L says: “Do you think an author’s ‘voice’ is easier to establish when the novel is written in 3rd POV omniscient than in 1st POV?

Just asking because in the writing of my current WIP I felt that I had to find and stick with the MC’s voice, and now in the polishing - revising stage I find that my ‘voice’ comes in from time to time- I think. [Mostly in some of the narration- where I’m trying to balance the ‘tone of voice’”

“Author’s voice”

I’m not sure what you mean by “author’s voice.”  Do you mean the narrator?  If there’s a narrator, s/he can have a voice that comes through, showing some personality, too.  But usually, it’s clear that there is a separate person as a narrator.

I think, instead, though, that you are referring to the overall voice of a piece of writing.  Voice refers to the overall effect of the writing in the story, that lets the reader know something about the personality behind the writing.  Authors vary this voice for each particular piece of writing.  And part of what you are talking about is consistency of that voice.   You’re finding difficulty knowing how to edit for consistency:  would that be an accurate summary of the problem?

Main Character’s Voice

Writing in the voice of the main character is one common way to approach voice.  It sounds like you’ve found ways to make this story very personal to the main character.  That’s good.  If you choose to write in 1st person POV, then it should be a distinctive voice, never heard before.  Quirky tics, individual vocabulary and phrasing, an opinion about everything.

This voice would need to come through in the dialogue, narration, action–everything.  It establishes the “tone of voice,” which I look at as the narrator’s attitudes toward everything. 

It’s interesting that you say “my voice comes through.”  By that, I assume you mean that your natural way of talking/writing and your attitudes?  If so, then, take yourself out of the Main Character’s story.  It should all be filtered through the lens of the MC.

But I wonder about the “tone of voice” that worries you.  Are you trying to establish a certain feeling or mood in the story?  Or a certain attitude towards someting?

All of this demonstrates the difficulty of talking about revision!  What is voice?  What is tone of voice?  How do we distinguish between them when they are so enmeshed in the words we’ve chosen?  How do we edit for voice consistency?  I’ve been trying to talk about this on the Voice Friday postings, but it’s not clear cut as we’d like it to be.

1st v. 3rd

1st person is such a common choice today.  At the Phoenix retreat, 14 out of 20 people were writing in 1st person.  I wonder why that is–any ideas?

I’ve always considered 1st person to be the second choice I consider for a story. There needs to be a reason why it should be told in this person’s voice. Overall, in the mss I see, the 1st person stories tend to run together, without a distinctive voice. If you choose this option, my advice (and opinions vary widely) go way out and be wild, at least in the first draft. Make it wildly distinctive.

Third person omniscient is an odd choice, too, (though it works in Harry Potter) because the author can dip into anyone’s head at any time. Usually readers want to identify with a character closely, and this head-hopping makes it harder. It does reveal motives of everyone across the board, so in that respect, you understand the story better.

I usually prefer a close third person in which the camera is firmly in my main character’s head. Events unfold with the character closely involved in everything.

I don’t think any POV is easier than any other. Some writers prefer 1st and find it more natural; others prefer 3rd. Shrug. For me, it’s not a matter of which is easier, but which helps me tell this particular story in the more dramatic, tension-filled, emotional way.

 L, I probably didn’t answer your question, because I needed you sitting beside me to ask for clarification. 

But I think , this discussion points out two things: first, it shows that we all (myself included!) need better understanding of terminology of our craft.  It’s frustrating that when I ask a group of 100 writers to describe the voice of a piece of writing, we are all silent because we don’t have the vocabulary to do so. We have all been told that voice is so hard to describe, but an editor “knows it when s/he hears it.” That puts voice at the whim of our unreliable intuition, puts it out of our reach in revising.

But there’s a second thing, too. Obviously, something is bothering you about sections of your revison and you’re right to be careful about it.  Sometimes, putting a finger on what exactly is going on is hard–even when we do know the terminology.  Writing isn’t an “exact science,” but a craft; sometimes, understanding DOES comes in an intuitive moment.   When I’m in a situation like this where I know something is wrong, but I don’t know what, there’s nothing to do but keep trying to figure it out and not let it slide. That doesn’t mean that intuition is the only tool I have to work on voice, though. I can approach it in a controlled way, while still allowing for intuition to show up and support the work I’ve done!

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I’m going to answer questions from a couple readers this week. If you have a question, email me and I’ll try to answer it, too.

