To Be Familiar or Not to Be Familiar: That is the Question by Jennifer Shand

In this article, I will discuss a technique to add to your writing to make it more memorable and enjoyable for your reader. This technique is to add familiarity, whether familiar to the child or the adult purchasing the book. Either way, it is a great choice because familiarity adds nostalgia, which appeals to everyone.

It can also be a teaching device for a child to learn something from the past. When I was young, my piano teacher used to always refer to Looney Tunes cartoons to help me recognize classical music such as Mozart or Beethoven. These cartoons used this to not only introduce children to this music but to also conjure the familiar because people enjoy it and it invokes emotion. If you reference a love story that people know, such as King Arthur and Guinevere, then that creates an emotion that people connect to instantly. I referenced King Arthur and Guinevere in my novel, The Last Elf Daughter, not only to add emotion to the scene but to also create nostalgia in the hopes of hooking readers early in the book. Here is an excerpt from this novel, the speaker at first being Rose, the main character’s mother: “Of course, there were some elves that would fall in love with humans, but it was forbidden. That is, until the marriage of King Arthur to Guinevere, an elf.” “What!?” Evie interjected. “King Arthur is a real story? And Guinevere was an elf?” In that little excerpt, we can see that the familiar story is used to add nostalgia and emotion to a new story. I also used the familiar to put a new spin on the idea of being an elf, which on its own, an elf is also something familiar to readers. My hope is that the familiarity of King Arthur, Guinevere, and Elves will draw in new readers for me. By referencing the familiar, you can also gain new readers if you’re a new author or if readers just aren’t familiar with you but are familiar with and fans of the subject you add to your writing.