You Are the Expert

Many years ago, when I led a technical design presentation for an important customer, I said something about “our guessing.” Afterward, my management scolded me, telling me I was to present myself as the expert and that our customers wanted me to be the expert. On another occasion, one of my trombone teachers told me that if I made a mistake while performing a musical number, the audience wouldn't know I'd done anything wrong. Instead, they would — without knowing why — not like my performance as much. The point is that your readers want to know that you know what you’re doing. They won't say to themselves, “The dialogue-to-introspection ratio of this scene is imbalanced.” Instead, they’ll think,

"I’d like to keep reading, but I must get to those dishes.

And what to do about Mrs. Ketner’s dog?"

Most people who review my stories get through them well enough. But to those few loyal souls who let me know they got stuck partway through, I lavish them with appreciation. I let them off the hook with multiple thank-yous. They feel bad even after I tell them they've given me vital information based on where they struggled to get through my story. What does it mean when someone stops reading one of your stories and turns to more pressing tasks like dusting cabinets? They want you to be the expert, so they tell themselves, “I must not be that good of a reader.”

Your readers want you to lead them; they want to follow you. They probably won't know what went wrong during their reading. They can't imagine you're at fault because you're the professional, so they blame themselves.

Readers who don't get through a story is pure gold. Ask them where they stopped reading. Try your best to get them to open up, but realize you’ll likely not get much. Most often, they can’t tell you why. Consider it a miracle if several readers slow down in the same area. Treat the issue with the respect it deserves and try to determine the problem.

How to liven up your story

Luckily for you, there are about 50 things you can easily do. Here is a short list. It's more important that you get to this list than to your dusty cabinets:

• Trim extra words, both in dialogue and in description and action. This makes the remaining words more powerful. Think of the famous six-word story attributed to Ernest Hemingway: "Baby shoes for sale. Never worn." How many pages are condensed into those six words?

• Choose only the words central to your story's theme and tone. Have you heard of the terms "tunnel vision" and "one-track mind"? Those phrases should describe your stories. When hypnotists hypnotize their patients, they cause them to think of only one thing. This is what your stories must do. There are no dusty cabinets when Timmy is stuck in a deep hole, and it's about to rain.

• Shorten some of your sentences. People are attracted to ease and simplicity. This includes reading fiction.

• Make sure your words and sentences flow into each other. This is the metaphorical equivalent of holding your readers by the hand and leading them down your garden path.

• Give your readers only bits of your story at a time. Not too much at once. But just as important, never give them nothing. The minute you give them nothing, they'll leave you. How heartless your readers are after you've put your whole soul into your work.

This list can be much longer, but I don't want your mind to drift.

If you were to improve your stories in the above 5 ways and not in the other 45, I assure you that your readership would increase greatly. This is because your readers want dearly for you to be their expert. They want to look up to you and adore you. They want to tell their friends about you.

Help your readers find the happiness they seek by being the expert that you are.