SarahJ asks: Could you give us an exercise for pacing for the whole novel?

Pacing is a question of providing a combination of tension, reflection, rejoicing, sorrows across a novel in such a way that the reader stays interested and reading.

This is one of those things that the answer is “it depends.” Using the art analogy again, you might want a pastel palette, with less action/tension and more reflection, a more character-type novel. Or, you might want an action/adventure story–a bold, primary colors sort of palette.

With that caveat, there are a couple ways of looking at your story that might help.

Reader Reactions to Pacing

First, re-read the story yourself and this time pay attention to yourself as you read. Are there places where you zone out or skim? Put a check mark in the margins, but keep on reading. You’ll want to come back later and evaluate those places to see if you can make them more interesting.

Next, have three readers do the same thing. You ONLY want them to put a check mark in the margins when they find themselves not reading every single word. That’s the only thing they need to do. Don’t let them mark misspellings or grammar or anything. Kids are great at this, because they are honest and don’t care about that other stuff.

These are reader’s opinions and reactions, and therefore, there’s no arguing with them. If they zone out at one place, you might say to yourself, “This person just doesn’t like dogs, so they’ll skip everything about dogs.” Well, other readers will be similar and you don’t want ANY reader to skip ANY words, do you? Is there any way to make the dogs interesting to a person who is generally uninterested in that dog? Maybe not. But it’s your job to try.

Pacing Evaluations

1. The Shrunken Mss is one good way to look at pacing. You can use this exercise to look at anything you want for the overall story. For example, you might put a large red X over every scene with a fight scene. Put a large blue X over every scene which is mostly dialogue. (Obviously, you’ll decide on how to mark it exactly, depending on the content of your novel.) Do the lay-down of the Shrunken Mss and evaluate how well you’ve integrated the different types of scenes. Notice not just frequency, but also length of each. Do you want one to dominate more than the other?
2. Be sure to provide a few places of rest. If you think about the Writer’s Journey description of the Hero’s Quest, there are definite resting places where characters can chat, look for information, develop a romance (in adult novels, read, have a sex scene), enjoy a small victory. After the hero has crossed into the new world of the adventure, one option is the “watering hole” scene, where the characters go to a gathering place and gain new information.In the first Star Wars movie, for example, Luke and Obi Wan go to a bar to find transportation to another planet. It’s here that they meet new people (Han and Chewbacca), Luke gets a glimpse of the variety of aliens in this wider world he’s about to enter, and Luke gets a glimpse of Obi Wan’s powers. It’s a relatively quiet spot in the movie, with the tension coming more from the unknown qualities of what Luke is experiencing.Study the Hero’s Quest for other resting places, including the Approach to the Inmost Cave and The Reward (or Seizing the Sword). If you think I’m talking Greek here, it’s just Joseph Campbell’s classic structure for a hero’s quest. See Vogler’s book for more.
3. In his book, Lessons from a Lifetime of Writing, action/adventure author, David Morrell (creator of the Rambo character, among others), says he tries to write short chapters, so that a reader can complete one chapter (or structural unit) at one sitting. He bases his ideas on two essays by Edgar Allen Poe, The Philosophy of Composition and The Poetic Principle. Part of this discussion is about pacing, because it’s about keeping the reader’s attention. Morrell says he keeps his structural units small in order to accommodate the reader’s bladder, TV interruptions, phone calls, a neighbor who drops in, etc. Poe’s essay is worth reading, as is Morrell’s chapter on “The Tactics of Structure.”
4. Evaluate the white spaces on your pages of text. Single space your mss and print it out; it’s hard to see this on the screen. In general, you don’t want dense blocks of text. See if you can break up long paragraphs into shorter ones. Use dialogue to provide white space. As usual, the right combination of text and white space “depends.”

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Have you seen the Children’s Book Market Mall?

I don’t know if they are good or bad. But what they are doing is making banners for many of the children’s literature blogs. Here’s what they made for my blog. They took my author’s photo, a cover of my books and made this banner. If you have a blog, you might check and see what they’d done with YOUR blog!

Is is what you WANT done with your blog’s identity?

(I know. I’ve giving them publicity by posting this, but it’s just weird to see this.)

