The Right To Write

Writing Page-Turners: Part 2

Here's my continuation of the writing Page-Turners series.

Keep at least one stone unturned at all times. This is technique is dedicated to mystery and thriller writers, but it is definitely applicable to other genres. You want your reader to have questions about everything, but you don't want them to have so many questions that they're utterly confused and clueless. Keep the goal clear, but leave some things unsolved. You don't even need to directly question the reader. Put anything from a puzzling action to an unexplained note. Anything to get the readers mentally asking a question about the true nature of an event. For example, maybe your main character gets punched by Bill, for seemingly no reason. Then you have reader asking, "why did he do that?" Or maybe your protagonist's friend's eyes are red from crying, but the friend shakes it off with a weak excuse. You immediately have your reader questioning why the protagonist's friend's eyes are red.

Writers who catch on this usually forget one very important balance to this technique, resolve. So you have an unanswered question, and readers want you to answer it, so you answer it. It's that simple. A huge fraction of writers, including myself, forget that you eventually have to answer the question, but of course you wouldn't forget to eventually explain, right? Well, the issue is that writers forget to explain soon enough, whether it's five chapters away, or a few pages, there needs to be a balance of time and resolve, depending on the importance of the question you have them asking. We think that as long as we hold the unanswered answer, the reader will be hooked. Oftentimes, if the reader goes on too long without a resolved question or action, they will forget it existed in the first place, the mystery will be replaced with a confused hole in the reader's regard of the story, in another sense the story will feel incomplete. And by the time you do answer the question, they'll have no other reaction than "Oh, that old thing..." It will sound lost in the timeline of your book. So don't give an explanation after the untied ends are history. Of course, this highly depends on the importance of the information and relevance to storyline timeline. If it's about Bill hitting your main character for no reason, you should probably answer that question in the same chapter, or possibly in the next. The more minor your unexplained incidents are, the less time you have to spill the beans. But if you mention the disappearance of the main character's parents, and if this connects to the plot in a specific way, the more likely you have a longer time to fill in the pieces. Storyline pieces like this may be better to fill in piece by piece, so with each piece, the more your reader will read on hungry for the next piece of information.

There three different sub-categories to witholding information:

-Keeping information from the reader. This is the direct witholding of information from the reader. You have a secret to tell readers, but you're not ready to tell it just yet.
-Characters keeping information from the readers. It could be anything, a backstory that enhances the plot, or a secret that will eventually advance the plot. This is one of the best ways to make backstory feel anticipated and relevant. This style can be one of the most tricky, due to the fact that you need to retain your intimate insight on the character, but keep the readers in the dark of what your trying to hide about a character. This technique creates more of a private connection between the protagonist and the reader. Of course, the protagonist may share his secrets with the reader and eventually reveal them to other characters. Which leads me to the last sub-category.
-Characters witholding information from other characters. This technique is the easiest to overdo. Because secrets readers already know about can be tiresome, but still have enough built up anticipation to keep suspense. The primary cause of the wait is how other characters may react. Readers will keep turning pages for the mere sake of curiousity, but if the wait is too long, our precious readers will find it a pathetic game of tell-or-don't-tell, and we don't want that to happen.