I Found A Way To Make Writing Relatable

Making our writing relatable is a key part of crafting a story. If your readers can't relate to your characters, they'll only be invested so far into your story and no further.
Reading one of my favourite writing quotes from Neil Gaiman this week made me focus on how writers can make stories relatable to readers, and I've detailed a method that might work in this video.
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Writing is my passion, and I love to support other writers and help them develop their writing along with me. I want to help you tell your best stories.
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[@Alkemisti]

I think the first version was much more interesting. While that is not something I have experienced, I can imagine it and understand what it felt like for the character. I began to consider how I would do in that situation. The second was too vague. There was nothing to imagine, no concrete person. I don't think writers should avoid specifics--just don't add more than the reader needs to picture what is happening. Relatability grows from person's experience of and relation to the world, and in the first version there was such an experience. In the second there were only thoughts in the aether, disconnected from everything.

[@KierenWestwoodWriting]

Quite a few viewers have preferred the first version, I think I have to hold my hands up and say I went too far on the examples, and my point wasn't well-made. You're not wrong in that assessment at all. 'I don't think writers should avoid specifics--just don't add more than the reader needs to picture what is happening' - Yes exactly, great way to put it.

[@MichaelJaymesAuthor]

Abstract + Morality = Good Storytelling While I actually liked version 1 more, version 2 had my mind racing with questions about my own life (relatability). This topic came up in some of my studies recently, so I've tried to work this into my own writing. It was more about building emotion before giving details, have your reader feel a certain way before having them need to use their brain. Though I'm writing a novel, which needs details more than a short story, there are specific parts I want to be more generalized to cause my reader to feel what it is like to be in the situation I'm describing, without them having to feel like they are in the specific situation of my character. I want them to be reminded of the feeling of loneliness, not specifically loneliness in the grocery store. ;) I've heard other authors talk about starting and ending chapters with a broad, generalized paragraph that describes the feeling of your character, and then describing the situation in the center. Doing this in your novels starts your reader with the thought of a feeling before being slapped with information about how to feel, if that makes sense. Once you meet the end of a chapter, that feeling in the chapter has either been resolved, or sometimes thickened. Either way, the last paragraph goes back to making the reader feel it again, so they are left with relatable feelings, not just information. So for any writers out there trying to write something longer than 100 words, this video still applies. Hit your reader with the abstract, dial in on some details, and come back out to that overview again. In other words, have them feel something, then have them have to think, then go back to feeling something. (You're kind of trying to get your reader to think with their heart before their head.)

[@KierenWestwoodWriting]

A good few people have preferred the first version, I think in my haste to make a point I might have over/undercooked the examples on this one. Of course it's just preference too and there's nothing wrong with that. 'Have your reader feel a certain way before having them need to use their brain' - that's a better way of summing up what I meant I think! Opening and closing paragraphs seems like a good way to do this as well, not something I'd have thought of doing, but structure in long projects has been a massive weakness of mine forever. Thanks for sharing your thoughts, I appreciate it 🙂

[@JoeyPaulOnline]

Really liked this, and really did find both versions ones that I would want to read more about, and would relate to!

[@manymusings]

Yes! Thank you!

[@cazcast2504]

Another awesome video! thanks Kieran

[@KierenWestwoodWriting]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@mariabarnes4094]

Great video, Kieren! I find it's useful to have one or two details that relate to the main emotion of the story. These details can intensify the reader's experience and help them to connect with the characters on a more physical level.

[@KierenWestwoodWriting]

Great tip, I definitely agree with you there. It's almost like a compass for the story, you could say.

[@mariabarnes4094]

@@KierenWestwoodWriting That's a good simile!

[@RikyToboga]

Un pedido para próximos videos: Consejos de Willa Cather. Saludos!

[@cartoonvandal]

I'm not sure how relevant it is, but in Denis Johnson's 'Jesus' Son', there is so much space in his use of language, and yet somehow such complexity and so much vividness within that space in terms of imagery and emotion - his prose feels soft and graceful and not rigid. It seems to be a kind of minimalism which is still somehow able to reach those essential parts of the reader and produce the effect you're describing.

[@KierenWestwoodWriting]

Sounds like exactly what I'm _trying_ to describe in this video. I'll have to check it out! Thanks for the recommendation.

[@onesagotoomany]

Interesting that you are praising that second description. Please don't trip over your relatability shoelaces. The first version prickled my skin and sped my breath. Was it less relatable? Perhaps. But I wanted to read it so much more. So very much more! You are an outstanding micro fiction writer, IMHO. That first version felt like it was setting up one of your great gut punches. I'd personally trade the relatability blur for the Westwood zing.

[@KierenWestwoodWriting]

Thanks for your feedback, much appreciated! I think in my haste to make a point, I overcooked/undercooked these examples which actually ended up muddying my point, if anything! Neither the first nor second example was really meant to be a complete, finished story, more a quick way to demonstrate something I suppose. Though you could say what's the point of that if it doesn't translate to real stories? Thank you so much for the kind words about my writing, I doubt myself daily, so it really does help!

[@antoinettefreeman3951]

Great video.

[@KierenWestwoodWriting]

Thank you!

[@antoinettefreeman3951]

@@KierenWestwoodWriting Your welcome.

[@user-qv7hy9qo8b]

Hi, I write stories on Wattpad and wanted to know how often should I upload my chapters to keep readers engaged?

[@KierenWestwoodWriting]

Hey, I actually have no experience with Wattpad so I can't really give you an answer on that but I hope it goes great!

[@charlotte_levin]

I really like your videos, but disagree with this. Specificity is what makes the reader believe in the characters. And if they believe the characters they are invested in their story. We don't really have to relate to characters to feel emotionally connected to them. It's not about readers feeling the same way as the character in the supermarket aisle. It's about them fully understanding how the character feels in the supermarket aisle.