Just Because "Real Readers Don't Notice" Doesn't Mean They Don't Care

And why good writers learn to know, notice, take notice and care

Shortly after a bunch of aspiring writers start wrangling over the rules (which aren’t rules, but tools, of course) someone will say, ‘But real readers won’t notice, so why should I worry?’

Things get particularly vociferous if knowledgeable feedback has indicated that something technical isn’t working well: point-of-view, say, or showing-and-telling. One way of fending off negative feedback is to suggest that it’s just esoteric nitpicking for specialists: who cares, if it’s a good read for the real non-binary person on the real Clapham Riverbus? (If this reference baffles you, click here)

And to a degree it’s true. Two millenia ago Aristotle was pointing out in the Poetics (which is actually about drama) that story is king so, if you have to choose, a good story with limited or unconvincing characters-in-action is better than marvellous characters embodying a boring or unconvincing story.

More recently, Mark Lawson said a propos Michael Crichton, that of the three aspects of fiction - narrative, ideas and prose - a weakness in any one can be made up for by the other two’s success: he describe’s Crichton’s prose as ‘a bare and ugly scaffolding’, for the narrative and ideas, but the strength of the latter two explained his devoted following.

Photo by The Cleveland Museum of Art on Unsplash