[@Charley] Thank you, I really appreciate the encouragement! I really love the way you worded that feeling, "like waking up from a surreal dream," and I can definitely understand that sense of an immersive trance when I've got a good flow going. 

But, if you'll forgive me, I think I'm still searching for something that's a little more..."concrete?" I feel like I understand your advice to some degree: "I should finish the draft, and once it's fully fleshed out on the paper I can look back and see what themes have emerged out of it. Then I can rewrite and edit while solidifying that theme and connecting the different parts of the story to it. But I've got to buckle down and slog through the writing first and have a full story on the page."

However, I'm still left trying to figure out how to try and entice a reader to "care" about what's going on within the story. I've had others tell me "make your main characters suffer," and "use strong emotional language, because people can't always relate to a fictional scenario, but everyone remembers feeling a strong emotion like anger." But is there anything else at all that might keep a reader from deciding, "I don't really care enough to see how this ends" and putting the book down?

I know some people just aren't going to like my books just like there are certain authors I don't like reading, but I guess I'm just trying to make sure everything I'm doing is "structurally sound," I guess? Like, eliminate all the logical reasons someone wouldn't like a story that [i]aren't[/i] purely based on personal preference. If they read it and decide "this isn't my cup of tea," I still want to do everything I can to see that they finish it in the first place in order to make that informed decision.