The Compelling Novel

Sea Witch · Jan 1, 2012

As I read this forum and try to learn something about the writing craft and the selling-your-writing craft, I'm struck by how we are usually trying to make both our works and our queries more compelling.

However, when I think back to some of the most memorable books I've read, I don't remember a lot of them being "compelling". I remember some of them being "interesting" or "definitely worth reading".

As an example, I still remember some of Gail Godwin's books even though I read them 25 years ago, but they were never "compelling" like a John le Carre or John D. MacDonald book.

So I'm wondering does a book have to be "compelling" to be great? How does one sell a book idea to an agent or publisher that's *not* a real "page-turner"?

dangerousbill · Jan 1, 2012

Sea Witch said:
As an example, I still remember some of Gail Godwin's books even though I read them 25 years ago, but they were never "compelling" like a John le Carre or John D. MacDonald book.

So I'm wondering does a book have to be "compelling" to be great?

I suspect different folks have different criteria. 'Compelling' to me means characters I can empathize with, that I can visualize, and that make me want to know more about them. It's similar to meeting a live person and thinking, 'I want to befriend this person and learn more about them.'

Selling a book intended to be 'compelling' may be tough, as you suggest. Compelling is in the execution, which means getting someone to actually read the text, rather than a synopsis, and become as entranced with the characters as you (the writer) are.

robjvargas · Jan 1, 2012

Short answer, IMO: you don't.

I guess the question hinges on what "compelling" really means.

I think a book, a story, can be an experience worth having without rising to some literary level that deals with heavy or expansive themes. But it *does* have to bring the reader back from one page to the next. That may not qualify as a "page-turner" per se. But *something* has to convince the reader to hang around and experience the story your work is telling.

AutumnWrite · Jan 1, 2012

IMO - what's compelling to one person, is not compelling to another. To take that on step further, what I may find compelling at this point of my life, may not have been at all interesting to me twenty years ago. Isn't that why such a variety of books exist? My guess would be, if you find your work compelling, someone else will. The question is, will that someone else be an agent or publisher.

Buffysquirrel · Jan 1, 2012

Hmm, of all the novels I've read lately, I'd only say two were actually compelling. I enjoyed some of the others, but not on the 'can't put this down' level.

Mharvey · Jan 1, 2012

Yes, what everyone else has said: what's compelling to one person is not to another. When trying to gauge if your work is compelling, the best quote I've ever heard on the topic goes something like this: "no tears for the writer, no tears for the reader."

Not saying if you don't have a soiled snotrag for every page of your own manuscript, you're doing it wrong, but if you are genuinely, truly compelled by your own characters/work (for me, it's much rarer than I'd like it to be), then you'll find readers who are too. At least assuming your novel is in a language they understand.

Layla Nahar · Jan 1, 2012

'compelling' for me only means that the story makes the reader want to keep reading. I've found plenty of books that I wanted to keep reading from enjoying the ambiance of the story or because of something about the character(s). I like the word compelling as a nice neutral adjective to describe a quality I value in a narrative. I try to avoid saying a 'good story' because that could be so many things. So when I describe my goals for writing, for example, I say that I want to tell a 'cohesive and compelling' story. Compelling for me just means it holds your attention.

jaksen · Jan 1, 2012

Most of the books I read I simply like. If I don't like the book, or find the first chapter poorly written or unbearably dull, I just don't finish it. I put it back on the shelf or return it to the library.

But I recently read a haunted house novel which was truly different and that I found compelling. I had to read it and walked around the house with it; wherever I was, the book was with me. I suppose that was compelling. For me, anyhow.

BethS · Jan 1, 2012

Compelling novels are novels I don't want to stop reading, and can't wait to pick up again.

I don't find too many of those.

LadyDae · Jan 1, 2012

AutumnWrite said:
IMO - what's compelling to one person, is not compelling to another. To take that on step further, what I may find compelling at this point of my life, may not have been at all interesting to me twenty years ago. Isn't that why such a variety of books exist? My guess would be, if you find your work compelling, someone else will. The question is, will that someone else be an agent or publisher.

This exactly.

I completely agree that it varies from person to person. For instance, i couldn't read Twilight. There was nothing in it that could have 'compelled' me to read on and that's if we define compelling as feeling like something is forcing you to read it so that you can't put it down, which means it has captured you imagination. However, a few million other people found it compelling enough to buy the book and make the author rich.

It depends on the person. Something that might compel me to read might not be interesting or worth the time of day to other readers. It all depends on taste.

blacbird · Jan 1, 2012

For me, "compelling" means simply that I am compelled to keep reading. Exactly how a writer accomplishes that might be through a variety of means. There's no cookbook.

caw

kuwisdelu · Jan 1, 2012

To be honest, most books (and TV shows too, for that matter) that I found "compelling" to the point that I couldn't put them down, the "page turners," if you will, I have recognized as being not very good, after the fact. Most achieved that effect through cheap tricks and manipulation.

