Today when it is pouring rain outside, I mull about what makes books special, which is very difficult to define.
For the vast majority of people, the magic doesn’t lie at the sentence level. Good sentences simply communicate meaning. Once they do that (and they *must*), they add little extra value.
It’s mostly also not about the overarching plot. A lot of beginning writers worry about writing similar plots to existing books, or they sweat over the big reveal or the hat trick at the end. Most books survive without a “twist” and there are many articles about the existence of only [insert number] of basic plot types. Seven or five or whatever takes your fancy.
Overarching plot, and the associated tropes, will attract a reader because that reader likes the type of book. It’s code for “alien invasion story”, or “story about the fae court” that communicates to would-be readers what’s in the book.
But once they open the book and start reading? Unimportant.
I believe the magic that keeps a reader reading and that makes them want to read the next book lies somewhere *between* the sentence level and the plot level. Something on the paragraph, scene and chapter level. Something about dialogue that’s funny, characters who are endearing, funny, hapless or plain evil that feels engaging and that makes the reader wonder what they’re going to do next. But also situations that are described in a vivid way so that they reader can imagine what’s happening and becomes invested in the story.
Of course the prose needs to be adequate and of course there needs to be a payoff at the end. The romance is confirmed, the evil defeated or the rival has gotten their comeuppance. Or there needs to be enough of a hook to lead into a next volume.
But ultimately, people come back for the characters, the banter or the situations they get themselves into: stuff on the scene level.