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Voice Friday: Search Your Voice for Words

Words
Voice Friday: Word Choices
Voice Friday: Word Connotations
Voice Friday: Word Sounds

I’ve talked before about the importance of word choices in establishing voice. So, now, you’re editing your novel and you’ve decided that this word is the right diction, has the right connotations, and sounds right. There’s one more consideration.

Search Your Voice

Would you actually choose this word or did you find it by looking it up in a thesaurus? In the context of this story, is it a word you would normally choose?

In other words, while you’re searching for the right words, you also need to remember that this should be your word choice, that it comes from your voice. Here, I’m stressing the need to remain true to your natural voice, while at the same time, serving the needs of the story. A tricky balancing act!

Les Edgerton, in his book Finding Your Voice, suggests that if more than 5% of the words in your writing are words you wouldn’t normally use, then it’s too much. You’ve gone too far beyond your natural voice.

He suggests using clustering to find words that come from your vocabulary.

I first encountered clustering in Writing the Natural Way . It’s technique that tries to by-pass your left-brain editor and instead, put you in touch with the artistic-right-brain.

Write a word in the center of the page and circle it. Draw lines going off the word and at the end of each line, draw another circle. Inside that circle, write a word that you associate with the central word. You can connect circles or draw multiple lines from one circle. Essentially, you’re creating a visual map of your connotations and associations for that word.

Edgerton suggests you take one of the off-shoot words and repeat seven or eight times. Then compare the word-webs. Are there any words in common among the webs? Which of these words would best word in your writing.

Instead of reaching for a thesaurus, reach inside your brain, inside your voice and look for the right word.

Sentences
Voice Friday: Sentences
Voice Friday: Sentence Control

Words
Voice Friday: Word Choices
Voice Friday: Word Connotations
Voice Friday: Word Sounds

Barriers to revision:

1. Love. I love my work and don’t want to revise. Frankly, I see this one mentioned a lot, but most writers I know don’t have this attitude. Maybe beginners do, but not professional writers.
2. Procrastination. I know it needs work, but I’ll do it after I get this draft of a NEW novel done. Now this one, I see a lot. We love writing new things, don’t we? (Talking about myself!)
3. Make-up. Don’t cover up bad structure, plot and characterization with a surface treatment that amounts to nothing more than putting on make-up. Again, I don’t see this attitude very much, but I do see it in practice. I think that results from wanting to revise, but being so close to the work that we can’t see what needs work.
4. Fear. Often, we fear the risks of revision: the time investment, the risk that the new draft might not sell either, the risk of committing wholeheartedly to this mss, etc. Many years ago, I read one of the Doonesbury comic strips about Milo, who goes into the future to see himself. Milo is disappointed with the pot-bellied, middle-aged version of himself. Young Milo asks, “What happened?” Middle-aged Milo says, “I feared the risks needed to excel in life and now life a mediocre life.” I fear the risks needed to excel, yes. But more than that, I fear not taking those risks and looking back with regret.
5. Deafness. That still, small voice in you says, this needs work. But you ignore the voice and send it out anyway.
   We recently floated the Grand Canyon–fabulous trip! The first night, we camped near Pumpkin Springs, a mineral springs which stained orange a 20- foot section of a concave rock. Near the spring were rock ledges that curved away to a sandy beach where the J-boats pulled up for the night. The guides set up the kitchen on the beach and the “Loo with a view” was up a cliff on the downstream side. Others in our group set up their cots on the sand, but we walked back upstream about 50 feet to the ledges. I slept, waking periodically to marvel at the Milky Way’s slow glide across the sky’s dome.The next morning, I heard the guides call that coffee was ready. I walked around the rocky ledges toward the sandy area. Suddenly–I don’t know why–I froze.Something wasn’t right.Then, I saw it. I was about to step onto a pink granite rock and coiled beside it was a snake. His tail and head were hidden in the coils, but I knew it was a poisonous snake.

   I waved my arms and called to the guides, “He-LLO!” With my arms still high in the air, I pointed downward. “There’s a snake.”

   The guide strolled over and identified the rare species, “Grand Canyon Pink Rattlesnake.”

   Why did I freeze? Why didn’t I just take that next step and get bit? The snake was well-camouflaged, pink markings against the pink granite.

   But one summer during my college years, I was a Girl Scout camp counselor and part of our job was to watch out for snakes and keep the campers from being afraid. I had been trained to notice snakes.

   You must train yourself to notice the small things that bother you about your story.