The ones that have stuck with me the most have been compelling in their own way, but they were often also the ones that I've had to sometimes put down for a while and think about and recover before coming back to.

Ari Meermans · Jan 1, 2012

kuwisdelu said:
The ones that have stuck with me the most have been compelling in their own way, but they were often also the ones that I've had to sometimes put down for a while and think about and recover before coming back to.

Yes.

I've read many novels that were exciting page-turners but most didn't "stay" with me. Some few did for a while. One continues to do so and I thought of it again as I read through the responses here. I agree with others here that what constitutes a compelling book is a subjective assessment as we tend to bring our own individual perspectives to the read.

Deizelcore · Jan 1, 2012

To be honest, most books (and TV shows too, for that matter) that I found "compelling" to the point that I couldn't put them down, the "page turners," if you will, I have recognized as being not very good, after the fact. Most achieved that effect through cheap tricks and manipulation.

↑ What he said.

Dreity · Jan 2, 2012

Kind of bouncing off dangerousbill's post, I think compelling characters are a more accurate indicator of a book's long-lasting quality than a compelling plot. I've read plenty of books that are compelling because there weren't any good breathing points and I just "had" to keep reading. But, I've also read books where the character was unique and interesting enough that I really did "have" to keep reading, not because I wanted to see what other crazy twists the author had in store, but because something about that character made me care about them so much that I couldn't stop thinking about them, even when the book wasn't in my hands. I wanted to know everything there was to know about them, and doing anything other pursuing that was torturous.

Which I guess means there's a difference between compelling plots and compelling characters, and while I don't want to derail the thread with a character-driven vs. plot-driven discussion, for myself, the books that stand out to me are the ones with compelling characters first and foremost, with an intriguing story close as a close second.

djunamod · Jan 2, 2012

Great question. I agree with others here that a lot depends on what your definition of compelling is. Is it snappy dialogue? Characters that are both real and imperfect but nonetheless likable? A plot that keeps up the pace? Scenery that you can visualize? A narrator that knows how to tell a story? Stylish, image-filled language that you have to slow down to really understand?

My view of it is that not everything will be compelling to everyone and that includes agents and publishers. What one agent might find compelling, another would find terribly boring.

Djuna

brianjanuary · Jan 2, 2012

Remember--publishing is a business designed to make money, just like any other business. This is why agents and editors want stories with strong, saleable, commercial hooks that have a better chance of selling lots of copies or making a movie deal.

seun · Jan 2, 2012

Stephen King isn't too fond of his book Insomnia. It's one my favourites of King's books if only because I loved the MC, Ralph. He kept me reading through the early part of the book which, to be fair, could have been trimmed.

Compelling to me is all about character and story. One or the other is great; both = I'm not putting that book down until I'm done.

Sea Witch · Jan 2, 2012

Thank you so much for all the thoughtful replies. I am feeling encouraged. I am learning that my own style is to write character-driven pieces, and I guess I just wanted to know if a book had to be a "fast-paced action page-turner" to be worthwhile....or good....thank you. Much food for thought.

Jamesaritchie · Jan 2, 2012

Sea Witch said:
As I read this forum and try to learn something about the writing craft and the selling-your-writing craft, I'm struck by how we are usually trying to make both our works and our queries more compelling.

However, when I think back to some of the most memorable books I've read, I don't remember a lot of them being "compelling". I remember some of them being "interesting" or "definitely worth reading".

As an example, I still remember some of Gail Godwin's books even though I read them 25 years ago, but they were never "compelling" like a John le Carre or John D. MacDonald book.

So I'm wondering does a book have to be "compelling" to be great? How does one sell a book idea to an agent or publisher that's *not* a real "page-turner"?

"Compelling" is just a word, and it's completely subjective. Your "interesting" is someone else's "compelling," and your "definitely worth reading" is someone else's wall banger.

"Page-turner", on the other hand, is different. No matter how you write or what you write, an agent, editor, or general reader must want to keep turning pages.

Either your query/synopsis/book is good enough to make these people keep reading, or it isn't. If it is, it will probably sell somewhere. If it isn't, it won't.

King Wenclas · Jan 2, 2012

To say that if something's compelling, it is, and that if isn't, it's not, makes no sense.

Some people create art, in whatever form, that can move or interest a wide audience-- or move strongly those people it does move. What accounts for a best-selling song? Doesn't it connect with listeners in some fashion? There have to be ways to make writing compelling. The trick is to find those ways.

