Ask Jerry
Adding Questions for the Reader
Asked by David Sawatzki on December 8, 2022
Hi Jerry, in my memoir, I'm writing scenes that will hopefully bring readers to think about choice-points in their lives, about non-negotiable convictions they have (or don't), about their responses under pressure in a no-win situation. We are thinking to give the book a broader audience by adding some questions for reflection/discussion in an appendix, maybe useful for upper-grade home-schooling or adult reading groups. Could this strengthen the value of the book? What advice can you give us on the worth of investing time and effort into this? Thanks!
Jerry's Answer
That would depend on a publisher's wishes, David. It might be good for the upper grade stuff you mentioned, but there are also reasons not to do it, as I'll get to below. If you DO decide to do it, you'll want to reads lots of books in your genre that use such questions and get a good feel for what works and what doesn't. Many small groups like such things.
Here's why I prefer not to do this -- despite that some of my books HAVE contained such things, handled by people with experience writing such questions: I prefer that people make their own applications to their lives. If the shoe fits, they'll wear it. The story well-told should do its own work and not have to rely on a "How about you?" approach to applying the universal truths or transferable principles.
Maybe that's just me, but as a reader, I don't need an author turning the spotlight on me and suggesting how their life and story, etc., might apply to me. That's why I'm reading the book. :)