   When you notice something not right, you must freeze. Survey the ground in front of you. Make the revisions. Don’t send the mss out before it’s revised, or you might get bit with a rejection.

As I’ve said in previous posts, this was a difficult year for me personally because of my husband’s surgery, my daughter’s wedding and my son’s difficult school year. Knowing that it would be hard, I started Friday Ideas as a way to keep on producing picturebook ideas, but in a low-pressure sort of way.  It’s worked.  I’ve written about 7 picturebooks so far this year that I’m proud of and am marketing.

But I’ve been anxious to get a novel started again.  Yesterday, I worked on a first chapter of a new novel.

I rarely talk about first drafts, because I don’t want to get into the controversy of how to do a first draft.  Begin with a character and follow that character around.  Plan character and plot extensively before you start.  It’s amazing how vocal people can be about these choices and the continuum between them!

I once gave a talk about revising novels and in the introduction, I mentioned this dichotomy.  I suggested that it would be interesting for a writer to deliberately choose to start a novel in the opposite way from their natural inclination.  Later, I got an email from a writer who usually followed characters around.  She had gone home and plotted a novel and wrote it in record time and sold it.

I’m going to take my own advice.  You may not be able to guess this from my posts (she says ironically), but I’m pretty analytical.  I usually plan things out.  In this case, I’m taking something that I had half-heartedly planned a couple years ago.  In fact, I only planned the characters, and not the plot.  A perfect place to being my experiment in drafting a different way.   I’m going to follow these characters around and see what happens.  I expect it to be messy.  (ARGH!  CAn I stand it?)  But it should be interesting.

So–for those of you who just follow characters around, any suggestions?  Do I just write whatever scene occurs to me and put it in order later?  Do you have ANY ideas about plot?  What do you ask yourself when you sit down to write?  What triggers the day’s writing?

I’m planning to reread yesterday’s scene and ask, what would my character do next.   We’ll see what happens.

Rhyming Picture Book Bibliography

If you’ve been around children’s literature long, you know that editors often say they don’t like rhyming books. What they really mean is they don’t like bad rhyme. Presented here is a bibliography of recent rhyming picture books. Study these as examples of successful books in this category.

Thanks to Bob Schechter for permission to reprint the list, which he first posted on the SCBWI discussion boards. I’ve edited it to include only titles 2005 and after.

