Write with your reader in mind. You want to keep things simple: no over the top flowery sentences, that belong in poetry, not in a novel, no run on sentences that are a paragraph long, or clumsy writing that is hard to understand.

When you write this way, you are making your reader aware. Aware of what you might ask? Your writing. You don’t want your reader cognizant of the fact that they are reading a book, you want them intensely focused on the story to the point they are walking beside the characters and experiencing their every emotion.

You want them to continue reading until the end, accepting every coincidence and slightly questionable story line written. We often refer to this as suspension of disbelief. If the reader is focused on the story and not the writing, they will accept most of what you throw at them without stopping to question it.

 Remember: Clumsy writing that’s hard to understand, makes readers aware. Keep it simple-transparent writing keeps words from getting in the way.

-Jan R