"Easy reading is damn hard writing." ~ Nathaniel Hawthorne

So:  easy reading.  It isn't "See Jane Run" that comes to mind, nor am I thinking of mindlessness.  I'm talking, in this post, about easy reading in the sense that the words don't get in the way of experiencing -- feeling deeply -- the story that's being read.

And I agree with Hawthorne:  it's a challenge.

Easy reading results from a kind of flow that comes with a writer's careful attention to craft -- being willing not just to write, but to revise, revise, revise.  And to know when to stop revising.  It's a fine line.  When do you stop?  Or if you put it in visual artists' terms, when do you apply that final brush stroke?

(For writers, I refer to getting the novel ready for the submission process -- once a book is accepted for publication, more brush strokes inevitably follow, *smile*.)

I follow my writer's instinct, an instinct which I've honed over a number of years, and I hope I'll always continue to hone it.  One of my methods is to read my work out loud.  If the words flow, then I've done well.  If I stumble over what I've written, I need to rewrite it.  The important thing is to let the words of the story exist not for their own sake but as the reader's gateway into the world of my story.  If the words are in the way, they need to be reworked.

And that, to my mind, is the writer's (challenging, but rewarding) path to creating "easy reading."