Thinking is inherently fun.
I don’t think people put books down because they’re too thought provoking. Also, I don’t know anyone who likes being told what to think.
Thinking is universal.
Everyone has thoughts and ideas. If you doubt this, ask around. I’ve found that the people in line around me at the post office, grocery store, and local watering hole were only too glad to tell me what they thought. And I mean too glad…
Being told what to think, however, sucks.
No one likes it. If a book tells someone what to think, the only people who read it are those who already agree.
Books can do a lot of things:
- Entertain
- Elucidate
- Complicate
- Excoriate
- Confuse
- Satirize
- Titillate
- Horrify
- Disgust
A book can do any or all of these things, but they must be done in the service of a connecting thread, a controlling idea.
An engaging book develops ideas.
The book that preaches only gets read by people who already agree.
Everyone loves a book that creates an opportunity for thought. Not everyone may respond to the same opportunities, but everyone seeks an appropriate opportunity for them to think in the ways they can. As authors, if we write the process of our understanding, we’ve given the best opportunity to think that we have.
We give the process not the conclusion.
We show the struggle we went through to openly and honestly understand whatever theme or context we were writing about.
The book that preaches only gets read by people who already agree.
People are tired of being bombarded with how they should think, how they should behave, how they should treat one another. People are tired of turning on the television and feeling scared.
As I said before, if you don’t believe me, ask around.
It’s hard to find a bar without someone complaining about the government. For that matter, it’s hard to find a bar without a television constantly complaining about the government. Correlation or causation?
Writing for a broad audience means opening ideas rather than closing them down.
Opening ideas means tossing aside one’s own biases and placing characters or ideas at odds with situations, other characters, or other ideas, all of which are relatable but none of which dominate or stand as the “right” point of view.
If, when a reader sets a book down, they consider the contents as they move through their day, they will return to the book later and actively seek out titles by the same author. If a reader closes a book out of frustration and seeks out a different focus for their mind, they’re gone forever.
Image by Suzanne D Williams courtesy of Unsplash
HAVE YOU EVER GOTTEN CAUGHT UP IN THE ACCURACY OF YOUR POINT OF VIEW? HOW DID YOU SIDE STEP YOUR BIASES? SHARE YOUR EXPERIENCES WITH US AND HELP US GET OUT OF OUR HEADS.
