Last Updated on April 6, 2024 by ADMIN-TOM
Distraction. It’s a word used a lot in recent years. It has been used extensively in political circles where a party, a leader, a tyrant distracts their voters from something really bad they are responsible for. Distraction is also a hidden terror for the unsuspecting author.
When your reader downloads your book and starts reading, you want them immersed in your work. The last thing you want is for a page turner to turn into a reminder.
I’m currently bringing my current work in progress, a spy thriller novel, to a close. The book will be published by the end of May 2024. I took a few hours off from writing, the other day, and sat down to watch the TV with my wife. My wife is into one particular UK soap, Coronation Street. Me? I hate soaps, but I sit and watch, it allows me to switch off as the storylines unfold and I doze off. I didn’t think I took any of it in, but how wrong can you be. I obviously did take something in recently because one of the character’s names came up. A character called Dee Dee came up. Suddenly, my ears picked up on that. Why? Because one of my characters in my latest novel, Walking Away from Midnight, is called Deedee. Coincidence, or did I hear that name before, when watching my wife’s soap? Who knows. But the point I’m trying to make is simple. When your reader is immersed in your book, the last thing you want is for them to receive a reminder of either everyday life or a reminder of their favourite soap.
Once your reader is distracted, it can seriously open the floodgate of thoughts and emotions for other current events in your reader’s life. Your book is no longer a page turner, it’s become a reminder. A distraction.
Which reminds me, I have another four chapters to write before Walking Away from Midnight is completed. So I had better get on and do some writing.
Copyright © Tom Kane 2024
