to read about his characters beliefs and dispositions. An author needs to be able to write about things he doesn't believe with as much zeal as the beliefs he does accept.

7) Give me consequences. I don't want the good side to go unscathed the entire story. They may win, but surely being good doesn't give them invulnerability, right?

8) Give me a pinch more description than what is now commonly tolerated. I feel that readers have a shortened attention span and tolerance for art. What is considered "flowery prose" is nothing compared to what was written in the past. Flowery prose helps convey ideas that are otherwise hard to fathom (such as a fantasy world!).

9) I need competent writing.

10) I need older people. The cast of characters are always 15 to 20-ish year olds somehow able to overcome the threat to mankind. Old people can't be heroes? Disabled? How about ordinary people? Why are the protagonists always the most powerful people to have graced the lands? What does that tell our audience? Ordinary people, which is everyone (including our readers) can't do a damn thing in the face of adversity? They have to wait for the Second Coming to overcome evil? Bah!

 

[Chessie]

If after the first 2-3 pages I haven't been drawn in, then I'm putting the book back on the shelf. I like stories that flow the present story with the past of a character, not always done well I think. On another thread, a fellow poster mentioned that an author's uniqueness goes with the execution of the story. I totally agree. Even if the concept is one I've read about a lot, if there's just that "something" about the story, I'm in.

What I dislike is when story is flowing, then all of the sudden gets weird or ridiculous. I have a certain author in mind but I won't bash. I bought the first 3 books of his 5 book series, only to be disappointed in the middle of the third because crap just got really weird.

Anyway, what I look for in a writer is flowing narrative with descriptions that don't bog me down (I want to use my imagination some too), enrapturing storytelling, characters that come alive in my mind or make sense, and a common sense ending.

 

[Spider]

Characters of course. Good, relatable (not necessarily likable) characters. A strong protagonist with goals and a stronger antagonist with goals opposing those goals.

Agreed. I find it important to be able to relate to the antagonists. If a villain is created with a purely evil nature, you can't connect with that character. In the eyes of the antagonist, he/she is the protagonist.

 

[A. E. Lowan]

Honestly, I want passion. I want Joss Whedon's love child. I want humor, and pathos, and writing to make Aaron Sorkin weep that had hadn't written it himself. I want honesty to both the characters and to their world. I want everything that everyone above has said, and I want amazingly sexy men thrown in, just because I am a woman and I like them (so there).

I want to cry, not because I am a crier (I never cry) but because the characters are in pain and I am in pain with them. I want to laugh with them. I want to hold my breath with them because the scary thing is just on the other side of the flimsy crate, trying to catch their scent.

In other words, I want to live in their world with them.

 

[Ophiucha]

1. A main character I can empathize with. He or she doesn't need to be a character I like, necessarily, but if I cannot understand why they feel and act the way they do, then it's hard for me to read a story that follows them around.
2. A unique voice or idiosyncratic style. Not necessarily House of Leaves levels of idiosyncratic, that book honestly just annoys me, but I find books that are in a very standard 3rd person limited with a text book narrator to be the most dry damn thing. I need a narrator with personality (be it one of the characters or just the author), a good framing device, just something to keep me reading for more than twenty minutes at a time.
3. A fully utilized setting. Fantasy has a lot more potential than just 'dragons', and I'd like to see where the story is set have at least a bit more thought put into it than a copy+pasted aesthetic and a few name changes to match.
4. A decent pace. I think hooks are important, as some have said above, but if I'm honest I've suffered through stories that took a hundred pages to pick up and still loved them. But bad pacing? That ruins a story/series for me. *coughsASOIAFcoughcough*