Don’t Let Readers Hang Up on Your Story
Posted by annastan on March 22nd, 2010. Filed under: A Closer Look, Craft, Enchanted Inkpot, WIP.Over the weekend a friend of mine was telling me how little patience she has for long voicemail messages. “Make sure you say the important stuff at the beginning,” she told me, “because after a few seconds I delete the message without listening to the whole thing.” When I thought about it afterwards, I realized this was a good (if somewhat extreme) lesson to remember in storytelling.
We want the stories we read to at least hint at the “important stuff” from the beginning. Even if we don’t see it up front, we need to know that it’s coming. If chapters go by and we still haven’t gotten to it, even the most patient reader is likely to give up. It goes back to what Donald Maass calls bridging conflict. It’s fine to save the important stuff for later on as long as you create some kind of tension that keeps us going until then. This way we know the story is leading us somewhere, instead of simply hoping that it will.
Sometimes creating that tension is just a matter of dropping in a hint at the beginning of the story, something that catches our interest right away. Let’s look at the beginning of Neil Gaiman’s Coraline:
Coraline discovered the door a little while after they moved into the house.
After this, the story fills us in on Coraline’s family and the new house; it’s not until five pages later that we actually see the door referred to in the first line. But that little tidbit clues us in to exciting things to come and keeps us reading.
It’s easy to put off the important stuff and trick ourselves into thinking readers need all that setup and backstory and explanation in order to “get” what we’re writing about. Remember when I cut twenty pages from the beginning of one of my WIPs a few weeks ago? I realized soon after that what I’d cut out was mostly setup. By chopping those pages and weaving the info in later on, I was able to get to the important stuff much sooner, hopefully preventing any future readers from hanging up on my story.
By the way, if you have a minute, swing by the Enchanted Inkpot today. I’ve written a post asking readers to imagine what became of their favorite fantasy heroes after their adventures were over. Did they become leaders? Hermits? Dentists? Come by and share your thoughts!
March 22nd, 2010 at 5:44 am
Great post and important point. Why is it so difficult to get students to not begin a story with what the character ate for breakfast? Drop the reader into the story, plant seeds as to what’s in store, and you’ll have a better shot at readers turning the page instead of closing the book. And like you mentioned, what a reader really needs to know can be woven in.
March 22nd, 2010 at 7:22 am
Too true! I swear I hear Donald Maass on my shoulder as I write, telling me, “Tension on every page!”
March 22nd, 2010 at 8:20 am
Going to check out Inkpot now! But just wanted you to know you may also want to stop by paranormalpointofview.blogspot.com He he he
I like your allegory to phone messages. That is the extent of our patience sometimes.
March 22nd, 2010 at 8:32 am
I especially dislike when someone leaves their phone number at the end of a really long message and they say the number so fast that I can’t catch so I have to listen to their long rambling message 3 or 4 times to get the phone number right!
I’m really trying to plot my new idea out with these thoughts in mind. Great post, Anna!
March 22nd, 2010 at 11:47 am
So well said! It’s true. As a reader, I have very little patience for a book with a slow start. As writers, we have to train ourselves to make a leap past the everyday lives our characters live in our heads and tell only the stuff that keeps the story hot.
March 22nd, 2010 at 12:49 pm
Andrea, I think part of the problem is not quite trusting readers. We want to spell things out for them because they might not get it. But also, I know I’ve fooled myself into thinking all the background is necessary, even if that’s not true at all! Sometimes a bit of distance from the story helps make that clear.
Sherrie, I hear that voice too! It’s a mixture of “tension on every page” and “raise the stakes!” I’m glad I’m not the only one who hears voices.
Thanks, Lisa! It’s a little sad how impatient we’ve become as readers, but luckily I think writers continue to tell great stories, even if they’re paced differently than those of the past.
Laura, I know!! They tend to repeat unimportant info about ten times and then blurt out the number so fast you can’t catch it. I’m sure there’s a writing lesson in there too!
Thanks, Portia! You’re absolutely right. It’s all about pushing past the mundane and getting into the extraordinary, the things that make the story worth telling!
March 22nd, 2010 at 1:39 pm
Anna,
I agree! We need to bring readers in enough to give them a reason to stick around for a while, but that’s not always as easy as it sounds. I wrote a similar post about two weeks about on not starting your story too soon http://perspectives.rea-hedrick.com/2010/03/10/being-fashionably-late-within-your-story. It was an inspired follow up based on your comment on Ending Your Book Like a Party.
March 22nd, 2010 at 3:33 pm
OMG, the phone message comparison is so true. Great post!
March 22nd, 2010 at 4:30 pm
John, it’s definitely not as easy as it sounds. I have to keep reminding myself of this every time I start working on something new. I loved your posts on story endings and beginnings – I’m honored that my comment inspired one of them.
Thanks, Lydia! Isn’t it great when random conversations turn into writing lessons?
March 22nd, 2010 at 6:47 pm
Ha, I’ve done this too — putting a bunch of setup at the beginning. I think we don’t give our reader enough savvy and credit. As a reader, I like figuring things out and don’t want to be told.
I also cut 5 pages from my beginning as well. It was ALL setup.
Great post, Anna.
March 23rd, 2010 at 6:20 am
Karen, when will we learn to trust our readers?? I feel like I have to remind myself with every new WIP to take out all the setup. I think it helps me to have it in there at the beginning, but then I have to remember to cut it out!
March 23rd, 2010 at 6:23 am
I am a little bit embarrassed to admit that I too, delete phone messages without listening to the whole thing. What does that say about my patience level?
This is a good reminder to thread things through a novel! Thanks Anna!
March 23rd, 2010 at 12:50 pm
Anna, so true! Thanks for the great post, and the reminder.
March 23rd, 2010 at 5:03 pm
Heather, don’t be embarrassed – clearly you’re not the only one who does this! Next time I’m leaving a voicemail for someone, I’ll make sure to make it short and sweet.
Thanks, Julie! And thanks for stopping by.