I came upon this really great blog post from Creativity Hacker, which talks about the biggest factors interrupting reader immersion. These are important, because the last thing we want when someone reads our story or novel (or even non-fiction) is something within the writer mechanics or turn-of-phrase that shoves the reader out of their enjoyment of our piece. Plus, the geek in me likes how he analyzes it with fancy graphs.
“Today marks the publication of the 50th review in my ImmerseOrDie indie book review series. For those who don’t regularly follow it, the premise is simple: every morning I step onto my treadmill, open a new indie ebook, and begin my daily walk, reading the book for as long as I can maintain my immersion. When that immersion has broken three times, I stop, and write up a short report of what caused my attention to wander. This article today is a reflection on the first 50 such reviews, and a synthesis of A) whether or not I’ve been consistent in my evaluations, and B) trends I’m seeing in the causes of those immersion breaks.”