@Tamela_Murray

Do you have goals for the new year? Most of us resolve to improve ourselves one way or the other, perhaps to eat more vegetables, exercise more, spend less money, earn more money, and/or finish that book!

In real life, we find obstacles to our goals. Maybe a party with a delicious birthday cake gets in the way of our diet. Perhaps an unexpected car repair bill inhibits our bank account from growing.

We battle small obstacles every day and enjoy little victories. These events are important to ourselves – and should be – but precious few writers can make turning down a piece of cake for the sake of a diet compelling unless the writer has built a world in which this decision matters deeply to the reader. A better option for most writers is to offer the reader undeniably high stakes. This means that the goal set in the book is worthy of accomplishing. This is why we see so many movies and novels where the characters strive to save the world from a catastrophic event. This is our world and we all need to live here, right? Obviously, these are high stakes.

Of course, every novel cannot be about saving the world from catastrophe. But within the genre an author writes, the characters must be working toward a goal.

To engage a reader, I recommend, as a start:

1. Defining the goal clearly and early in chapter one. For instance, a police detective must prevent a crime.
2. Setting obstacles that seem impossible to overcome. For example, a  criminal promises to murder the mayor in twelve hours and dares police to stop the crime.
3. Tapping into your personal well of emotions to make the reader care deeply about your characters. One of the biggest complaints I see in Amazon book reviews is that the author gives the reader no one to root for. Sadly, a random group of people in real life may consist entirely of stinkers. But even in a book populated with stinkers, a novelist must choose someone the reader can invest in to be upset when something terrible happens to the character and to rejoice when the character has a victory. The reader must be invested in the story’s outcome.

So there you have it: in addition to your personal goals for self-improvement, what goals do your characters have for 2019? And how will you make readers care? Let’s talk in the comments below!

Tamela Hancock Murray has been a literary agent since 2001 and has been involved in the publishing industry for over three decades. She is the bestselling author of more than thirty novels, novellas, and nonfiction books. One of her short historical romance novels,  Destinations, won an RWA Inspirational Readers Choice Award. Tamela is honored to represent many top authors and she continues to develop new talent. She earned her BA with honors in Journalism from Lynchburg College in Virginia. Today she enjoys living in Northern Virginia with her husband of over thirty years. Tamela and her husband are the proud parents of two lovely adult daughters. An avid reader, Tamela can often be found perusing anything from obscure religious texts to the latest bestseller. Tamela loves meeting with authors. Whether you are new to the business, a multi-published author, or somewhere in between, she looks forward to meeting you!