How to create IMMERSION in your writing (methods for how to draw you readers into your story)
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- čas přidán 15. 06. 2024
- Here's how I create immersion in my stories.
Creating immersion in your writing is not easy. Being able to pull readers into your story and make them forget about the outside world, depends on a lot of factors.
Some are just plain magic, others are techniques and ways of writing we can apply as writers.
In this video, I talk about my less-is-more approach to creating immersion in my stories, in the hopes that it might work for you too.
The most important part and the key to immersion, in my opinion, is giving readers the space and the opportunity to imagine for themselves.
That way, I think they'll see the story in the way that's most engaging and most immersive for them.
As always, this is just my approach, all writers are different, all methods are valid.
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This is a good way of explaining things, readers are willful and if you try to squish them into one way of looking at things, they just get thrown outta the story!
Absolutely 🙂 They definitely are, we have to roll with that I think, or at least as much as we can.
I definitely like the second version of the paragraph more. I don't know where I heard this, but what you're saying is kind of analogous to a tour guide at work. A good tour guide doesn't go around with his tourists and incessantly tell them to look at every little novelty along the way. They let the tour breath, and point out only what they need to.
I like the tour guide analogy for sure, that makes a lot of sense to me. That's how I'd choose to be I think ☺
Solid advice. I always have to remember as a writer, sometimes the less is more. I like to purposely. Put writing constraints on myself. It makes me think creativity on how to approach a sentence and story.
Great idea. Anything that tests you or causes you to think differently seems worth doing I think! 🙂
Pretty true how people interpret in their own way. Im figuring things out and enjoy writing as putting out the words that say so much in a few. This video reassures that im on track in some way. Thanks.
Thanks for watching. This kind of thing feels a lot like a balancing act to me. You've got to steer the story in a way that only you can, but let it be open enough for your readers to enjoy it in a way that feels personal to them 🙂
when i'm writting, I feel that the mechanism that do the biggest part of immersion, is the older ones, those that you'll find on old epics and poems, like metrics, rhythm and melody. to the reader, the act of reading is hypnotic when the text flows like a song, phonemes that match each other, connected pieces of story with actual writting to concieve the impression of time or emotion (the break in sequences force the reader to erase the imagination and engage again when a new sequence or chapter begin and that's a terrible immersion killer that's too often used to achieve other goals, not immersion) and actual sense of pacing ("when this should happen after that?")... as I said, just like a piece, a song. of course, you won't complicate it like with old english and extremelly difficult vocabulary, you'll use the language that'll fit the atmosphere of your story. the part of "fondly" won't do any harm to your writting when you take the first sentence and change it to a more creative and beautier way to say it, instead of that blank straight forward writting (nothing wrong with straight forward style of writting, but it fits better in to deliver straight forward stories, not immersion). at least, that's what I can percieve when people read my stories.
Thanks, KW!
I'll go back through my WIP and cut cut cut!
Only if it makes sense for you, and for your book of course 😊
love your videos! very to the point and concrete examples! drives me crazy when authors just say the exact lines over and over again without any context or playing with the advice.
Thank you so much! I definitely believe in providing examples and demonstrating concepts where I can. Everyone learns differently and I try my best to cater to that where I can.
I'm all for taking words out, of course!
Thanks, that was a great example with the table. It's so easy to stick an adverb in the sentence when you're tired, lol.
It really is, and sometimes they do perfectly well, but I always find it's worth that extra push, especially when you don't really feel like it 🙂 that kind of effort over a long period like a novel really makes a huge difference to the overall feel of it I think.
This is great advice and it is a valuable tool I can use when revising my books. Remove "on the nose" writing. Respect the reader. Stop telling him what to feel.
Wow! Thank you! This is food for thought, and I can now try to apply this to my own writing. 👍
It's definitely something I feel has helped my writing 🙂 Thanks for watching!
If I could give you 1000 likes, I would have. Your explanations are so clear and detailed, and the example is well chosen. Thanks. You gotta new subscriber here. 👌
Thanks so much! Really appreciate that :)
Wow. This is fantastic advice. I understand this approach better now of how to omit details to immerse the reader. Thanks.
Thanks! Much appreciated :)
Love how you explain
I love these videos! You have a way to motivate people,anyway you can do an in depth look at tenses and dialogue?
Thank you! I'll look at that, I think I've covered bits of both on the channel here and there but I can't remember if there are whole videos on these topics, or if there are, if they're in-depth. ☺
That was great advice. Thank you.
As always, amazing video! Thanks!
Thank you my friend 😀
Good to come across this, very helpful 👍
These are really helpful thank you 😊
I like both, the 1st even more actually. I think it would depend in the type of story im reading, 2nd feels best for a lot of subjectivity, like a film with little dialogue. I dont think i would want everything like the 2nd but i dont read fiction books so.
Wow!
I can say as an avid read that readers ARE wilful 😂
I definitely know one that is... 😋
Your second version is really good.
Thank you!
Thank you for this.
Thanks for watching!
Great video bro
This was helpful. Could You have used vivid, descriptive words?
Absolutely yeah, whatever fits for your story and helps you bring it life for readers!
I think you could have left in the specific hypothetically narration that if the table was sold, she would definitely never see it again. And I think that was the intent by the author to make you feel the sadness of the protagonist. They just shouldn't have 'double stated' it by actually saying she was sad. The author should trust the audience to be sympathetic
You and I Kieren think a lot a like.
I love you and your videos
I love you and your nice comments 😃
I agree with those points. But one of my favorite authors Stephen King does the exact opposite. He puts in so much irrelevant detail that any editor would be inclined to cut that all out. But those are the details that enable him to slowly and steadily create his world
Thank you. This is really helpful.
Please how can I learn other principles of good writing like immersion
Detail bombardment takes me out of the moment in a story. Sometimes it's enough to make me stop reading. A good flow is important.
Absolutely. It gives me the same feeling as when someone hands me a bunch of stuff and I can't hold it all in only two hands.
@@KierenWestwoodWriting an excellent analogy :)
I like your way better
Thank you!
This was great advice. Thank you.
Thank you, I really appreciate you watching 🙂