This guest post was written by Nada Adel Sobhi. Nada is an avid reader and reviewer whose book reviews, poetry, and short stories draw readers to her blog.

Today she outlines a few lessons everyone can learn about writing by reading.

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Writing tips are everywhere, but as a reader, you start to make your own connections and mental notes from books. From show don’t tell, to characterization, to pacing, a book has many facets that make it whole and unique even if plots become similar from time to time.

As a reader, I’ve learned a lot just reading books. I’ve discovered aspects, or should I say traps, that writers occasionally fall into. A book might be great, but does it really deliver on the blurb and promise that made you pick it up in the first place?

Also, how does Terry Pratchett’s famous quote, “The first draft is just you telling yourself the story,” ring true? As authors, there are scenes that we want to put our characters in but these scenes may not play a major role in the building of the story.

Below is a list of pitfalls, with examples, I’ve noticed authors fall into that would have made their books much better and more exciting if these problems had been considered prior to publishing.

Lesson #1: Digressing From the Blurb

What happens when the blurb promises something but the reader keeps reading and reading and does not find that in the novel or when the novel takes too long to get to the promised plot?

As writers, we want to say a lot. We want to give the reader background information, highlight certain scenes we think are integral to the story, or add dialogue to break a series of descriptive paragraphs. It’s understandable.

But we also have to take care how much of this information is actually important to the reader. Let me explain: if a blurb says that the book is about two warring factions, with one trying to send spies to bring the other down, as readers we are expecting a lot of action and strategic planning. When the novel digresses and moves on to modern life, with people waking up for their cereal and newspapers, the reader can’t help but narrow their eyes, wondering how this relates to the plot. Even more so, if such slow-moving scenes take too long or are repeated.

In dialogue, characters often digress. Sometimes it is justifiable, as in recent short stories I read about Miss Marple by Agatha Christie. Miss Marple is around 80 years old so naturally she digresses, but in doing so, she’s often able to remember things that help her solve the mystery at hand. This is justifiable digressing (even if it might bore the reader a bit).

However, in other books, when the author goes into pages and pages of description and background information, the reader gets lost. I’ve had two experiences where I was reading mystery novels and had to stop mid-way and go back to the blurb to find out why I had picked up this particular book. I needed to remind myself that there was something “interesting” coming my way at some point, but was of course disappointed by the delay.

If readers lose track of the plot, or in this case the mystery and the events leading up to it, then the author has fallen into the trap of too much information and digressing.

The solution: The author can sprinkle the background info they want to give through dialogue. “Why did you come to Ireland, if you’ve lived your whole life in the States?” A character might ask and give the other a chance to explain the needed background the author wants to provide.

Writers can also relate the setting to the information they want without giving everything in one shot. It will keep the reader interested, and they will be able to form their own connections. I like it when at some point I say, “Ah, that’s why!” That ‘Ah’ moment is the author and the reader interacting, and the author getting a thumbs up from their reader.

Lesson #2: Multiple POVs and Pacing

In many novels, authors use multiple points of view (POVs), usually two characters and occasionally three. Some of these are in first person, some in third. The focus of this point is the pacing between the two or more POVs.

In one of the books I read, one POV was super-fast with lots of action, running, clipped dialogue (because the character was acting as a spy and didn’t have time for conversation), while the other was a normal boy who woke up to a daily routine. There were several chapters where I felt there was absolutely nothing special about the second POV character, whose name was also in the title of the book. He was boring. I would read the first line of the page, a line somewhere in the middle, the last line, and then move on until something worth my time happened.

What does this mean? What trap did this author fall into?

He made one character extra exciting and the supposedly title character below average. The reader didn’t care or sympathize with the second. Such a pacing-hole could spell out a number of end-results for the reader:

1. They can skip chapters
2. They can stop reading
3. They may give a negative review
4. All of the above

The solution: Even the pace and find an important character trait.

The author needs to skip the mundane bits and find something that makes the second character special. Perhaps we are getting introduced to them for the first time, but they need to appear important in a way. They don’t have to be kick-ass; they just have to be special; their dad died protecting them, their aunts possessed magic that didn’t run in the family, they can see through walls … etc. Something to make the reader root for them.

