How to Interest Readers

I should preface my advice in this tutorial by saying that I’m not a master writer with a plethora of subscribers who beg for new chapters every day, but I’m pro at getting people to at least click on the story. And that’s something.

I. Good (Short) Descriptions.

When you’re formatting your story to captivate readers and gain subscribers, you have to put yourself in their shoes. What would I find interesting? What would I click on? Lead with that foot instead of your writing foot.

Today, we’ll be tearing up my story, Glass Houses, as if we were readers lurking in the story section looking for something to read.

The short description is the first impression that readers get of your story, so you want something that will catch their attention.

Some habits are hard to kick. Until they kick you.

If I saw this, I might be curious as to what habits were difficult to kick, or how the MC got kicked. These sorts of questions would cause me to click on the story to see what it’s all about.

Do: Choose a line of dialogue that’s interesting. Try not to choose a conversation, because it crowds the description and may put readers off.

Don’t: Be humble. Confidence is something that will attract people. When I see summaries like, “Just another bandfic,” or, “Don’t really know what I’m doing,” then I don’t want to read it. Sell it like you’re inventing the wheel.

II. Captivating Long Descriptions

Long descriptions are to expand on the short description, like a back-of-the-book kind of thing. Writing a lengthy excerpt from the story, or a summary that spells out the whole plot may be turn-offs for people. It’s almost like a movie preview: you don’t want to see the whole thing in a minute.

For Glass Houses, I wrote a total of six lines, and all are brief sentences.

After a drug overdose, and an awful second album, Juliette Daes finds herself face to face with a dead end.

In attempt to rewrite her passion for music and straighten out her quickly-spiraling-downhill life, she isolates herself to her father's famous lake house.

But her isolation hardly lasts when she runs into Noah Eckhert.

Since losing his eyesight and career as a musician, he's made himself a prisoner to his disability and shuns himself from the rest of society.

And Juliette's faced with the decision: save him or herself.

What did I do wrong? I was a tad too dramatic. “Save him or herself.” But it gets the message across, even if I played it up a bit. My next error: I used a cliché – “the lake house.” People have been flooded with the theory of waterfront homes forever, so it’s almost an obvious choice.

What did I do right? I implied questions instead of asking them. Had I said, “Will she save him or herself? Read to find out!” it would sound juvenile.

Do: Imply questions

Don’t: Ask questions

III: Layouts

Mibba is really original by having layouts for your stories, and you should definitely make the most of them.

Where I dislike when people mention on the layout in their comments, I understand that many are influenced by how things look. The story itself is imperative, but a “visual aid,” if you will, will entice as much as the descriptions.

The new layout maker is really easy to use, it just takes a little messing around with.

A few of my tips for a nice layout are:

• Keep it simple. If you crowd the layout, it might be too much for a reader to focus on. Choose one or two pictures, or maybe just a simple background picture.
• Limit your color pallet. Too many colors falls under the same theory as the first bullet. It crowds, or distracts from the piece and you definitely don’t want to put anyone off because the scheme is too much to handle.

Do: Make sure that everything is readable. If the words almost blend into the background, or a picture disrupts the flow, it will be too annoying.

Don’t: Be afraid to experiment. Try to capture the essence of the story without hitting the reader in the head with it. Subtly and simplicity are beautiful things.