I've read chess games-- those of Bobby Fischer, say-- through the language of chess notation, and found those games extremely compelling. The reasons were A.) I was able to follow a kind of narrative line, where each move followed logically and inevitably from another; B.) the games offered surprise, or the prospect of surprise.

Or, the standard question regarding narrative: "What happens next?"

There have been some books regarded as "compelling," unable to be put down, by the majority of people who've read them. One is the Rider Haggard novel She. The writer has no extraneous side plots, he maintains a very fast pace, and the story is rather fantastic. Once the reader plunges into his mysterious world, with a mysterious personality known to be at the end of it, it's hard to break off. The goal is distant, but always moving closer. You as the reader, like the adventurer on the search for "She"-- a most fascinating and beautiful woman-- want to get there.

Maybe a better example is the nonfiction history of the opening of World War I, The Guns of August by Barbara Tuchman. This is a unique case, because the narrative line can be-- and is-- literally traced on a map. This is the plot: The German army invades France, with a set plan to encircle the French army and capture Paris. The story is laid out for the reader at the outset. The suspense comes from whether the German plan will succeed, or whether the French will be able to stop it-- and if so, how they'll stop what appears to be an unbeatable plan.

As I'd been warned, I couldn't stop reading once I went past a certain point. The drama was intense, as the German army like a steamroller got closer, and closer, and closer to their goal, while at the same time one old French general behind the lines who believed he could stop the plan struggled to be allowed to do so. The main characters-- generals mostly-- are expertly drawn, but quickly drawn, because everything is secondary to the continuous narrative line, which could be drawn on a map, and of course was. It helped that there were good guys and bad guys.

I'm writing a novel currently and I'm trying to map out the plot movements and progress of the characters in a similar manner. I did a novella already like that for practice. (One'd have to read the ebook to see if it worked!)

(Or, think of actual movements, like a Beethoven symphony, where each movement is an unbroken line of musical language, usually gaining in intensity as the work nears a climax.)

www.americanpoplit.blogspot.com

Jamesaritchie · Jan 3, 2012

King Wenclas said:
To say that if something's compelling, it is, and that if isn't, it's not, makes no sense.

Some people create art, in whatever form, that can move or interest a wide audience-- or move strongly those people it does move. What accounts for a best-selling song? Doesn't it connect with listeners in some fashion? There have to be ways to make writing compelling. The trick is to find those ways.

I've read chess games-- those of Bobby Fischer, say-- through the language of chess notation, and found those games extremely compelling. The reasons were A.) I was able to follow a kind of narrative line, where each move followed logically and inevitably from another; B.) the games offered surprise, or the prospect of surprise.

Or, the standard question regarding narrative: "What happens next?"

There have been some books regarded as "compelling," unable to be put down, by the majority of people who've read them. One is the Rider Haggard novel She. The writer has no extraneous side plots, he maintains a very fast pace, and the story is rather fantastic. Once the reader plunges into his mysterious world, with a mysterious personality known to be at the end of it, it's hard to break off. The goal is distant, but always moving closer. You as the reader, like the adventurer on the search for "She"-- a most fascinating and beautiful woman-- want to get there.

Maybe a better example is the nonfiction history of the opening of World War I, The Guns of August by Barbara Tuchman. This is a unique case, because the narrative line can be-- and is-- literally traced on a map. This is the plot: The German army invades France, with a set plan to encircle the French army and capture Paris. The story is laid out for the reader at the outset. The suspense comes from whether the German plan will succeed, or whether the French will be able to stop it-- and if so, how they'll stop what appears to be an unbeatable plan.

As I'd been warned, I couldn't stop reading once I went past a certain point. The drama was intense, as the German army like a steamroller got closer, and closer, and closer to their goal, while at the same time one old French general behind the lines who believed he could stop the plan struggled to be allowed to do so. The main characters-- generals mostly-- are expertly drawn, but quickly drawn, because everything is secondary to the continuous narrative line, which could be drawn on a map, and of course was. It helped that there were good guys and bad guys.

I'm writing a novel currently and I'm trying to map out the plot movements and progress of the characters in a similar manner. I did a novella already like that for practice. (One'd have to read the ebook to see if it worked!)

(Or, think of actual movements, like a Beethoven symphony, where each movement is an unbroken line of musical language, usually gaining in intensity as the work nears a climax.)

www.americanpoplit.blogspot.com

Well, I loved reading Bobby Fisher's chess games, too, but "compelled" is still too strong a word.

You could say the same thing abut every bestselling novel out there. They're all bestsellers because huge numbers of people love them, and want to finish them. Yes, many books have been considered compelling, but only by those who love them, and want to use the word. Just as many others hate the same books, and use even stronger language to say so.