Lesson #3: Scenes That Appear Important but Do Not Relate to the Plot

As I said, authors often want to include scenes that may or may not directly impact the plot. Some show character traits but some are just there for word count or as a result of bad editing. Sorry, but it’s true.

Some authors make a scene appear important: a character is struggling to finish a task and after several pages of strife, nothing happens. In these several pages, the reader was engrossed and waiting for a final reward. Instead they ended up with a “what the hell!” or “So?”

Something like this would probably dock a star from a review in an instant. Not only that, the reader may not trust the author in future seemingly-important scenes, or with future books.

Remember Terry Pratchett’s quote: “The first draft is just you telling yourself the story.”

This is an important quote to remember when authors start writing. Why? Because there is a lot we want to say. We create an outline but as we write, new scenes pop up in our heads and vie for precedence on the page.

The solution: Write the parts you want — in the first draft.

In the second, third, and fourth drafts, you need to start sifting through what you really need. Can this chapter be turned into background story? Is this part really necessary? And so on.

Tell yourself the story; you’ll always have that draft with everything you wanted your character to do. But the one that comes out to the reader needs to be polished and focused. Unlike you, the reader has never met the character before, which means you don’t want to bore them. You want them to love your character.

Lesson #4: Slow Pace and What It Does to the Reader

I know I’ve talked about pace before. Here I’ll focus more on pace, generally, and how it affects the reader.

In any novel, pace needs to move between slow, medium, and fast. In some books, pace can be slow to medium only, depending on the theme, plot, and the genre of the book. Mystery, paranormal, or fantasy novels usually see pace rise several notches towards the end. The same might not be applicable in romance novels, for example. This is not a fixed rule.

The point is, there needs to be variation in pacing. A rise and fall, if you will.

Mysteries tend to start slow then pick up bit by bit until the murderer is revealed and the novel ends. Pace might rise if the murderer attempts to take another life — usually the main character’s — then slow a bit and rise again in the final confrontation.

If pace is slow throughout, it will make the reader feel that a book is “heavy.” I don’t mean it weighing a lot but rather “heavy to continue” or simply boring. It’s not coming to an end. You read and read and then look at how far you’ve progressed: “50 pages and 3%. At this rate, I’ll finish this book by next year!”

There are lots of reasons why a reader might not finish a book. But the top reasons I’ve stopped reading were: pace and unlikable main characters.

As with the pacing in multiple POVs, the reader may consider dropping the book because of its pace, especially if with the slow pace nothing important is happening, a kind of double whammy for the reader.

Many readers tend to be a bit skeptical when they come across a book 400 or 500 pages long. As a reader, I wonder, “Will the author really hold me in place for all 500 pages? Or will I find boring parts and start skipping?”

I hate skipping parts, but if there is nothing worthwhile happening, why should I continue?

In my opinion, an unread book is better than a half-finished one. If I drop a book, I’ll forever remember that something stopped me from making it till the end. Whereas if the book is merely collecting dust on my shelf — or virtual dust on my Kindle — there is a chance I will pick it up at some point in time.

To conclude, authors usually have two main things they need to do:

1. Hold the reader’s interest
2. Entertain them

It’s not easy. We want to use all the tricks up our sleeves, but sometimes it can be too much.

Hence, “The first draft is just you telling yourself the story.”

© Nada Adel Sobhi

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Nada Adel Sobhi earned her BA in English Language and Literature from Cairo University. She is a poet, writer, translator, book reviewer, and blogger. She was the Editor-in-Chief of Cairo University’s annually-published poetry and creative writing magazine, The Muse, and later of online magazine, HR Revolution Middle East.

Nada blogs regularly about books, writing, and author interviews, and features her work on her Nadaness In Motion blog. Her poetry has been published in a few anthologies, including two by Scripting Change, whose proceeds go to charity.

Her short stories, “The Soul of a Dancer” and “Metamorphosis,” were published in Centum Press’ One Hundred Voices Vol. II and One Hundred Voices Vol. III anthologies, respectively.

Find Nada on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, and Nadaness In Motion.

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