: Re: Are chapters with a single character inherently more difficult for an average reader to connect with? (And do you have any tips.) On the topic of keeping a reader engaged: Dialog is a great

@Karen856

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Without the text, it's hard to judge. However, I think your problem come from a lack of feeling. Having internal thoughts, flashbacks and descriptive behavior (not necessarily swearing out loud) of the protagonist is good. But you need the reader to connect to the character and the best way to do that is to use emotions. The stronger the emotion, the better.

The best way to make people care about your character is to make the reader feel for him/her. Make your character suffer, being sad, scared or in pain. Make the reader understand why the character feel this way. Use the empathy of your reader. Empathy connect people and it also work for book character.

Don't be afraid of overdoing it. It's harder to connect to people through words, so be precise and use details. If your character goes through a blizzard, he's not just cold. He is frozen, his fingers are burning, and although he is happy to no longer feel the pain in his feet, he is worried that he no longuer feel anything in his feet. He his scared and lonely, the dusk would be there soon and it would be impossible for him to find his way in the dark. If he doesn't find a shelter before then, he will probably freeze to death.

I hope this last paragraph help you understand what I mean. I'm french so I'm sure you could do better but it was just to illustrate my point.

Edit in response to comment:

If you already did all that and people still doesn't care, try adding a reason to why he wants/needs to go home. Is someone waiting for him? Is someone sick/young/unable needing him? Does he have a mission to accomplish? Dreams to fulfil? Why can't he stop here and die? Why must he survive?

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