Writing Methods to Engage Readers
Use basic tools of the writing trade to attract and hold your reader's attention! / Photo by Suzy Hazelwood via Pexels
Use these key writing methods to bring your stories to life. Help your readers to imagine being in the world of your story, on a journey to find out what happens next.
Use these basic techniques to help your reader imagine the world of your story. When they see it in their mind’s eye, they can place themselves in that situation. Along with storytelling techniques, these writing tips help bring your reader ‘into the moment’.
“Write the best story that you can and write it as straight as you can. ”
Creative writing workshops and courses feature these methods. Here, I adapt the tips to help you write life stories – whether stories from your life, about someone else, or about your ancestors.
Characters
Who is the story about – who is the main ‘actor’ or character? Is it you? Someone in your life? An ancestor? They will have family, friends and foes, but the main focus is on one person.
Place us in the person’s situation right away. Is it you as a child, about to enter a playground? Is it an ancestor and their family, boarding a ship to emigrate to a new country?
When it’s your own memory, you can describe what you saw and what you hoped would happen. If you interview a living relative, they can tell you from their memory. For an ancestor, a letter they wrote home may tell you about their experience.
Help us get to know who they are, and to care about their situation in the story. Then we (your audience) will keep reading to find out what happens.
Focus on just a few characters in your story, to keep your reader’s interest and help them keep track.
Point of View
The point of view can help bring your reader into the story.
For a story from your life, write from your point of view and use ‘I’ (or the ‘first person’). You may choose to write from your perspective as a child, or from memory as an adult looking back. Using ‘I’ will help others relate to you and your story more directly (instead of writing about yourself as he/she/they).
If it's your story from childhood, bring your reader to that time and place as if living it now. / Photo by Bermix Studio via Unsplash
Would you like to write a letter: to current relatives or friends, future descendants, or even to an ancestor? If so, use the ‘second person’ or ‘you’ when you speak to them. Keep using the first person ‘I’ when you write from your perspective. This is just like you would speak or write to someone now.
If you are writing about someone else, such as in a profile or memorial, use the ‘third person’ or ‘he/she/they’. This applies to someone living or deceased. If it is for a tribute about someone in your life, use ‘I’ to share memories and anecdotes from your perspective.
There is another point of view, ‘the omniscient’ or ‘all-knowing’. It allows us see what went on and why, what will happen next, and what other people are thinking. I don’t see a role for this in telling real-life stories, even about ancestors. We can’t know everything, nor get inside someone else’s head. An omniscient narrator is like a voice-over in a movie, which can describe everything that’s going on.
Show or Tell
A key lesson in beginner writing classes is ‘show NOT tell’. For example, this means to demonstrate someone’s personality versus describe what they’re like. You may write “she smiles at everyone she meets”, versus “she is friendly and cheerful”. Show their actions to indicate their character.
For life stories, I’m calling it ‘show OR tell’. You may not have details about a person you never met, such as an ancestor, to be able to show what they were like. But someone may have written in their obituary that they were loyal and well-loved.
Is the story about you? If so, use ‘show not tell’ to bring your readers closer to the action. This helps them imagine being there with you, or in your place. For example, “my grandmother gave me a gift every time I went to visit”, versus “my grandmother was a nice and generous person”.
Maybe this is someone's gramma, who grew the veggies in her own garden! / Photo by CDC via Unsplash
If you are writing about someone from your life, it helps to show your reader that person’s qualities by what they do – or don’t do – in a given situation. This demonstrates their individual personality through behaviour, more than a description of general traits.
In my father’s case, I could say “my dad was there every night after work, to share dinner with my mother and all us kids” instead of “my father was a family man”.
This tip can be used when you write about ancestors. Although you may have few details about their unique characteristics, you may uncover some facts from public records or a newspaper article. Perhaps you could show they were hardworking by saying they laboured in a mine twelve hours per day. Or mention that they wrote books, versus stating they were educated.
It’s good to show-not-tell for life stories when possible. But it might be harder to do when telling true-life stories about people from the past.
If this method might block you from telling a story of yours, just say it in a way that comes naturally.
Evoke the Senses
To help bring your reader into the scene, provide a couple of examples from the world of physical senses. These are the five familiar senses: sight, sound, smell, touch and taste.
Doesn't this photo just take you there? Close-up images and descriptions are good for that. / Photo by Melissa Askew via Unsplash
If you say “it was a hot day”, that does help set the stage. But if you say “the sand burned my feet”, that brings your reader into your moment at that time and place. They can imagine the felt experience in their mind’s eye or memory, versus just reading a general statement.
It’s best to keep it to one or two examples in a given case. This helps bring your reader into the main story, yet not distract them with the scenery.
