If you’ve watched my last three videos, then you’ll know one of my favorite questions is, what were you hoping to bring your audience? Scarlett Larsson was my next victim.
I got the pleasure of sitting down with her to discuss her debut novel, WARS OF SUNS AND SHADOWS. I’m lucky enough to interact with Scarlett on instagram (@writerscarlettlarson), so I got to see some buzz from beta readers and ARC readers about her fantasy novel.
Readers had such positive feedbacks and even had favorite lines. So I was surprised when Scarlett’s favorite line wasn’t the one most cited on instagram: “Dance with me, Prudence.”
No, she had two other favorites.
1: “Daegal, why are you looking at me like you almost care?” I tried to make my tone sound humorous, as if I were merely asking to tease him. But the vulnerable pitch that filled my words instead had me wish I hadn’t spoken at all.
“Because,” he said, his fingers gently running over the rough skin on my neck. “Maybe I almost do.”
AND
2: “How is it that you’re the fire igniting all my emotions?” His head dipped dangerously close to mine, eyes darting to my mouth. “All my anger. All my fears. All my desires.”
Watch the video for how she made me crack up selling the enemies-to-lovers relationship. EMPHASIS ON THE ENEMIES.
What I love about her favorite lines is the emotion behind them. Readers love enemies-to-lovers, and Scarlett knew how she wanted to build a slow burn for the readers with a delicious payoff. So I wasn’t surprises when Scarlett said her purpose was to invoke emotion and was very conscious of her readers’ enjoyment the whole time she wrote.
We spoke about how authors can fall into a trap of writing a story for themselves. To showcase a story they love, with writing they find beautiful. But sometimes, the reader is forgotten. It doesn’t matter how much a writer loves it or how beautiful it is if it doesn’t resonate with a reader.
The opinion we shared was that a good story could possibly save bad writing, but beautiful writing can’t save a bad story. You may disagree, but I’ve been caught up in purple prose before, and it took reading other peoples’ purple prose to realize why I needed to stop.
Be clear. Make sure your readers know WHY our characters are feeling a certain way, WHAT brought them there—so we as readers can feel it with them. Then focus on how pretty it is.
Writing is cathartic and should serve the author. But it should also serve the reader. Otherwise, what is your purpose for sharing it?
Make sure you watch until the end where Scarlett teaches me how to avoid costly mistakes in the self-publishing process!
Thanks for reading and make sure you get your own copy of WARS OF SUNS AND SHADOWS!
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