Writing fiction to draw readers in

Which after all that time spent writing your masterpiece is exactly what you want. But there?s a big difference between writing a good story and readers agreeing with you.
Unless you?re never going to write again or are only concerned with the number of books you can sell, the last thing you want is for people to lose interest in what you?re doing.

Many authors have waiting lists for their books. That?s because they?ve gained a good reputation and leave readers wanting more. People trust them to deliver the goods whatever they write. We all have our own favourites, and they?re always the first ones we look out for. But how do they get to that stage?

Word of mouth is a large part of the reason people are willing to try new authors. Someone recommends them as being good and so it goes on. But of course it can work in the opposite way. If people think you?re rubbish they won?t be shy about saying so. Especially these days.

If you?re a new writer you can?t afford to leave people indifferent. Or worse, thinking what a waste of time it was reading it in the first place.
Whatever genre you use, there still has to be a reason someone will finish your own efforts satisfied with the result. You have to draw them in and keep their interest going until the last page. In other words they have to care about what they?re reading.
Or more importantly who they?re reading about.

If your characters have the personalities of a pavement slab, or are so unrealistic no one can believe in their existence, you?ve already lost them. Whatever adventures might befall them readers have to want them to succeed. Or not as the case may be. It isn?t about making characters likeable. Just believable.

The same goes for the story itself. There has to be a reason things happen. The way they deal with them is what keeps the story going. However many twists and turns there might be, readers should be wondering how they?ll end up. You have to keep them guessing, not give it all away in the first chapter.

Whatever you?re writing people should enjoy it. It?s ultimately the only way they?ll come back for more. And who knows, one day you might even have a waiting list of your own.