How to Write Stuff Everyone Wants to Read

I’ve been helping authors write for nearly fifteen years, and I have found one idea in particular has helped them to take their writing to the next level. It’s not original to me; it comes from Sol Stein and his book Stein on Writing, which I highly recommend to anyone who wants to write well.

Here’s the idea: the purpose of writing is “to provide the reader with an experience that is superior to the experiences the reader encounters in everyday life.”

Writers write for all kinds of reasons: to make money, to express themselves, to get famous, to communicate, to make an argument, to add to a conversation. All of these reasons are fine if kept in the right place. But the first reason is to create an experience that readers bolt to over other experiences.

Writers sometimes make the mistake of believing they are competing against other writings for readers’ attention. If I’m a novelist, my competition is other novels. If I write essays, I think my competition is other works of nonfiction. But actually, the writer’s competition is anything else that could capture a reader’s attention.

This sounds daunting, I know. How on earth are we as writers supposed to communicate with TV, iTunes, in-person conversations, online surfing, going to the beach, and other countless diversions? It’s not easy, but until we realize what the goal is, we don’t stand a chance.

So how do we create experiences that are better than others? Here are five tools that can help you get started.

  1. Recognize that reading is an experience. Whether I’m clicking a link, firing up my Kindle, or opening a book, as soon as I start reading, an experience has begun. Your goal as the writer is to make this an experience no one wants to leave. “The best reading experiences defy interruption,” says Sol Stein.
  2. Recognize your role. As a writer, you are an experience architect. It’s important, therefore, to ask, how can I create the best experience possible with this first line, this paragraph, this chapter? What question can I answer? What need can I meet?
  3. Write visually. Write in a way that engages the imagination. If readers can see what you’re saying, they will stay with you. Key question: Is it filmable?
  4. Write, get feedback, and write some more. You’ve heard how important it is to keep your butt in the chair and produce pages (Stephen King thinks we all need “butt glue.”) The other important part of this is getting feedback from people whose opinions you value. Start a writer’s group or join one.
  5. Read. Read New York Times bestsellers in your genre. And every once in a while read a book on writing. My favorites, in addition to Stein on Writing, are Anne Lamott’s Bird by Bird, William Zinsser’s On Writing Well, Stephen King’s On Writing, Annie Dillard’s The Writing Life, and Natalie Goldberg’s Writing Down the Bones.

Question: How in your own writing do you create experiences that are superior to those of everyday life? 

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Category: Writing

Please note: I reserve the right to delete comments that are offensive or off-topic.

11 thoughts on “How to Write Stuff Everyone Wants to Read”

  1. First time to your blog and so glad I came across this post. Stellar advice! Thanks so much. I also enjoyed the classic book on writing, “Zen in the Art of Writing” by Ray Bradbury – very inspirational.

  2. Something a fellow writer told me after reading the opening pages of my novel in progress was to engage all five senses with my writing/story. I have heard this before, but the refresher was a good one. Taking all of the senses and then placing them somewhere, heightening them even further, to a place the reader has never been….that is the goal/challenge.

    Sometimes it’s a journey inward, working to describe things that are unknown, uncertain and maybe unfelt. Opening those doors is where I like to try and take my readers.

    • Dean, yes, sensory writing is a great tool, though it can be overdone. We’ve all read books that kept us in one place sniffing and touching and hearing and seeing and tasting when all we wanted was to keep moving! The trick is to transport readers into your narrative so that they are there.

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  5. Yeah, this is late..

    I try to go just close enough to “the top” without going over it. For example, when my heroine is found, her rescuers hear a soprano voice singing in the mud and filth invested dungeon.Then our heroine is found, barely alive and but she can hardly speak. There is no mention of the singing until many chapters later, when one rescuer says “I’m so glad you sang enough that we could find you in the dark”, then the heroine says “I cannot sing a note, I’ve been choked too many times”. Her rescuers say nothing to her, but to each other they whisper “we all heard it”. No more explanation, just , hopefully, a few chills.

    Oh, and the hero recites Byron’s She Walks In Beauty to the heroine, under starlit skies. Cuz that happens ALL the time.

    • Glad it was useful to you, Josh! And sorry it took so long for your comment to show up. It got stuck in a Spam folder, and I’m so new to WordPress I didn’t know there was a Spam folder for comments! Anyway, forgive, and thanks for taking the time to read and comment. I’m grateful.

    • I’m not familiar with that one. I’ll check it out. So much of my developmental editorial guidance is about using the techniques of fiction within nonfiction. And hey, thanks for my third comment, Erin! Any blogging tips?

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