Stories that Grip the Busy Reader #barrioblues

What kind of stories grip you, busy reader?

One of my friends and beta reader raised this question.  Do the stories evoke feelings?  Will they interest the person with a million things to do?  A reader like you?

Today, I also read a blog for Pitch Wars mentees.  As many of you know, I am getting ready to pitch my first novel The Harvest in the hopes of attracting a mentor and ideally an agent or editor.  One of the areas that mentors focus on is whether the novel evokes feelings. 

The truth is I hadn't really thought about that when writing.  I think about all the formal elements of the story, starting with the characters. I focus on the character's main goal and conflicts struggles and resolutions.  I short, I focus on the literary aspects of the story.

I enjoy writing the story, obviously, but how do you reach the out of body perspective to imagine how a reader might feel?   Obviously, readers will not all respond to stories the same way.  But, the stories should grab the reader and keep her there, until she reads all the work. 

I don't really have an answer.  Reading itself is pleasurable, which I suppose is a feeling, but not a feeling evoked from the writing itself.  Ah well, since I can't survey the readers of the story, I will just focus on whether I enjoy writing it and reading it once it's done, even when I have a million things to do, but I would love to hear what you all think.

#Keep growing, learning, and feeling.  Smirk.  #barrioblues

Photo by Isabella Mariana