Even More Parts by Tedd Arnold (Puffin 2007)
Goodnight, Sweet Pig by Linda Bailey (Kids Can Press 2007)
Five Little Ducks by Ivan Bates (Scholastic 2006)
My Granny Went to Market by Stella Blackstone (Barefoot Books 2006)
Out for the Count by Kathryn Cave (Francis Lincoln 2006)
Click, Clack, Splish, Splash by Doreen Cronin (Simon & Schuster 2006)
Llama Llama Red Pajama by Anna Dewdney (Viking 2005)
G Is For One Gzonk! by Tony DiTerizzi (Simon & Schuster 2006)
A Squash and a Squeeze by Julia Donaldson (Macmillan Children’s Books 2007)
One Ted Falls Out of Bed by Julia Donaldson (Henry Holt 2006)
The Gruffalo by Julia Donaldson (Puffin 2005, reprint 2006)
Cha-Cha Chimps by Julia Durango (Simon & Schuster 2006)
Down In Louisiana by Johnette Downing (Pelican 2007)
Estelle Takes A Bath by Jill Esbaum (Henry Holt 2006)
Beetle Bop by Denise Fleming (Harcourt 2007)
Zoo’s Who by Douglas Florian (Harcourt 2005)
Where the Giant Sleeps by Mem Fox (Harcourt 2007)
The Magic Hat by Mem Fox (Voyager 2006)
In My Backyard by Valarie Giogas (Sylvan Dell 2007)
Ten Little Wishes by Andrea Gosline (HarperCollins 2007)
Red Are The Apples by Marc Harshman (Harcourt 2007)
A Child’s Bedtime Companion (Hardcover) by Sandy Henry (Ambassador 2005)
Winter Lights: A Season in Poems & Quilts by Anna Grossnickle Hines (Greenwillow 2005)
A House Is A House For Me by Mary Ann Hoberman (Puffin, Gift Edition 2007)
You Read to Me, I’ll Read to You: Very Short Stories to Read Together by Mary Ann Hoberman (Little Brown Young Readers, August 2006)
You Read to Me, I’ll Read to You: Very Short Fairy Tales to Read Together by Mary Ann Hoberman (Little Brown Young Readers, August 2007)
Collected Poems for Children by Ted Hughes (Farrar, Straus and Giroux 2007)
Pajama Light by Gale Sypher Jacob (Dutton,2006)
If Mom Had Three Arms by Karen Kaufman Orloff (Sterling 2006)
Rough, Tough Charley by Verla Kay (Tricycle Press 2007)
How Do I Love You? by Leslie Kimmelman (HarperCollins 2005)
Seven Spunky Monkeys by Jackie French Koller (Harcourt 2005)
Big Is Big (and little, little) by J. Patrick Lewis (Holiday House 2007)
Chicka Chicka Boom Boom by Jack Martin (Little Simon; Mini Book & CD edition October 2006)
Ohio Thunder by Denise Dowling Mortensen (Clarion Books 2006)
When Sheep Sleep by Laura Numeroff (Abrams 2006)
The Wizard by Jack Prelutsky (Greenwillow June 2007)
Behold the Bold Umbrellaphant: And Other Poems by Jack Prelutsky (Greenwillow 2006)
I Saw An Ant On The Railroad Track by Joshua Prince (Sterling 2006)
I Saw An Ant In The Parking Lot by Joshua Prince (Sterling 2007)
While Mama Had A Quick Little Chat by Amy Reichert (Atheneum/Richard Jackson Books 2005)
Won’t You Be My Kisseroo? by Joanne Ryder (Harcourt 2008)
Won’t You Be My Hugaroo? by Joanne Ryder (Harcourt 2008)
Very Hairy Bear by Alice Schertle (Harcourt 2007)
Baby Can’t Sleep by Lisa Schroeder (Sterling 2005)
There Was A Coyote Who Swallowed a Flea by Jennifer Ward (Rising Moon 2007)
Jazz Baby by Lisa Wheeler (Harcourt 2007)
Mammoths on the Move by Lisa Wheeler (Harcourt 2006) ( Booklist Notable)
One Dark Night by Lisa Wheeler (Voyager 2006)
Falling for Rapunzel by Leah Wilcox (Puffin 2005)
Bear Feels Sick by Karma Wilson (Margaret K. McElderry 2007)
Ten Naughty Little Monkeys by Suzanne Williams (HarperCollins 2007)
Let’s Go Visiting by Sue Williams (Harcourt 2006)
How to Bake an American Pie by Karma Wilson (Margaret K. McElderry 2007)
How Do Dinosaurs Play With Their Friends? by Jane Yolen (Scholastic 2006)
Rhymes and Riddles (Word Play) (Paperback) (HarperCollins 2007)

Note: I am an Amazon affiliate. Following the Purple Crayon’s lead, I would love to make this website a resource for children’s writers and eventually have it function as a part-time job. This means, if you plan to buy the books, please support the site by clicking on the Amazon links to buy them.

No. I did not go to a HP party at Midnight on Friday. No. I did not buy HP7. No, I do not know who died. (PLEASE tell me. I don’t mind a spoiler!)

I didn’t buy Harry Potter because I’ve been busy shopping for other things.

Here’s the 10 things I’ve bought instead:

1. Schwinn Sierra Women’s Comfort Bike. Look out, Big Dam Bridge, here I come.

2. Wintergreen Lifesavers. Bag after bag.
3. Made to Stick, by Chip Heath and Dan Heath. Stories stick, of course. An interesting look at what ideas/stories are “sticky” and why. It doesn’t totally explain the HP phenomenon, but it’s interesting, nonetheless. Basically, they say things that are sticky are SUCCESs: Simple, Unexpected, Concrete, Credible and Emotional Stories. I’ve also been reading Whoever Tells the Best Story Wins. Both books are more from a business standpoint, but both talk about stories and that’s enough for me. I especially liked Simmons’ book because it talks about using stories to teach, something I do a lot.

