What Do Readers Want?

Beginnings, Middles, Endings

A story has to have a beginning, a middle, and an ending. Experimental literary fiction sometimes tries to break that rule, but the result is usually something with very few readers. You, as a writer, have a vision for your story. To communicate that vision, you will most likely choose to make your story as 'story-like' as possible, and that means it will have a plot— a beginning, middle and ending, with the characters journeying through your plot-landscape from beginning to ending.

Some writers do a lot of pre-planning and even write outlines of their planned work. Other writers are 'pantsers' and start out with just a minimum of ideas of where the story is going. Both groups, ideally, end up in the same place— with a finished work of fiction that has a discernible plot.

Think about your current story idea— whichever one you are thinking about most right now. What kind of beginning would it have? What would happen in the story-middle? How might the story end? If your story-idea can generate beginning, middle and ending ideas in your mind, that story-idea might have potential. If, however, the idea is all beginning, or all middle, or all ending, it has lesser potential until you have more related ideas to fill out more of the story.

If you are a young or beginning writer, you may not know yet what your ideal way-of-writing is. Perhaps you are a pantser, and if you try outlining a lot, you may kill your desire to write the story. Perhaps you are a plotter, and if you try to run without an outline and with a bare handful of story ideas in your head, you will quickly get stuck.

One way to discover more about yourself-as-writer is to write some short stories using both the plotting and pantsing methods. Since short stories are quick to finish, you can find out what methods work best for you without wasting months or years on a failed lengthy novel or trilogy. You may find that a mix of plotting and pantsing methods are what work for you.

Beginnings: What story events would serve to 'launch' your story? Don't get bogged down in major info-dumps at the beginning. Info-dumps may be fun to write, but they are less than exciting to read, especially when an author places a major info-dump at the beginning as a 'prologue.' This is worst when you write a long prologue based on a thousand years of your fantasy-world's history, a history that barely relates to the here-and-now of your story. If you have to write info-dumps, put them in the appendix of your novel, where readers might enjoy them as enrichments to the story. (I must admit, I am currently planning a story and have considered writing a 'prologue' explaining the history at the beginning. I hope I will resist the temptation, however.)

Middles: Story-middles have a reputation of becoming 'saggy.' They are the 'meat' of your story, and the longest part of your characters' journey through the plot-landscape. One author suggested that when you get stuck, bring in a man with a gun. Great advice, since a man with a gun always adds drama. Though the literal man-with-a-gun works way better in a hard-boiled detective story than in a gun-free fantasy world, or in an Amish romance. Maybe in some cases it should be an elf-with-a-sword or an Amish elder with a shocking revelation. Story middles must get your main character in a boatload of trouble, and cause the reader to fear that the character will not succeed in reaching his goal. Weak conflict in the stories means that you are risking reader boredom.

Endings: The ending must wrap up the events of the story. When a story is one part of a larger story, as in the first volume of a trilogy, the ending must answer some questions, and leave some unanswered, or raise some new questions altogether. A cliffhanger ending, which resolves nothing, is often resented much by readers. They accuse authors of trying to sell a second book by not finishing the first properly. To write an acceptable ending, you have to answer SOME of the questions the reader has. And it must include some of the important questions. An example— book one might answer the question of who your orphan character's parents are, but raise the possibility that the character's father is not actually dead, but a prisoner of the villain. So you have a conclusive ending, and an opening for the next book in the series.

You don't have to answer every minor question raised in a novel. There is a famous case where a mystery novel was being filmed. The film makers consulted the book author for a definitive answer of a question: who murdered the chauffeur? The author admitted that he wasn't sure. Since it was a relatively minor murder, that not knowing worked. It wouldn't have worked if that was the major mystery of the story! Without a strong plot with a beginning, middle and end, your story will feel static— more like a still photograph than a movie. A reader might look at a still photograph— but not for two hours, as he would with a movie. Action will carry the reader along. And it is in action that your characters reveal themselves.