My family is kind of odd.
Different, perhaps, than what mainstream society is like.
Maybe your family is like mine . . .
We actually like each other. And we like to be together!
That’s why last Friday night, we were cuddled on the couch—me, my husband, and my two kids—watching old reruns of Looney Tunes!
That’s right folks!
Bugs Bunny, Elmer Fudd, Porky Pig, Tweety Bird, Sylvester the Cat, Road Runner, and Wile E. Coyote.
You know ‘em, you love ‘em.
My daughters laughed until their bellies hurt. My husband and I shared “remember when” stories of watching these cartoons as kids.
We know Wile E. never gets the Road Runner.
We know Bugs always outsmarts Elmer.
And we know that sweet singing bird is forever out of reach of that mean puddy tat.
So why do we watch them over and over and share them with our kids decades later?
Because they bring back fond memories, good feelings. They make us laugh together as a family. They help us connect, reminisce, and make new special memories.
It’s all the same elements of a good novel.
It’s all the same reasons we stay up way too late until the Kindle battery dies, because we just want to read one more chapter.
There are lots (and LOTS) of novels available in all the genres. What makes you choose one off the shelf? Why do you “add to your cart” on Amazon? How good does it have to be to pass onto your friends?
Most likely, your answers include the same reasons my family likes to watch the old-school Looney Tunes. It makes us feel good. It helps us escape from current troubles. It gives us that euphoric feeling of childhood.
If you’re a novel writer, you’ve got to evoke these feelings in your readers.
If you’re a novel reader, you want to feel these things when you read.
So share with me, what other reasons keep you turning page after page in a book? What current novels are you reading now?
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I just finished Pounced by Christy Barritt. I like mysteries.
I didn’t know you like mysteries! I’ll have to read that one! I used to read a lot of Mary Higgins Clark’s mysteries. But then I got to the point where I couldn’t sleep at night! LOL
There is a story of overcoming and survival in those old cartoons. No matter how hard the fall Wile E. gets up and starts again. There is a lot of hope in those stories. I like that in a book too. I don’t have to have a happy ending but I need hope. Just finished A Light Between Oceans.
Betsy, I agree! Hope is definitely a main thread I want woven throughout a book. I’ll have to read A Light Between Oceans. I just started The Chaperone by Laura Moriarty, and it’s great so far!