Ask a Book Editor: The Best Way to Introduce Compelling Characters in Your Novel

Ever try to read a story and find yourself thinking, I seriously don’t care what happens to these characters?

Maybe you’re a chapter in and already getting antsy, your mind drifting to dinner options. Or worse, bored on the very first page. If so, it doesn’t matter how amazing it gets because the writer is about to lose a reader.

Likability equals reader investment. No one voluntarily hangs with—and I’d argue that’s what pleasure reading is—someone they don’t care about (yet). It applies to heroes and villains and all the desirable real-life shades in between.

How then do you hook readers’ interest and empathy early on?

Ask a Book Editor: 4 Surefire Ways to Keep Readers Turning the Pages

As readers, there’s no better feeling than when we can’t put down a book.

But how do you keep readers invested in your work? How do you get them to tune out everything else and gladly get lost in your words?

Here’s a shortlist of vital ways to hold readers’ interest. And they don’t apply to thrillers only, as every work should be thrilling in its own way. Otherwise, the placed bookmark will simply note where the reader moved on.

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Ever try to read a story and find yourself thinking, I seriously don’t care what happens to these characters?

Ask a Book Editor