How to Make Readers Feel At Home From Page 1

Have you ever walked into someone’s house as a first-time dinner guest and felt out of place? Ten other people are there and it’s a laid back, serve yourself kind of dinner.

You grab your food, spilling some ketchup on the counter in the process, and clean it up with a napkin. You don’t know where the garbage is although you know they have to have one. Dessert comes around and you want a clean fork but you don’t know which drawer to open and don’t want to look through every one.

By the time you leave you’re flustered. You KNEW there was a garbage can and a drawer full of forks, but because you didn’t know the layout of the house you couldn’t find them.

If you’re reading this post it’s because you’re writing fantasy or science fiction, which means by default, you have other-worldly elements in your writing.

When readers open to page one you want them to feel at home, not confused as they figure out how the world is set up and what goes where.

A simple, reader-friendly way to do so this by dropping in elements humanity relates to no matter where they’re from.

Just as ever house is designed in a different way but with similar features, every world has certain elements that are similar and will feel grounding for the reader.

You might be writing science fiction but the protagonist still can feel lonely. That’s relatable. You might write fantasy but your characters still eat. In The Lord of the Rings Tolkien makes meal time a very important part of hobbit lifestyle. This is something we can all relate to, even though his books are about dragons, magic, and rings of power.

Here are some questions to ask that will help your reader feel at home when plunging into a world they’ve never been to:

• Where do my characters sleep?
• Do they eat food from the ground? How is it grown?
• How many seasons are there?
• What does personal hygiene look like for my characters?
• How are friendships made?

As you answer these questions you may feel like you’re brainstorming, and to an extent, you are. However, including personal, daily occurrences like eating and sleeping will ground your reader and make them feel more comfortable as they dive into your hero’s journey.

Remember, the more your reader can relate to your world, the more believable your fantastical elements will be. The more believable your story, the more memorable.

Happy writing!

Sarah Rexford is a Marketing Content Creator and writer. She helps authors build their platform through branding and copywriting. With a BA in Strategic Communications, Sarah equips writers to learn how to communicate their message through personal branding. She writes fiction and nonfiction and offers writers behind-the-scenes tips on the publishing industry through her blog itssarahrexford.com. She is represented by the C.Y.L.E Young Agency.

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