Write Better: Tips and tricks

Character X wouldn't do [action]

The trick isn't saying: she's a unique individual so I can do what I want and it's OK.

The trick is in convincing your readers that in this situation, this character is acting the way you'd expect her to. You can't always skate by with a "because I said so" or "I was going for a surprise murder of the priest by the nun."

This can require you to get creative. Like if you want that shocking nun murders priest scene. If your readers aren't buying it, go back and look at not only how you conveyed the nun, but how you conveyed the scene. Maybe you made it a little too dovey, and your readers transferred that onto the character. Or maybe you thought it was obvious but you were too subtle. Who knows. The important thing is that you go back and see what evidence you gave the reader, and if there's enough of it.

3. The reader is right. Sometimes we get so wrapped up in our stories we miss a detail, think of something as being possible when it isn't, or we run into a reader who's got more experience in an area than us.

If the reader is right, whether it be a fact or something that requires a little more debate, do clarify. The last thing you need is to hear the same comment a dozen more times, especially if it's a quick fix with minor impact on the story.

Say the reader is right about the location of Buckingham Palace. Changing it won't kill you.

4. Clarification would improve the story. Sometimes a little clarification isn't always necessary, but when a reader poses and interesting question all of a sudden we see things from a new light. We add in an extra detail or improve on an old one. If the reader's observations help you, by all means, put in the effort to clarify!

When you don't need to clarify:

1. The reader is factually incorrect and that fact is relatively understood by a general audience.

This is one of the easiest circumstances. In the above example with Dark Side, it's more or less common knowledge that cats get ticks. Maybe some people out there haven't yet experienced the joy of prying a tick off the neck of an angry black cat, but the information is so general it could be answered with a yes/no search on google. You don't have to be an expert to understand the answer. Your general audience doesn't need you to add in two sentences explaining that cats have ticks. Your story doesn't need to waste time on that, either.

2. There's no evidence to back them up.

You spent the first four chapters detailing the romance between Susan and that sexy accountant downstairs. She's mentioned multiple times that she wants to sleep with him, and they had two conversations of flirty, seductive banter, yet the reader is surprised when she does.

Sometimes, the reader just has it wrong. You can safely ignore their request to change it.

IMPORTANT: TO FIND OUT IF THE READER HAS IT WRONG, CHECK YOUR STORY. This is to make sure you didn't miss something or fail to do a good job of convincing the average reader of your intentions (#2 from when you should clarify).

IF YOU AREN'T SURE WHAT THEY MEAN, ASK THEM.

3. The reader is giving you an opinion.

"The protagonist shouldn't hang out with her pregnant, unmarried roommate. She shouldn't be supporting someone like that. It's disgusting."

This is a sample of feedback I got from one beta reader on Run Cold. Needless to say, they refused to read the rest of the story because the protagonist helping her pregnant, unmarried roommate offended them. It wasn't okay for the protag to talk to her anymore.

At the end of the day, there wasn't anything I could insert into the story to make that reader content. I wanted to do something, but there wasn't anything to clarify. The protag is always going to support her friend, and her friend is always going to have this baby (the baby is important to the plot in both the first and second books).

The reader graciously took the time to give me their opinion, and it's a valid opinion. They have every right to it (even if I disagree). I suppose I could have made the roommate married, but then there would be gigantic plot shifts to accommodate that reader's opinions. She wouldn't live with her roommate, an important conversation with the protag would never happen, etc. Not to mention the dozens of other readers that weren't bothered by this.

Deciding what does and doesn't need clarification can be a bit of a bother, especially when you've got someone telling you your character wouldn't do X or Y. Nevertheless, if you stop, give it some thought, and assess each individual situation, it's pretty easy to figure out if you're on the right track or way off base! :)