Keeping the Reader Interested
I read frequently, but tend to buy more books than I can read in
one sitting. By the time I finish the first couple books, I've
forgotten about the other three on the shelf next to my bed and
head back to the bookstore for another shopping spree. So when I
went on vacation a couple weeks ago, I had several dusty books
to choose from for the trip.
As I read the novels, I noticed I was becoming a book critic.
The first started out rather dull. The characters had potential
to be interesting, but I had to wade through several chapters to
find out if the author took advantage of the potential. The
second novel had interesting characters but the plot was
predictable. The third novel started with a bang and kept me
interested until the end. This was the kind of novel I wanted to
read.
After finishing the novel, I thought about what it was that kept
my interest. All three books had exciting action scenes. The
characters were interesting in all three. In two of the books,
the plot was intriquing. Finally I realized the difference. It
all came down to tension. The third book increased the tension
chapter by chapter. It encouraged me to read on by leaving me in
suspense at the conclusion of the chapter. I needed to read on
to find out if the characters would survive their ordeals.
After I returned from vacation I read through some of my own
stories. I found in my efforts to feed the reader the facts, I
eliminated most of the tension. In my quest to assure all
questions were answered, I left nothing to the readers
imagination.
Novels are easy to edit for this mistake. Read the end of each
chapter. Then ask yourself, if you were a reader, would you need
to know what happens next? If you could put the book down at
that point with all questions answered, you have some editing to
do.
Short stories are a little more difficult to edit for tension.
Short stories must tie up the loose ends rather quickly. This
doesn't mean that they cannot contain an element of suspense.
The tension in a short story must build quickly but alluding to
things to come often piques the interest of the reader. The
first couple paragraphs must hook the reader. Give them just
enough information to make them want to find out more. Drop
hints throughout the story of things to come. By feeding the
reader a little information at a time, you encourage them to
keep reading.
I plan on spending the next several weeks editing and rewriting
several items in my portfolio. I hope you'll take a look at your
stories and do the same.