Readers Love Comfort Zones ("I Want Something New That's Just Like Something Old")

I didn't realize until I was an adult that there's a significant portion of the reading public out there who will read the same books over and over again. This is not a habit I have, and while I will listen to a book more than once (if I like the voice actor), the reason for that was always because I needed something to fill the silence while I was cleaning, drawing, driving, or performing some other task. Devoting myself entirely to a text that stopped me from doing anything else while I was consuming it felt very strange to me if I already knew the story and where it was going, and what the ending was. Even today if I pick up a book I've forgotten about, I'll stop reading it as soon as I remember what the ending is, and how our protagonists get to it.

While re-reading favorite books is a fairly complex behavior, psychologically, as Men's Health points out, it's at least partially connected to comfort. It takes far more energy to consume new media rather than to simply put an old favorite movie or song on and follow the familiar beats, for example. It's also the sort of desire that leads to the consumption of fan fiction when someone runs out of the initial content from the original source.

So, with all that in mind, I think it's important for all of us writers to admit something. We're far more likely to succeed if we can give our readers a new story that feels like a story they already enjoy.

It tastes the same, but has a unique kick to it!

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Now then, let's get to it!

More of The Same, But Different!

If I had to pick a concern that a lot of writers and authors alike seem to have, it's worrying that their work is going to be too much like something that's already on the market. Someone writing a high fantasy trilogy may find that being compared to Tolkien puts a huge amount of pressure on their shoulders. Others may worry that their novel about a team of teenage superhumans is going to just be X-Men with a different color scheme. And I've seen some writers tie themselves in knots trying to find some way to avoid their stories about vampires being compared to everything from Dracula to The Strain.

So today I wanted to remind everyone out there of something very important; most readers aren't looking for some totally fresh, unique take. They're looking for something they already know, and already like, but presented in a way that might feel new to their palate.

Put a different way, there's always going to be those people who are looking to explore food in all its forms. A lot of people are going to want to try something new every now and again. But you're never going to go wrong with promising your audience a classic taste that they already know they like, even if your version of the burrito, cheeseburger, or pizza promises to have a zest that will make it their new favorite iteration of this staple.

Speaking of the same menu item prepared a hundred different ways...

As Alice Liddell points out, the entire romance genre (one of the most lucrative genres out there) is based on providing the same experience to readers in different ways. The ending is already something of a foregone conclusion, it's just the journey to get there. Anyone that's a fan of Warhammer 40,000 has seen how Games Workshop cannibalizes sci-fi and fantasy properties alike, ensuring that whether you want big stompy robots, heroic soldiers fighting alien wars, space wizards, or tech knights, they have covered every, possible base to appeal to an audience who loves everything from Alien and Terminator to Judge Dredd and Mechwarrior. There are dozens of Conan lookalikes slaying monsters and laying maidens in their pages, and probably hundreds of books that present new mysteries and adventures around Lovecraft's terrifying mythos.

It is a lot harder to sell a reader on something outside their experience or comfort zone than it is to get them to try a story that looks like something they already know and like. I say this both as someone who has sold books at cons and shows, as someone who's surveyed a lot of fellow authors, and as someone who's checked the buying habits of readers out there according to marketing data.

So, for all my fellow creators who are wringing their hands because they're worried people aren't going to like their book because it's too similar to this-or-that property in aesthetic, style, story beats, etc., just stop. As long as you've told a good story that's interesting to read, people are going to want it. Period.

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That's all for this week's Craft of Writing! For more of my work, check out my Vocal archive, or at My Amazon Author Page where you can find books like my cat noir novel Marked Territory, its sequel Painted Cats, my sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife, or my most recent short story collection The Rejects!

 

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