Dear Authors... What Readers Want To See

okay so I recently posted a video called dear authors please stop where I read I posted on community post asking you guys to finish that that sentence I read your responses we discussed now I'm doing something similar basically the opposite what are some things that authors should be doing so obviously this is all opinion based the point of this is kind of to go in the positive direction and talk about things that authors can do well that we really enjoy there will be plenty of things on this list that people are going to disagree about or see in a different light and that's fine I'm not trying to make a definitive list of what all authors should be doing I'm just reading out from the opinion of readers what do readers what do some readers think would be great if authors are doing so the I'm going to go through these go through the the ones that have the most likes the most up votes and those will be the ones that I get through until I get tired of reading them and the one that got the most likes you're speaking to my heart leave your characters dead when they die the resurrection trope is probably my least favorite trope of all time in my opinion having the ability or the frequency of resurrecting characters takes away the penalty of death and takes away all anxiety in the book if characters are facing something extremely stressful and scary I as the reader am in no way scared if I know that characters in this world regularly get resurrected and recently experience this with a thriller that I read and the characters kept coming back to life over and over and over again I like there was this big war that were went on in the book those supposed to be so anxiety inducing and scary for the characters and the readers and I felt nothing throughout the entire thing because I was like they'll just come back to life like they already have done three separate times in this book not only does it cheapen the the the scary moments of the novel and make the readers not be scared but also it cheapens death if a character dies and I'm worn over and then they come back to life it feels weird for me because I've mourned a character for no reason and it cheapened their death and took away all the impact that it was supposed to have especially if you kill a character and then turn the page and they're back to life that fast I just to me it just it takes away so much from the book I know that a lot of people don't like it when their favorite characters die who does like it I don't like it when my favorite characters die but I also really appreciate when an author will go there if an author creates a war and characters die and stay dead I appreciate that the author actually went there and didn't just keep all their favorite characters safe because they didn't want to kill him off okay that was quite the rant but this is something I feel very strongly about pretty please with sugar on top dear authors please write more stories where the main character stays single and then they go on to say they don't dislike relationships it's just that everybody doesn't have to end up in one at the end and I agree so I think the Hunger Games is a great example of that where Katniss really never fought for a relationship or even she openly said she didn't want one throughout the series she really it would have been great if she just stayed single at the end because that was clearly what she wanted in general sometimes I think authors will really force characters together because they want the happy resolution and sometimes that's great sometimes characters ending up together is the perfect resolution but sometimes characters don't need to end up with someone for the story to be complete if the story isn't about romance if the characters are the type of person that weren't even seeking out or wanting a romance there's there's tons of scenarios where a romance at the end is great but there's also tons where it 100% doesn't need to happen and it's not like you have to fall in love in order to have a perfect happy ending at the end of every scenario in your life right because books we're only seeing a scenario of someone's life we're only seeing a section of their life not their entire life why do they have to fall in love at the end of the section that the book is portraying half characters make sacrifices on the basis of friendship rather than love have you ever met my friends luck and Janelle card agree so um friendship I this in another video recently but friendship like tonic love in friendship is to me way more exciting and thrilling and fun to read about than romantic relationships not that I hate romance I'm married I'm happily married I like love but seeing two people that would die for each other that would do anything for each other because of true pure platonic love is something that is so powerful and beautiful and just just does not get enough page time dear authors please stop making every female character strong only in certain aspects I'd love to see female character that cries and shows real emotions and it's still strong because crying and being a little girly aren't necessarily signs of weakness ooh so this is another thing that I mentioned recently in a video it seems like your strong female characters are the characters that are better at being men than men she 1ups her master at sword fighting or she can win the war all by herself and take down all these men that are fighting against her she's strong because she's physically stronger than all the men around her but she's not strong because of her emotions it's not that women aren't allowed to be strong women are strong plenty of women are physically strong but plenty of women aren't and that doesn't make them not strong physically strong isn't the only kind of strong allow me to introduce you to my friend Lea or Lea or Lea or however you say her name she starts out so flawed in book 1 you will not see her strength in book 2 her strength really comes out and in book 3 she became one of my favorite female characters I've ever read she's not strong because she can take down an army herself she's strong because of the decisions she makes and the inner sacrifices that she makes for the sake of others the fact that she chooses to take care of her Kingdom and her people over taking care of what she wants for her life she's strong because of the decisions she makes not because she's better at wielding a sword and I think that both are great seeing a woman pick up a sword and be strong and powerful in a battle is awesome seeing a woman be strong in the choices that she makes and the way she leads as a feminine woman is some great it's also great dear authors please have your characters struggle to learn new skills it makes them 1,000 times more relatable and makes me more invested in their development and having them be instantly good at everything hard agree it's not satisfying