The Single Edit That Can Restore Tension to Your Story
Many new authors assume tension comes from dramatic story events. So, they add bigger battles with ever-higher stakes. They introduce deadlier villains and more elaborate plot twists.
Yet readers still lose interest between those major set piece scenes.
Because the problem usually has little to do with the plot. Instead, it arises from answering questions too quickly.
Curiosity is the skeleton every story hangs on. Readers want to know how the detective will solve the case, if the lovers will reconcile, what waits behind the locked door. Every chapter raises questions the author promises to answer in the next.
Those questions keep readers turning pages. But too many new authors succumb to the temptation to give immediate answers.
What does that mean?
Read the full post on Substack.
Space pirates OD on the spice from Dune and wake up on Cthulhu’s couch.