Readability
Readability:
Obviously, readability covers quite a few things. What I am going to talk about is the actual reading level readability. This is a subject I never even thought about until I read in a writing book (years ago) about the average readability for a general adult fiction novel. (Sadly, I can’t find the quote and don’t remember the average.)
Readability is determined by the Flesch-Kincaid Readability Test. You can check your story’s readability (if using Microsoft Word) by checking the spelling and grammar. When that is finished, it will give you readability statistics, including your Flesch-Kincaid ranking.
This is an especially important tool if you’re writing for a specific audience. Children’s books should have quite a high score while texts meant for college graduates should score in much, much lower. In that way, writing general adult fiction could be easier than writing children’s books, but it’s more of a reverse role. You don’t want to treat your readers like they are children so you might want to increase your readability a bit.
As are a lot of things, this is a tricky subject. As always, try to remain true to your original voice, but don’t overestimate (or underestimate) your reader. (You’re thinking, “Thanks, that statement was a lot of help” as you roll your eyes.) If you’re in the habit of running to your thesaurus, perhaps you should get out of the habit - especially if you’re writing for a younger audience.
Cheers.
If you’re curious, the readability of this post in accordance to (U.S.) grade level is 11.3.
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