I love to read across genres, and lately I’ve been asking myself what all these books have in common that grabs my interest. It’s not just that they are “good books” as there are several of those out there I don’t enjoy. I’d say they all have intriguing plots and engaging characters, but what else? What’s the magical ingredient that makes me fall in love with a book? I’ve narrowed it down to one thing: they encourage intellectual participation.
What Is Intellectual Participation?
So what do I mean by intellectual participation? Simple. Intellectual participators are people who read books and actively think, puzzle, question, and even make judgments about the stories. Literary Fiction is known for doing this on a high level, demanding its readers think and stretch themselves as they experience the story. But I’m not talking just about these deep novels. I’m talking about a story that feels like pure entertainment, but at the end I realize I’ve been contemplating high concepts, comparing myself to the main character, and actively striving to predict what will happen the whole story. They are the type of books that a reader gets lost in and comes out a changed person.
A lot of people in the publishing industry attribute this to emotional experience: feeling the emotions alongside the main character. While I think making readers feel is important, it’s not the only thing we should strive to do. Feelings are strong but can be fleeting. Yes, they make a story seem personal, but they don’t sit with us. They don’t change us.
I love the rush of riding a roller coaster, but at the end of the day, I’ll remember my best friend screaming her head off beside me more than how I felt. I’ll recall the long conversation before the ride about how she hates heights and how hard I tried to get her mind off it. Also, I’ll remember the bravery she showed by getting on the ride, wondering if I could confront my own fears so well. I’ll remember, as the roller coaster clicked up the first hill, anticipating all the ways she could respond when we arrived at the top. Yes, I felt worried in the moment, but I also was processing the scene with my brain, making me engage in the moment. I was intellectually participating, and that makes it more powerful than the thrill of riding a roller coaster.
How Memory Works
Making strong memories is one reason to encourage your readers use their brains to participate in the story and compare it with their own lives. It’s called cognitive evaluation, and Donald Maass discusses it in his book, The Emotional Craft of Fiction. It’s the idea that you get your readers intrigued, and that makes them think, question, and compare. Readers wonder what they would do in the character’s situation. They try to anticipate what will happen next by putting together pieces of the story they already know. In short, they engage their minds.
You see, memory starts as sensory memory. It’s where information goes when it’s currently being experienced. So, when someone is reading, that information goes into their sensory memories. If they only sense or feel something, then it just fades. However, if the information makes them think and process things, then it goes to working memory. The longer you can make your readers digest the material, the longer the information stays in their working memory, and the more likely the information will make it to long-term memory. This is what happens with books that have a big impact on you. Regardless if you knew it or not, you spent time processing the story, which put it into your long-term memory.
5 Ways To Create Opportunities for Intellectual Participation
Now that we’ve defined intellectual participation, I want to offer practical ways to give readers the opportunity to engage their minds in your story. I say the opportunity because, ultimately, it’s up to readers if they participate. Some people don’t want to think; they just want to be entertained. They want what society calls “easy reads.” There is nothing wrong with that, and you should write your stories so there is a clear surface-level story. However, I suggest putting in a deeper-level to the story to excite and entrance those who love stories that make them feel, think, and maybe even change.
1. Layered Narrative
A while back I did a post on Layered Narratives, but I’ll briefly summarize it here as well. Layered Narrative is pulling readers deeper into a story by making the book more complex with multiple storylines. It’s the concept that you can engage your readers’ minds if you jump around a little in the story so they have to hold multiple plot lines in their heads at once. This can include stories with multiple POVs, parallel narratives, multiple timelines, or stories within stories.
Layered Narrative is a good way to encourage intellectual participation. Most readers know that all details in a story are significant, and creating multiple plot lines will make your readers anticipate and guess how the plots will intersect. This isn’t the most engaging method to get readers thinking deeper, but it does force them to start asking questions.