4. Collared polo shirts for my son’s school uniforms. Only 18 shopping days left until school starts on August 13.
5. Bathing suits on sale for 50% off. (DH wants to know which half was left off, top or bottom. Ha! Old joke and still not funny.)
6. Paula’s beauty products. The Cosmetics Cop has GOT to know how to make good makeup, right?
7. Sunscreen with zinc oxide. Finally, a sun blocker that works!
8. Fresh bing cherries. Bag after bag.
9. Tickets to the Arkansas Travelers baseball games. Our local minor league team has a great new ball field making this book out of date; the Trav’s season is going, well, I don’t know how it’s going–it’s just fun to go to the games.
10. Tickets to float the Ocoee River next Saturday. A last exciting trip with our kids before school starts.

Even without HP7, life is full!

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Novel Diagnosis Series

Introduction
Characters
Dialogue
Scenes
Voice
VoiceRevisited
Plot

This is a chart showing the variation in length of sentences. Green is for Lizzie Bright, page 33; pink is for Westing Game, page 33; and orange is for one of our readers, PB, page 33. (Waving to PB! Thanks for listing your sentence lengths.)

Last week, I suggested that a possible diagnostic for voice might be to look at sentence lengths. A couple people thought I was suggesting just looking at average sentence length; instead, I’m more interested in the variety and from this chart you can see the variety.

Lizzie Bright (green) has an average sentence length of 10.7, with a variation from average of -8.7 to + 16.3.

Westing Game (pink) has an average sentence length of 12.0 with a variation of -10 to +27.

PB (orange) has an average sentence length of 8.85 with a variation of -6.85 to +8.15.

So What?

So what, indeed? Does this simple test give us an idea about voice? Yes and no.

Certainly Westing Game and Lizzie Bright have a wider variation than PB. But to use an art analogy, there are different palates. One artist might choose a pastel palette and do a stunning work, while another chooses a bold palette for their work. I think PB’s voice palette might be more toward the pastel side and only she can decide if that’s appropriate or not.

Certainly, if the sentences vary from the average by only 1-2 throughout, then the voice is probably flat! I’ve read those eighth grade essays! But even taking on that challenge, a skilled writer might make that work.

Still Searching

One thing I try to do in my Novel Revision retreat and other teaching is to give the writer a tool that will help them see what needs to be done next. I’m not convinced that this tool is the most useful for voice. Voice is more about how the intonation plays out across a passage, and that involves so much more than just sentence length. I had hoped that this would be a simple test that would point out larger problems, but there are too many holes in it. So, I’m still searching for ways to make voice visible, easier to see the weak spots and easier to work on directly. Just haven’t found it yet.

Novel Diagnosis Series

Introduction
Characters
Dialogue
Scenes
Voice
Plot

Novel Diagnosis–Audience 

Because the last Harry Potter book comes out tomorrow, it’s appropriate today to talk about audience.

How do you make sure that your book is going to reach the target audience and that they will enjoy reading it?

Traditional answers

1. The main character should be slightly older than the target audience.
2. Boys will read about boys; girls will read about boys or girls.
3. You should think about the needs and wants of the target audience.  School, friends, family, popularity, romance, grades, sports–all of the things that teens worry are possible stories.
4. Conflict on every page.  Every novel–regardless of the target audience–needs conflict.  Without conflict, there is no story.

Harry Potter Answers

1. Fun on every page.  I’ve heard that people count the number of “fun” things per chapter in a Harry Potter novel.  Think about it:  Bertie Botts jelly beans, flying brooms, Quidditch, flying cars, owls as postmen, and so on and so forth.  Conflict is still there, but mostly, it’s a fun place to be.   Part of this if J.K. Rowling’s skill is world-building, making a fantasy world that has the possibilities of events, items, weirdness, etc. that kids will think is fun.
2. Technology has changed Tweens and Teens today.   The Great Tween Marketing Machine is an example of the books now available on marketing to the ten-year-old crowd.  In some ways, it’s scary–it suggests strageties for directly selling to sell to a ten-year-old!  Wow!  In other ways, I admire the study of the age and how technology has changed the world and marketing to a ten-year-old is indeed possible–and profitable.  Here’s another to look at:   BRANDChild: Insights into the Minds of Today’s Global Kids

Self-Diagnosis

Choose 10 pages at random from your story.  (pages 3, 21, 25, 47, 52, 70, 71, 88, 91, 99).  Highlight the conflict and the fun things on every page. 

Do you think about your audience as you write, or do you write for that “inner child”?  First drafts–I don’t care.  But when you revise, you should think about the audience and how you can make the reading experience gripping.  Give them conflict!  Give them fun!  And they’ll come back for more.