Hello everyone! Welcome back to Cover to Cover! Today I wanted to continue the segment, Things Writers do that I Love as a Reader. I wrote the first part of this series in May, and I thought it was about time to continue it. In the last post, I talked about re-writing a scene but in another character’s perspective, knowing when the series needs to end, and novellas. I do still highly agree with those points, but I want to add some more to the list of things I love. So, let’s get right into it.
1. Villain Redemption/Good Character Development
I love when a cast off or the villain of the story gets their chance to make up for what they’ve done. This ties into characters development because as a reader I don’t want a static character. I don’t want someone who doesn’t learn or grows throughout the novel. That’s so boring and honestly poor writing. That tells the reader that you, as the writer, don’t care about the character. Unless that is your goal I suggest not. I will stop reading a book if I do not like the characters. I mean what’s the point if I don’t like them, you know?
But to try to bring a character back from the depths of hell to redeem is so interesting to read. I love seeing how they change. The one villain that I would love to see redeemed is Tamlin from A Court of Thorns and Roses. I think it would be super interesting to see not only his side of things but how his actions have affected him directly. Or even just seeing his side of things; why he did what he did, what he thought it would achieve, etc. I think that’s why I love when I hear a villain’s backstory. I want to know the reason, the moment they decided to turn cold and never look back.
2. A plot with twists and turns
I think this one is important because no one wants a predictable plot. I’m not saying you must have a twist and a turn in every chapter. But I can’t stand it when I can tell what’s going to happen from a mile away. I want to be shocked to my core. Granted not every book is going to be like this, but I think especially for a mystery or thriller you really have to keep your audience engaged and that’s with plot twists. I’ve seen a lot of fantasy novels that throw a little twist in there and its really a nice touch. It’s an easy way to keep your reader engaged not only in the book their reader but it motivates them to continue the series. I love not knowing what’s going to happen. I’ve seen people on TikTok talk about We Were Liars by E. Lockhart. I’ve read that book and to be honest it took me a while to get through it. But also, the big twist was super predictable, at least for me. That’s more or less the reason I didn’t really enjoy it.
3. Happy Endings
This one is very self-explanatory. I like when things are tied up in a nice, neat bow. Of course, you have to understand a time and place. It most likely won’t happen in the middle of a series or even the beginning of a series. But if you’re telling me, I read a six-book series and there’s not a happy ending for majority of the main characters, I’m going to be pressed. Or even for a stand-alone book, please let it be a happy ending. No one wants to be depressed after they finished a book. I want happiness!
Well that’s all today folks! Thank you for reading if you made it this far! Come back next week for another blog post!