The greatest compliment somone can give me after having read one of my books is that they found the story either deeply moving, or very funny, or both. For what I seek to elicit from my readers above all is an emotional response. Admiration for my style of prose or my depth of character or my deft plotting comes a poor second, because they are all means to ends. The purpose of literature for me is to touch the heart. If I achieve that, even once in a book, on a single page, then I believe I have reached the pinnacle of what I am capable of.
But how is it done?
I’m not even sure myself - even though, such moments are conjured sometimes, hopefully in all my books at some point or other. But I do know that when I am writing something intended to touch the reader, I am invariably touched when I am writing it. For you cannot fake feeling. You have to experience it to put it on the page. And that means you have to be suyfficiently invested in your characters for the reader to care about them.
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