On Writing: Immersion

[XerXesXu]

Newspapers, reading level is not target audience, and check your math if you are going to do incredulous at me.

???????
I've not heard of a '5th Grade' (Elementary School) rule before, only an '8th Grade' (Middle School) rule. I'd be interested to hear where the '5th Grade' rule comes from and its purpose.

 

[AG31]

These are all things being done in service of improving the story for someone who's reading the story.

This was a great list of things to check for when you're trying to make your narration as good as it can be. But I disagree that it's "for someone who's reading the story." I take pleasure in recording my fantasies as perfectly as possible. For myself. I'm happy when I bump into a reader who happens to share my tastes. They're few and far between. But I didn't perfect my story for the sake of attracting them. They'll be attracted for the content, with the style as icing on the cake.

 

[AG31]

When I read, I don't hear the words, I see the shape of them, the beats of the tall letters, the short and the low hanging, are they pleasing to the eye? I look for that, I look for a nice rolling flow that will keep me going.

Fascinating! The variety of kinds of human thinking is mind boggling!

 

[AG31]

I am interested in seeing whether others found my story interesting. However, I don't write for them, I write for myself.

Hear, hear!!!

 

[liliput1]

???????
I've not heard of a '5th Grade' (Elementary School) rule before, only an '8th Grade' (Middle School) rule. I'd be interested to hear where the '5th Grade' rule comes from and its purpose.

Alright, so I don’t know where I got 5th grade lodged in my head. Turns out newspapers don’t have a fixed reading level, that it varies by institution (7-11), but 8th is close enough for horseshoes. I hit post college on the aptitude tests in 4th grade so wtf do I know about reading levels. I think I was still binging Charles Schultz’s back catalog at that age. The one where Linus bumped his head had me in tears and stitches.

5th graders are 11 years old if not older. Not 8. Eight to eleven is a ton of reading and emotional growth. And the way you said targeting eight graders implied the emotional level not the reading aptitude. 8th graders are little monsters. We aren’t targeting them emotionally or psychologically, that would make the whole world (more) awful, we are targeting adults, who maybe don’t read that well, but whose money spends just fine.