What I Want My Novel To Do

I’ve began reading Plot & Structure by James Scott Bell so I can start to understand and outline my plot for the story currently swimming around in my head.  I want to share the first exercise with you since it is about what you want out of your novel.  What do you want it to accomplish.

James asks you to write a free-form response using the following:  When readers read my novels, I want them to feel ____________________ at the end.  That’s because, to me, novels are _______________________.  Here is what I wrote.

When readers read my novels I want them to feel part of the story, part of the character, part of the world I created.  I want them to smell the smells, feel the charge in the air.  To taste the life of the person as if they are one soul entwined together so at the end of the story they know they have been through something so incredible that the experience has changed them.  Maybe not profoundly or on an outward level, but in some way, no matter how small, they must go on with their life having a new energy within them.

To me novels are doors into different lives that could be lived.  Our experiences shape us as humans, as individual persons and books should be able to become a part of those experiences.

What do you think about your writing?  Do you feel the same as I do?  Let me know what you think.  Leave a comment below.