When you read a book, what do you expect?

Have you ever thought about what you expect when you read a book? Usually, your expectations are influenced by the backcopy of the book, that summary inside the flap that made you say, “Oooo, I have to read this!”

But did you realize that you have expectations based on other factors? Like genre? Target audience? Your favorite books?

All of those play a role in the way you read a book, and ultimately, how you process it. If the book meets (or subverts in a pleasant way) your expectations, you deem it a good book. If it doesn’t, then you lose interest. Right?

Last week, I shared my technique for getting to know your audience through persona charts, but this week, we are going to brainstorm what the reader may expect from a book like yours.

Find the universal thread.

Let’s take a look at our chart from last week. Do you see any common threads to your story? Any connections to the characters? Based on the readers’ experiences can they relate to your characters?

What about their interests? Are there any similarities between what books they like to read and their favorite music?

Let’s say they like John Green books and One Direction. What kind of stories can you assume they enjoy? To me, that combination tells me the following:

John Green + One Direction = Young love with boy/girl-next-door types

Or if they like the WEBTOON comic, True Beauty, and BTS, that tells me the following:

True Beauty + BTS = celebrity love with the mysterious stranger

Now of course these are all assumptions, but what piecing these assumptions together does is help build a sandbox we can start building a well-developed story in.

So let’s brainstorm!

So with those general concepts in mind now based on the answers from your chart, let’s make a list of the common elements in those types of stories.

For a young love story with a boy/girl-next-door type, you might come up with something like this.

Young love with boy/girl-next-door type:

• Setting: small town

• Protagonist may have a summer job

• Friends to lovers romance

• Coming of age journey for protagonist

• High school age characters

• Fear of leaving their comfort zone and taking risks

• Etc.

 For the celebrity love with a mysterious stranger, you might come up with this:

Celebrity love with mysterious stranger:

• Setting: Hollywood or another celeb-centered location

• Protagonist /romantic interest wearing a metaphorical (and/or physical) mask

• Universal question of what they want out of life

• Wondering if the sacrifices to have their dreams are worth it

• Should they stay true to who they are or become what others want them to be?

• Find they can be themselves around their romantic interest

• Self-love is at the core of this type of story

• Etc.

You can use concrete details, like setting or age, or look broader at the themes of those types of stories. It’s totally up to you! Making these lists, though, allows you to build an arsenal of tools and structures you can implement into your story when you find yourself zapped of motivation and facing the dreaded writer’s block.But can we truly say for certain that this ideal reader will be the only one to read my story?

But wouldn’t using these elements just make my story like everyone else’s?

Yes, and no. Remember readers love the familiar. They read their favorite genres because they love particular elements of that genre so they are constantly searching for the feeling those elements give them. And you don’t want to disappointment them by not giving them what they love, right?

But knowing all of these common elements, the expectations your readers have, can also help you subvert those expectations. Doing so allows you to keep your story fresh and exciting! Readers love when a story surprises them, and like most rules and structure, you can’t figure out to break them if you don’t know what they are. So this list your are developing helps you better understand what you are working with.

Next week, we will be taking all that list you’ve created and brainstorming ways you can subvert those expectations! Will ask ourselves how do we keep these universal concepts fresh and exciting? So stay tuned! Don’t forget to subscribe so you can stay up to date!

Sending you lots of good writing vibes!

Xoxo,

Kelsey