to read as a reader it's nice to see them fail over and over and over again it's nice to see them struggle for more than 10 pages and really become not just naturally be the best in the world but to have to fight hard for those skills and then to in my opinion the stakes are a lot higher when they're actually in battle because it's not like oh you're the chosen one you're just naturally amazing at this who know it's like you fought so hard to get to this point I want you to win because you've fought for it not you were gifted it dear authors please let your story have two characters of opposite genders that are best friends and stay best friends and don't get into a relationship yes again romance isn't bad but you know it's nice to have different things and not just always the same thing be more brutal with their main characters nothing disappoints me more than when there is a war and everyone comes out okay no one's dead or even maimed that's the fastest way to ruin a finale and sometimes a whole series for me oh my goodness you don't know how much I agree with this this is something that my subscribers laugh at me a lot about is because what I talk about how great the ending of a book is because people died it sounds weird but it's true if the only if the author has a war and everybody's fighting and the only person that dies is that side character that we never cared about anyway that's not awesome it's not fun experiencing the death of someone that you love in a book but if a book makes me feel something makes me hurt that only latches me on to the book more if the group of people that I love and have been following face a really strong obstacle that's extremely dangerous and then some or even just one of the people that I love not some random side character the people that I love dies in the midst of this extremely dangerous thing not only does it make it more realistic which people hate when I use that word talking about fiction but not only does it make it more realistic but also it makes me feel and then that makes me realize how real these characters were to me and latches me on to that story that much more because I have such an emotional connection to it dear authors please make sure to leave enough clues for the reader to be able to figure out the plot twist if they really were able to read between the lines otherwise it's kind of unsatisfying I feel that I have definitely read books where it's what's the once the twist happened in the end the conclusion happens it's more frustrating than anything else when it's one of those things where it would be impossible for the reader to actually guess it because it's some random thing that happened off screen or just there's no clues whatsoever I don't think I see that very often but when that does come up it does make it an unsatisfying twist dear authors when you're writing a book about a certain race or culture that you're not a part of yourself please have someone from that race or culture proofread your story before publishing to avoid unintentional insults or inaccuracy first of all we did talk about this in my last video so still Hardegree second of all I really appreciate your wording here unintentional insults or inaccuracies I don't think there's anything wrong with an author stepping outside of their own tiny little box to write about other cultures other experiences other parts of the world than what they themselves exist within and if they do step outside of those and end up not doing it perfectly it is an unintentional thing however having the author do their due diligence to try to make sure that they're representing something that they don't know a lot about well is extremely important and really really valued by readers who like also learning about more than just their tiny little box letsa tivity readers they're wonderful things okay i'm skipping a lot of comments that have already been said so forgive me if yours isn't being in here but i don't want the video to be extremely repetitive who this is a good one dear authors I love the enemies two lovers trope but please make the transition from enemies two lovers realistic ie them having to work together or solve a problem or something over time work out their dislike for each other and work on why they don't like each other and only then develop romantic feelings can you tell I've been narrating a lot this week and I cannot speak this is a really good one I haven't really read very many enemies to Lover's books but it's definitely not set a satisfying transition when they hate each other a lot of times for no good reason some sort of miscommunication or just someone being jumping to conclusions about the other person like there's no basis for their hatred for each other and then suddenly they're like wait a second turn on the love we love each other suddenly and it's just like ah it's nice to see where two people genuinely hate each other for legitimate reasons and then work through it and grow as humans and then fall in love oh that's good stuff I don't like flipping the switch in pretty much any category right more physically dynamic characters encourage body positivity through characters who are proud of their quote unquote flaws or we could just say differences this is really funny dear authors please write actual conversations between people and stop writing so many descriptions of rooms wardrobe and outdoors I need to see people getting to know each other and becoming friends or more I don't need to know how green the grass is how pink that dress is boring this is really funny this is obviously a preference thing just like any of these things are I understand people who like description every heavy books like to know that details about everything some authors who really go for it and it can be man it can be a real interruption to the flow of the story and it is frustrating when you read a book that is so incredibly description heavy about every single detail except for the characters actually interacting and building relationships so that's the whole video that's as far as I'm gonna get because my kid just got his fingers stuck in a couplet so you know he said thanks buddy do you want to read this book ok chapter 1 treats of the place where Oliver Twist was born and the circumstances attending his birth what a boring sounding chapter yeah feel free to continue chatting in the comments do you agree or disagree with any of these things what are some things that you would love to see authors doing more I post videos every Sunday Tuesday Thursday and Saturday I'll see you guys again soon [Music]

Channel: Merphy Napier

Views: 155,128

Rating: 4.974431 out of 5

Keywords: What Readers Want To See, What Readers Want, dear authors, dear authors please stop, please stop, read, reads, reader, reading, booktube, booktuber, rant, review, discussion

Id: 9yh-2g27Gos

Length: 13min 29sec (809 seconds)

Published: Tue Oct 22 2019