Writers and Readers
Author: Sandra Thomas Wales, PhD
Original Publication Date in Love Notes: November 2006

I’ve just come out of retirement after twelve years to teach Introduction to Literature at Western Kentucky University. Why? I don’t know, but it has something to do with expanding my world. I feel an overwhelming urge to be among young people again. That may go away soon, but until then I’ll teach.

I have always believed that writers are readers and that the writing is the flip side of reading. Writers love to read. Not all readers love to write. That’s not a problem as I see it. I gathered a lot of material together to share with my students and in so doing, realized that I could teach the basics of writing along with great literature. Why do that? To teach the students to think. After all, they are the ones who’ll decide our future. Terrifying but true.

As writers we decide which character’s point of view is the best for each chapter or scene. (Purist prefer one point of view for each chapter, but that “rule” is more flexible now.) We decide whether it is better for our story to be told in the omniscient point of view, first person, or third. Most of the modern novels use third person. It gives a lot of malleability in the telling of the story that first person doesn’t. The reader and the first person character can only know what that character knows. Neither can be inside the head of any other person in the story. Third person allows the writer and the reader to see the story from several points of view.

The questions that I ask myself as a writer are which character is the best to get across my thesis? It doesn’t matter if I want the story to show how war solves no problems, but creates many or whether I want to show that it’s just as wrong to practice pacifism. There are several things the writer must consider so the reader gets the story’s purpose. The plot has to lead to the author’s thesis. The setting contributes to the story. The tone the author sets up is important. Are ambiguities confusing or do they make the story richer? All this must contribute to the overall theme. It is the author’s idea that has an audience. Whether we use humor or history or romance to emphasize what we’re trying to say doesn’t matter as long as we do the best job we can.

As an author you should know the theme of your novel or short story. If you don’t ask yourself about the theme before you begin, the decisions you make regarding your plot, characters, setting, tone, etc. will be affected negatively.

As a writer you must go one step further than the reader to lay the groundwork. You must think of each scene in terms of goal, motivation, and conflict. If you list the goals for each character in a scene along with his motivation, and the conflict he has within himself and with others, you’ll go a long way to understanding your novel. You’ll know how to advance your thesis, how to use your plot and characters to get your point across, how to have a richer novel.

It isn’t necessary to agonize over the theme of your novel. Ask yourself, “what is this blankety blank book about?” Is it love? OK, what kind of love? Does your subplot show one kind of love and your main plot another? That’s fine. Is the sub-plot a reflection of the main plot and both are about unrequited love? How do your characters react to your theme? What does the time period and setting have to do with your theme? Which works better for your novel?

Interestingly, I’ll ask my students the same questions I ask myself when writing a novel. Whose point of view is used for this work? What if a different point of view were used? How would it affect the story? Does the time period matter? The setting? The tone? Does the plot follow logically from the characters’ actions and reactions? Do you agree with the author’s premise or do you reject the author’s position because you’ve formed different conclusions about life?

If we want to get our readers to think, we have to do the same thing before we delve too deeply into our work. We can ask ourselves the same questions. We owe this to the people who buy and read our books.

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MCRW member Sandra Wales writes historical fiction about strong, warrior women as author Haley Elizabeth Garwood.

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