As part of my journey to "git gud" at this craft we call storytelling, I try and figure out how to improve my skills.

  Okay. How can we improve at this abstract art in an efficient manner? What even is this art we call storytelling?

  I come up with a bit of imagination...

  give it a bit of order, structure, and formatting....

  then package it into the things we call stories for display.

  Words, if you think about it , are just arbitrary agreed-upon symbols with which we agree "these sets of symbols represent this specific set of sounds, which we've also agreed represent a very narrow specific set of abstract ideas or tangible things." Honestly, language is a very silly concept and I strongly believe the writing/reading interaction to be the closest thing we have to telepathy, but that is a topic for another time.

  Anyways, now that the words-packaged-into-story-form is out there, any reader willing to give me some of their attention can proceed to look at my specific set of words and hallucinate the same bit of imagination. Pretty cool and awesome thing now, ain't it? (Well, not *exactly* the same, but it's at least guided. Certainly, I'm the director of the plot, but the visuals are purely prompted suggestions for your imagination. I like to think of it as instructions for painting in the reader's mind.)

  And that's just the story delivery part! Whoo boy this is complicated already, because there's so much to get when it comes to logistics. So in just this Behind the Pages I want to talk about one of the most important bits when it comes to storytelling: Writing for Reader Reception.

  Just to be clear: writing and storytelling are adjacent yet categorically different. Almost anyone can write; how many are good writers? Then realize that even good writers can be bad storytellers. I'll be talking about the act of putting words onto (digital) paper.

  Here's a question: How good is a story you can't read because it's written in another language?

  Probably not even zero; the answer is just N/A. You can't give an honest assessment because you can't even consume the story.

  This might seem obvious, but let's take it a few steps further. Consider: We wore slimy donkey gloves to crash burrito skewers. Grammatically legal nonsense (this is another topic I really enjoy - the brain is wired to try and understand sentences it can parse, but when the semantics are nonsensical it creates confusingly pleasant humor.)

  Or the infamous: Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo. (It has a wiki page, I'm serious, look it up.)

  So yes; even if you can read it, it remains hard to enjoy the story if it's difficult to understand.

  This is why basic grammar, spelling, and more matter so much. Why is it a constant gripe for readers? It's because you can have the best story in the world but they can't stay immersed if they're taking a break or a pause just to figure out what you wrote. The experience is blah now. Like chewing and finding eggshells in a Michelin-starred restaurant. The taste is still there, but oh boy that one thing — I tell ya, that ruined it all.

  But that's not to say grammar is all that matters. Shakespeare broke/invented grammar rules all the damn time, and James Joyce delighted in flaunting how much he didn't care for rules (he earned it though, this is why they're masters and I am not). And yet, it's entirely possible to write a grammatically legal sentence without it making an ounce of sense to the audience.

  This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

  So there's a spectrum between: "can't read that" (because different language) and "can read that but don't get it" (because perfect grammar + semantic instability) - and that's where the art of writing comes in. You can choose to invent words and mess with the English language like Shakespeare or dabble in fictional languages like Star Trek/LotR, but at the end of the day the writer is constantly expected to make a conscious check: does this still make sense to the reader?

  But this isn't just a call to mastering the basics of grammar.

  Again: reader reception is what matters.

  This one takes precedence. Consider this: Shakespeare is obviously considered one of the greats, but how difficult was it to read Shakespeare the first time in middle/high school? I noticed this when at the time I asked myself: man, we're being asked to read all of these great books by great authors, and I'm having a hard time digesting them. Am I just dumb?

  Nope. Turns out that despite me devouring most of the school's sci-fi and fantasy section at ludicrous speed, I wasn't as experienced a reader as I thought. They are great writers and it is great literature; I just wasn't a receptive reader yet. (And if I'm being honest, still not my cup of tea as much as I can respect their works.)

  Then again, it wasn't an unchangeable situation; I was simply used to reading sci-fi and fantasy written by more modern writers. Language had changed over time. Also these required readings weren't in my lane of sci-fi and fantasy, so I wasn't used to the concept of needing to be fascinated by the plot more than the world.

  (For my curious fans, my favorite series growing up were the RedWall series by Brian Jacques, His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman, and Circle of Magic by Tamora Pierce. Eulalia!)

  The conclusion, then, is that it doesn't matter how good one's writing skills are. The audience must be receptive and capable of receiving your intended repackaged imagination. It's why having purple prose is a cool skill but writers are encouraged to limit their usage; flowery language is impressive to other writers, but readers may find it a slog to digest.

  And you can't control for what sort of reader shows up. I'm lucky in that I understood very early on that Below the Heavens won't have mass appeal given many of my artistic choices, but I still don't want to make my work inaccessible to an audience that is seeking a story like mine.

  I'm Still Learning

  And I confess I haven't gotten gud yet.

  There's still so much I have to learn about storytelling.

  It's worsened by the fact that I'm constantly distracted by random ideas and side projects (go check out Shards of Imagination, my short story anthology with a fellow author, also on Royal Road!). Or the fact that I really enjoyed playing with font and color in this Author Note. Consider those my random experimental doodles with how word presentation impacts reader reception - graphic designers will understand. (I apologize for the font change doodles, I am a shit graphic designer I know, but hey this is my note I can doodle however I want).

  But I have been giving this craft a lot of thought. Here's how I currently think about it and where I think I need to focus to improve my skills, having identified what I currently consider as the transformation gaps:

  

  
• 
  
    Ideation Gap
  
    Between my raw imagination and narrative intent (honestly, the easiest bit)
  
    


  
• 
  
    Structuring Gap
  
    Between narrative intent and story architecture (okay I know the story, how to tell it?)
  
    


  
• 
  
    Encoding Gap
  
    Between architecture and language on the page (Linguistic encoding, rhythm and pacing, surface readability, aesthetic word choices)
  
    


  
• 
  
    Reception Gap
  
    Between language on the page and reader experience (the main theme of this Behind the Pages)
  
    


  
• 
  
    Refinement Gap
  
    Between intended reception and actual reception (editing my stupid word slop with the help of beta readers)
  
    


  

  I haven't internalized some of these gaps. Maybe those who've taken actual creative writing classes already know this and are struggling with far more advanced problems, but no need to roll your eyes at me like that! Being self-taught means I'm always playing catch-up.

  So to my readers: I'm grateful you give me your time and attention as I learn this artform and slowly improve. No doubt I'll look back and consider what I have now as slop to be refined again in the future. Thank you for your patience; I promise the 9 books I've ideated will be a delightful journey.

  I owe it to you for having followed me this far :).