It’s often said that to be a successful writer, it’s important to connect with readers. That’s true, whether you’re writing nonfiction, memoir or fiction. Connecting with readers through social media and marketing newsletters is one thing, but connecting with them through story telling requires a different mindset and skills set.

Think of this connection another way, more like a partnership or collaboration. Each party brings certain skills and experiences to the table. That collaborative experience occurs during the actual reading of the book when the reader is consuming the author’s words. The two partners create the story together: readers with their imagination, and writers with their pen.

You can’t have the story without the reader in mind. Readers are always looking for good stories to consume. They want to love the stories you write, and they can’t wait to be your partner.

Think about your own reading experience. Which authors resonated with you? Which ones drew you into their stories, made you follow along on the protagonist’s journey, to feel their pain and joy? That is the value of the writer-reader connection. That is what it looks like and feels like, and that is what we, as writers, should strive to achieve.

In this collaborative relationship, writers contribute the following:

* Creativity and imagination, a spark of an idea for the story in the first place.
* Sweat equity and perseverance to get the story done
* Their heart to provide the emotional depth
* Life experience to tap into to make the story relatable for their readers

Readers provide the following:

* Time away from their daily tasks to immerse themselves in the author’s work
* A desire to be educated or entertained or to simply escape into a different world.
* Life experience that contributes, and sometimes enhances, their understanding of the stories they’re reading.

Fantasy author K.M. Weiland describes this partnership this way:

“Our job is to guide the readers’ imagination, but it’s their job to put their imagination to work in the first place. The story that their minds project will never be exactly the one we, not to mention their fellow readers, see.”

As writers, how do you connect with readers? There are four steps to achieve this.

1. Understand readers’ expectations of your genre. Each genre has certain required elements and story structure. Without them, most stories fail to appeal to readers. For example, in contemporary rom-coms, readers expect a light-hearted tone, playful banter between the love interests and a happy ending. Without those elements, you can’t truly call it a romance and readers will be disappointed. To connect with readers, make sure you live up to their expectations and give them what they want.

2. Create relatable characters. Or more specifically, a protagonist they can believe in and relate to, one they are willing to follow on their journey. Give characters a flaw or two, make them face problems on the way to achieving their goals, and give them talents that will help them overcome those obstacles. Make readers care about your characters.

Book coach Karyn Fischer suggests giving your protagonist a quirk or unique personality feature to make them stand out, such as an odd-looking tattoo that has a personal meaning to them or an ability to do magic tricks. Those features or talents make them memorable. 

3. Create emotional tension. Stories laden with emotion can leave a lasting impression on readers. That emotion can be created with conflict, opposing goals, secrets, danger, high stakes, even romantic tension. For example, the depth of emotion in The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah is what makes that novel so memorable and why many readers name it as one of their favorites.

4. Consider readers’ life experience. As part of the collaboration between writers and readers, life experience plays a big role. Writers tap into their own life experience to create their stories, but so do readers, who use their life experience to acknowledge the experiences of the characters. Writers may not know what their readers have gone through in their personal lives, but they can create stories with common themes that most people have experienced, such as grief and loss, career achievement, friendship, self-doubt, community and hopefulness. It is this shared experience that can create the best connections with readers. 

Writing might be a solo endeavor, but readers are also part of the journey. When you think of story telling as a shared experience between writer and reader, you won’t feel so alone when you write your next story.