2. Plot
Another way to get readers to ponder the story is by setting up plot reveals. Make readers ask a question about the plot, and then put in some ambiguity to steer them toward possible answers. Although most people don’t catch plot twists, you can also use them to encourage the reader to think as well. By setting up foreshadowing, some readers might catch on that something is going to happen, and they could try to guess what it is before it happens.
Again, this method for encouraging intellectual participation is not super deep. Most stories on some level do ask their readers to think about the plot and how it will play out. Yet I still mention it because you should never underestimate the power of a good plot reveal or twist. Surprise often shakes up a person enough to make them think. Depending on how good of a reveal or twist it is, the shock might be enough to make them chew on it for days and commit it to their long term memory.
3. Character
Now I’m going to go a little deeper. Many people say that readers come for the plot but stay for the characters. It’s true that good characters are important to any story, but they are also important in making readers think. People can’t help but compare themselves to each other, and the same is true for characters. Readers will find ways to identify with the characters, and they will wonder what they’d do in the characters’ situations.
The best way to get readers comparing themselves to characters is by putting characters in hard situations. Characters need to be presented with hard decisions. Morals needs to be put on the line. Reputations needs to be threatened. In these intense moments, readers can’t help but wonder how they’d respond. Would they volunteer as tribute to save their little sister’s life? Would they break their oath of nonviolence and pick up a Shardbow to save their friend? Give your characters a strong belief or value, and then call it into question. Even if your readers don’t agree with the belief, I guarantee it will make them stop and think. Would they give up their strongest belief in the right situation? That’s a question that will have your readers mentally chewing for days, if not months.
4. Subtext
Another way to make readers think deeper about stories is subtext. I also did a post on this topic already, but let’s review a little. Subtext is when readers come to their own conclusions about something that isn’t clearly written out. This is all about judgment calls. Readers see what a character does and says, and they have to decide if he’s good or bad. Or, there are nonverbal signs between two characters, and readers have to interpret what it means. You are laying out scenes and making readers interpret them. Obviously, you can’t make the whole story vague (or the reader won’t know what’s happening), but allowing readers to draw some conclusions themselves encourages them to intellectually participate.
Subtext is used to weave things into your story without saying it. How does the character feel? You can hint at his emotions by describing the wallpaper color as drab gray or sunshine yellow. What’s the novel’s theme? Perhaps it’s the importance of teamwork, and you show it by letting characters fail whenever they try something on their own. What are the characters not saying? Maybe it hints at an upcoming plot twist or conflict. Making readers put the pieces together is how you make them intellectual participators. They have to come to their own conclusions, which makes them process the information longer and perhaps commit it to long-term memory.
5. Symbolism
The last method I’m going to list today is symbolism, and I think it’s the deepest level for intellectual participation. Symbolism is when you take a concrete thing and make it stand for an abstract idea. A raven can signify loss or prophecy, and white can be interpreted as innocence or purity. Symbolism is meant to be used with tact so don’t point out your symbols and their meanings. You let the most intuitive readers find and interpret them.
You can even use motifs (repeating elements that speaks to theme). For example, you can always have a raven appear before someone dies to signify that something bigger in the spiritual world is watching and controlling things. You won’t tell your readers that, but the most observant ones might come to that conclusion themselves. Symbols and motifs really ask your readers to notice and ponder small details so only the most dedicated will catch on, but it will be very rewarding for those who do.
Final Thoughts
I don’t find very many books that are entertaining and call me to intellectually participate, but I’m always looking for them. I hope this post draws your attention to the need for more books that can make us feel and think. We need books like this to impact our lives. Now, I’m not saying making readers think hard will inevitably make your story impactful. I’m not recommending only writing dense textbooks. People can be impacted and changed by nonfiction, but fiction uses a more subtle approach by inserting emotions. Like I said earlier, making your reader feel is important. It’s what opens the person’s mind. Good books make readers feel, and those emotions make them think, and that leads to something more meaningful and lasting. That’s what changes a person.
Thanks for reading!
Write a tale
Leave a trail
0 Comments