Reader Bond

Your readers must care about the people in your book, or else there's no point in writing. You can have a thrilling plot full of surprises and packed with interesting info, but readers will drop it in a flash if they don't care about the characters. Your hero's in danger, sick, or dying, but the reader doesn't give a hoot. It's just words on paper.

Creating reader bond is an elusive art. Numerous techniques aid it - such as showing, not telling - but it's often a writer's blind spot. One way to help is to follow strict POV - keeping inside only one character's head each section of writing. Hit "enter" twice before changing point of view.