Every now and then, you find a book that really sticks with you. It connects with who you are. It resonates. But why? And how do you make your book do that for your readers? Today I want to discuss resonance and how to capture it with your story.
Resonance Definition
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve used the word “resonate,” but when I started to write this post, I didn’t have a good definition for it. I knew how to use it in a sentence, but not its true meaning. So, I did some research.
Resonance is the reinforcement or prolongation of a sound, usually through the sound bouncing off other objects. Therefore, when you say something resonates with you, you’re really saying it amplifies something that already exists. That connection you feel with a story is because it echoes what you already relate to or love. In other words, books resonate with someone if familiarity is present.
That’s an odd concept, isn’t it? Writers want to be original. We want to create something that no one else has. Yet now there’s proof that someone only connects with a story if it’s something they’ve seen before. That doesn’t mean we need to plagiarize other stories to have bestselling books though. The key here is to use familiar building blocks for your story and then create something unique from it. Below is a list of various ways to put hints of the familiar in your story so it resonates with your readers.
Types of Resonance
Making your story connect with your readers can only happen if you know your audience. Who will read your work? If you want your book to resonate with readers, know who they are and where they come from before you start writing.
Identity
The first way to make your story resonate with readers is to draw similarities between them and the protagonist. Typically, women prefer to follow a female protagonist and men prefer a male one. We generally like to read about someone about our age as well. Readers prefer certain personalities or like to follow people in a family unit similar to their own. You don’t have to make your character exactly like your readers (that would be boring), but you should make him or her relatable.
Shared Experiences
Knowing where your readers come from allows you to reference things they already connect with and hold dear. You can draw from history. Did they live through World War II? Typhoon Mawar? COVID-19? If you are writing in an alternate world, you don’t have to mention these by names, but you could create a typhoon that will make the story relatable to your readers.
You can also draw from cultural values. Do your readers value the group or the individual? What kind of religion might affect the readers’ daily lives? What laws dictate their actions? Again, you don’t have to outright state this in your story, but you can put hints of it in your book.
Language is another way to draw in readers. You can play with words to create names for your book. Make your characters’ names sound familiar, like how Gollum from The Lord of the Rings sounds like golem. A golem is a creature made from earth to serve a master, similar to how Gollum is given a long life to serve his master. You can also draw from other languages’ sounds. If your readers love Norse mythology, you can name things so they sound like Old Norse. Get creative, but make sure you use touchstones that will be relatable to your target audience.
Lastly, you can use pop culture to connect with your readers. Knowing your audience’s age group lets you know what they grew up seeing and hearing. Should you draw similarities from Looney Tunes, Disney Princesses, or Paw Patrol? Would echoing lyrics of Elvis, The Beach Boys, or Taylor Swift be most effective? I’m not saying you need to put these things in your story, but you can use them to shape your book so it feels familiar to the readers even if they don’t overtly know why.
Genre Expectations
The last way to create a story that resonates with your readers is to draw from your genre. Everyone has a type of book they prefer to read, and those are all full of common tropes. You can use genre conventions to make the story sound and play out like something the reader will enjoy. For instance, if you are writing a romance, usually the first man a female protagonist meets is the love interest. Or, if you are writing an epic fantasy, you have your characters gather at an inn rather than a bar. It’s small things, but the reader will be familiar with them. Echoing these small details of other books in the genre will help the story resonate with the readers.
Another way to use genre to make your story resonate is to know what emotional draws the reader is seeking. Do they want romance? If so, do they want spicy or sweet? Are they wanting to be wowed? If so, do they want wonders of magic or science? You can use these emotional draws and weave them into every scene, giving your reader the emotions they crave.
Making Your Story Resonate
Earlier, I mentioned that writers want to be original. We want to make something completely new. While every story told is unique, we always draw from something. By purposefully pulling your inspiration from certain places, you can actually target your audience. Tolkien may be credited for making a whole new world that sparked the entire fantasy genre, but he drew from all the categories I mentioned above. It takes a lot of work to study the world around you and weave parts of it into your story, but there is a shortcut. You find a book or series that is your base. Readers find books they absolutely love and then search for others like them. It’s not a sin to use the authors that came before you as a springboard to your own audience.
For instance, The Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan actually draws from The Lord of the Rings. If you read the first book, The Eye of the World, you can see so many parallels between it and the opening of The Lord of the Rings. One blatant example is on the maps inside each book where Tolkien has Mount Doom and Jordan has Mountains of Dhoom. Jordan knew that Tolkien had started something great and readers craved more. So, Jordan filled the demand and became one of the most successful fantasy writers of his time.
This phenomenon continued with Brandon Sanderson, who finished The Wheel of Time series after Jordan’s death. Sanderson showed his ability to mimic an author that the world loved, and now Jordan’s audience follows Sanderson through his own works. I’m not advocating for you to mimic or plagiarize popular authors, but you can be mindful of what they’ve done and put echoes of their work into your story. If done right, your books will feel original but resonate with the readers.
Final Thoughts
Resonance in books occurs when the familiar is woven throughout the story. The trick with this is to make is subtle. You want echoes of the familiar in your work and not an overt copy of what already exists. For instance, instead of saying your character looks like Angelina Jolie, describe her appearance and personality in a way that makes readers picture her for that character. Resonance in stories is the art of steering your readers’ minds to something familiar while not letting them know that is exactly what you are doing. Some readers may realize that’s what you’re doing, but most will feel like the details resonate with them without knowing why (that the character reminds them of their favorite actress). So, pick your influences carefully for your audience, and then have fun making it your own.
Thanks for reading!
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