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.