Even with bestsellers, even with She, or The Guns of August, half who try reading them will find them boring, or not well written, etc. Though well-written, The Guns of August wasn't even a page turner for me, simply because I already knew pretty much everything in it. I got through it because I had to, not because I wanted to.

But I found The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich an incredible read, long as it is, and couldn't put it down. Yet I know all sorts of readers who think it's the most boring book ever written.

"Compelling" is just a promotional gimmick, the same as "epic" or "saga". It's completely subjective. I've read many books I loved, but I've never been compelled to finish one.

One thing I do believe is that you can't possibly plan compelling, or bestsellerdom, or even a way to write a book that one percent of readers will like. If it were possible, we'd all be doing it, and you could pull compelling novels out of the slush pile just by closing your eyes and saying, "Eeny, meeny, miny, moe."

BrumBall · Jan 3, 2012

jaksen said:
Most of the books I read I simply like. If I don't like the book, or find the first chapter poorly written or unbearably dull, I just don't finish it. I put it back on the shelf or return it to the library.

But I recently read a haunted house novel which was truly different and that I found compelling. I had to read it and walked around the house with it; wherever I was, the book was with me. I suppose that was compelling. For me, anyhow.

Sounds interesting, what's the name of the novel?

King Wenclas · Jan 3, 2012

To James Ritchie: We'll have to agree to disagree. One thing I'm counting on with a novel I'm currently writing is that you can indeed plan "compelling." Yes, the idea is in part subjective, but not completely. To argue otherwise is to say there are no standards whatsoever, that one book's as good as another, throw them all up in the air and see which lands first. I believe that there are what can be universally agreed-upon as "compelling" stories. Time and lasting popularity has shown the much-anthologized story "The Most Dangerous Game" to be a compelling read. Some writers will then ask, "What makes it this way?" It's a question worth asking. Otherwise all is solipsism. Writing for oneself and no one else. Diary entries.

I accept that you disagree.

Blitz Book Review
www.blitzreview.blogspot.com

Cyia · Jan 3, 2012

Some people create art, in whatever form, that can move or interest a wide audience-- or move strongly those people it does move. What accounts for a best-selling song? Doesn't it connect with listeners in some fashion? There have to be ways to make writing compelling. The trick is to find those ways.

You're looking for a magic formula to create a story that will appeal to millions of readers - it doesn't exist. If it did, publishers would never have a dud.

The problem with this approach (one of them, anyway) is that it assumes the person on the receiving end of the product is a constant rather than a variable in terms of formulaic application.

"If I write X+y+z and throw in a few references to Q or M, then my result will be a compelling story that no one will be able to resist."

It doesn't work like that.

All writers set out to create something that will appeal to their readers. Some succeed, some don't. Even writers with multi-million fan numbers can put out a dud that doesn't connect with even a quarter of their readers.

Look at break out hits like The Time Traveler's Wife, and compare it to the success of its follow-up, Her Fearful Symmetry. Same writer, vastly different results.

Look at a book like The Gargoyle, which was supposed to be a mega-hit, and flopped.

Look at Dan Brown and "the book that wasn't The Da Vinci Code" (AKA, Angels and Demons). A&D came first, and in that case, you've got the same writer, same universe, same characters even, but nowhere near the controversy that propelled DVC into hit status.

The formulaic dud happens in movies, too. Pearl Harbor tried to copy the success of Titanic by giving the same tragic set-up of the fictional lovers against the back drop of a real event. A love triangle, and a death in the end from which the heroine must derive strength and go on with her life... but it failed. Miserably.

Success is like a firecracker. One bursts and it's the most amazing, most beautiful thing you've ever seen. You continue to pop others off, hoping to find one just as amazing, but it never happens, no matter how closely you recreate the first - all because you disallowed for the variables. Maybe someone dropped something into the mix. Maybe the colorant was discontinued, maybe it was a fluke of a weather pattern, but it's not something you can control or duplicate.

Neither is an audience's reaction to newly released novel.

The Compelling Novel

Sea Witch

Stirring the word cauldron

dangerousbill

Retired Illuminatus

robjvargas

AutumnWrite

Old enough to know better

Buffysquirrel

Mharvey

Liker Of Happy Things

Layla Nahar

Seashell Seller

jaksen

Caped Codder

BethS

LadyDae

New AW user. Veteran Writer 8+

blacbird

kuwisdelu

Revolutionize the World

Ari Meermans

MacAllister's Official Minion & Greeter

Deizelcore

This is not a user title

Dreity

djunamod

brianjanuary

seun

Horror Man

Sea Witch

Stirring the word cauldron

Jamesaritchie

King Wenclas

Jamesaritchie

BrumBall

Keep Right On

King Wenclas

Cyia

Rewriting My Destiny