Advice from Readers

15 - Creating Mystery/Anticipation

I've talked about this a couple of times so far, creating mystery or anticipation in a story is vital to keeping it alive.  The problem I see with a lot of stories on this site, is that the writers are going about it all wrong.  Regardless of what POV you're using, creating a mystery is a delicate balance of giving vital information at the right intervals.  Most people think giving away the information too fast is not good, but they're wrong.  If a story is well written, I will keep reading it, even if I know the ending because it's interesting.  THAT is the key.  

If you write well, you don't necessarily need to keep building mystery, you can tell me in the first chapter exactly what is going to happen throughout the story and I will keep reading it if the characters are engaging and the story is interesting.  So don't rely so much on keeping your mystery a secret, concentrate more on making your story entertaining and engaging.

Now on to actually creating your mystery.  There are two main ways to create a mystery, one is good, one is bad.  

The good way to create a mystery is to have clues that the character pursues and makes discoveries along the way.  As in, the character doesn't know the answers, they are seeking the answers and the reader finds out when the characters do.  THAT is a good mystery.  That creates anticipation.  

For example, the great authors like Tom Clancy and Michael Criton will write their stories like a puzzle. You get pieces here and there and the characters put the pieces together, you follow it like breadcrumbs and it leads you back to grandma's house. You get the information at the same time the characters get the information and you figure it out together. THAT is how you do a great mystery. That creates anticipation, that makes us want to find the clues together.

The bad way to create a mystery, is to intentionally keep the information from the reader. The reader and the main character should always be in sync with each other.  When they are out of sync, it creates anxiety, confusion, and aggravation in the reader. Reading is supposed to be a fun, pleasant, experience. Not an aggravating, anxiety inducing one. A few moments of anxiety? Yes. Half (or more) of a book worth? No.

I see this happening in a lot of stories on Wattpad and it does not work.  There is a huge difference in the results of the two methods.  When your character knows something, but your reader doesn't, it creates anxiety.  Which is not good.  If you're character is spending half the book thinking "If people knew this about me..." but you don't tell the reader what that thing is. It's aggravating. Especially if you are doing that for most of the book.  

I'm in the process of reading one now that has been doing this for several chapters, and it's starting to piss me off. There's something about the main character in this book that makes them a target. They keep thinking about how they're a target, they keep referencing it, but they won't say what the thing is.  It's stupid.  Especially when you consider this is in first person POV. When you, as a real life person, are thinking about yourself, do you intentionally, NOT think about your problem? Or intentionally NOT think certain words to describe yourself? Do you remind yourself, 'Oh, I can't think this out loud' ?  No, of course you don't.  If it doesn't work in your head, it doesn't work on a page either.

This whole, 'keeping information secret' thing is not enough to keep me interested in your book, especially if the writing is not that great.  If you have subpar writing skills, bad grammar, weak characters, or boring plot, your little mystery attempt is not going to be enough to keep my attention.  If anything, it's going to run me off because I get tired of that shit really fast.

Reading is supposed to be fun.  It's supposed to be easy.  It's supposed to be an escape that makes us feel good.  It's supposed to be something we want to keep doing because we enjoy it.  If you're not making your audience feel good, you're going to lose them.  Who wants to do something that makes you tired and frustrated all the time?  No one.

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