Present or Past Tense
You may wonder why you might use the present tense (“I walk”) versus the past tense (“I walked”) in a story from your past.
It is a useful tool to bring your reader along on your journey at the time. Using the present tense helps them connect with you, imagine themselves there, and keeps them in the world of your story. That engages your reader, as they wish to find out what happens next.
How do you do this? Put yourself in the time and place of your memory. Speak from there, as if you’re there, reliving it. So instead of “I opened the door” as if looking back on yourself, say “I open the door…” Then, what do you see? You can set this up by saying something like “I remember like it was yesterday”.
Present tense works well for stories about your experiences, to bring people into the moment. If this seems too much effort and may prevent you from sharing your stories, just go ahead and tell what happened!
The past tense is okay for your life stories, and may sound more natural. Besides, there are many ways to share your stories and memories, including visuals and poems.
When you tell life stories about someone else, it’s best to use past tense. This helps you stick to what you know or have been told (or have researched) about what happened. Then you can tell real-life stories without adding things from your imagination.
Active or Passive Voice
In addition to present or past tense, you can choose between an ‘active voice’ and ‘passive voice’.
Active voice is when the ‘subject’ does something to the ‘object’ in a sentence, such as “I close the door”. The passive voice would be “the door was closed (by me)”.
When you use the active voice, it brings your reader into the story. They imagine the action. The passive voice is indirect and more distant. It makes it harder for your reader to visualize what’s going on.
Nouns and Verbs
To help a story move along and keep your reader’s interest, ‘less is more’ in terms of words. This is not to say your story has to be shorter with fewer words. It means you can choose precise words to convey what you wish to say.
See where your word choice can make a difference, while still using your own voice. / Photo by Brett Jordan via Unsplash
It helps to focus on nouns and verbs as you write your story. A school teacher might say to think of nouns as ‘people and things’, and verbs as ‘action-words’. Adjectives add more description to the nouns, while adverbs add to the verbs.
Maybe you can say what you mean with fewer words. Instead of adding an adjective, try to think of a noun that fits in that situation. A “huge house” could be a “mansion”. The same goes for verbs and adverbs: “I ran quickly” could be “I sprinted”.
It’s okay to use adjectives and adverbs. But try not to fill your story with extra words that slow the action for the reader, and may take them out of the story.
Even if you aim to describe your memory of a scene, such as a sunset or storm, you might find precise words to convey it to your reader. “Heavy rain” (or a “torrential rainstorm”) could be a “deluge”.
All this said, it’s great for family and others to hear your natural manner of speech. If you tend to use descriptive or flowery language, go for it. Just don’t pile on extra or longer words in an effort to be writerly.
Dialogue
Dialogue can be a great way to engage readers in your story. It shows how someone speaks, and even how they think. Dialogue helps bring your characters (the real people in your story) to life.
You can use dialogue to move your story along without needing to explain as much. Also, it may hint at what’s going on beneath the surface (think of two people talking in a movie). Dialogue also ‘happens right then’, so it brings your reader into the moment.
Imagine yourself there, or how a certain person would speak – maybe say it aloud to hear how the dialogue sounds! / Photo by Divinetechygirl via Pexels
It’s best to include brief amounts of dialogue at key points in your story.
If the story is from your memory, you can write what you recall saying at the time and/or what another person said.
If it’s someone else’s story, you may have actual quotes of what they said – such as from an interview or a letter.
It’s less likely that you have actual dialogue from your ancestors. It’s possible, from something they wrote, or minutes of a meeting where they spoke. If not, to imagine what they might have said is to enter the world of fiction, or creative non-fiction. While this is not my approach when telling life stories and family history, you can decide for yourself whether or not to make things up.
No Spoilers
If you tell your story as it unfolds, you keep your reader’s interest while they enjoy the ride. If you sum it up too much, or give away the ending (like with movie ‘spoilers’), then you lose the story. Even when people know the outcome – perhaps that you did marry your high-school sweetheart – you can tell the personal story along the way.
One time, I made a point of recording the Superbowl game, and avoided hearing any news before I could watch. With two minutes left in a close game, my recording ended! I didn’t want to search for highlights, as they would show the outcome. I like to see a sports match unfold like a story. So, I phoned a football-fan-friend and asked him to describe what happened. He just said “Brady dropped the ball”. What? With enough time to win the most important game, the best quarterback in the league just drops it? I imagine the ball fall out of his hand onto the field. Later, I watched a recording of those final minutes and it wasn’t like that at all – it was edge-of-the-seat stuff!
So, ‘don’t drop the ball’ on your story. Take us with you on your journey. That’s why people like stories, and why they’re keen to find out what happens next.
written by Barbara L Campbell, 2024