I want to be clear: what this should really be titled is, “What Keeps Chuck Reading.” Your mileage may vary, and as such, you should drop down into the comments and tell us: what is it about a book that keeps you reading? I wanna know. All writers everywhere want to know. We hang on your every word. Like spider monkeys from a banana tree.
1. Bait, Set Hook, Reel In The Reader-Fish
Every story’s got a hook. Maybe that hook is an idea or a conceit. Maybe it’s a character. Might be a driving question or a fundamental piece of the plot. Might be all of those things swaddled together and tucked away in a delicious narrative burrito. Whatever it is, it is a thing that grabs the reader by the nipple rings and refuses to let go. The hook alone is never enough to keep a reader reading, but it’s what often puts them on the path — a great hook lives in the first couple pages. Fail to hook ’em and you’ve already given them the excuse to stop reading. And I assure you, every reader unconsciously seeks a reason to ditch your story and move onto the next one. (But that’s a list for next week, innit?)
2. Why Who What Where Wuzza Wooza?
A good story should always be raising questions — not asking them directly, but instead forcing the reader to ask them. “Wait, what’s that weird symbol they keep seeing on the walls? What was that sound? Something’s up with that top hat-wearing fox that keeps following them, too. Where the crap are they going?” This is why too much exposition is a story-squasher: exposition provides answers and answers rob the reader. Answers must come, yes, but only at the right time — and, if the answers come before the end, it helps to raise further questions to replace those we lost. It’s a cruel game the storyteller players, like teasing a kitty-cat with a laser pointer. “Go here! Now here! Now back over here! Ha ha ha ha stupid cat you’re so adorable the way you chase an insubstantial red dot on the floor like it means something. Silly jerk.”
3. The Deeper Ever-Deepening Depths Of Mystery
Building on that last one, you can have small questions peppered throughout a story (and, quite seriously, they do best when they lurk on every page), but you can also keep the attention of readers by introducing a single large mystery — in this way every story is an equation with some numerals replaced with variables, and the audience hungers to fill in the variables and complete the equation. Your best example of this are the questions put forth by murder mysteries: “Ye Gods! Who killed Professor Jingleberry?” Further, the mystery there is rarely as simple as one assumes: the mystery evades answer and as it does so mutates and swells and swallows whole new questions. The mystery must evolve, you see, sure as a beast in the wild must adapt to stay alive. Memetics over genetics. An evolving persistent mystery is another way to set your hooks in the mindflesh of the reader.
4. Characters About Whom We Give Not One, But Many Shits
Give me a great character and I am like Yoda on Luke Skywalker’s back — I will cling to that character even as he does flips over fallen Dagobah logs and Jefi-kicks over R2D2 and quietly relieves his bowels in a murky well of swamp mud. That was in the deleted scenes, by the way. Shut up. What I’m saying is, a great character is one reason (and for me perhaps the best reason) I will keep reading.
5. Damaged Goods And Broken Toys
We stop and lolly-gag at train wrecks, car crashes, and any episode of Jerry Springer where spurned Baby Daddies are chucking chairs into the audience. We love damaged people. We are fascinated by them. Don Draper? Tony Soprano? The Golden Girls? (Okay, never mind that last one.) We are like the one half of a relationship that wants to fix our damaged other half: it’ll never happen, but oh do we persist…
6. Unpredictability!
Let’s say you see a guy over by the salad bar. He’s wearing a trenchcoat and sunglasses inside. Hands in pockets. He keeps shifting nervously from foot to foot. He eyes up the door, the employees, the security camera. You’re not going to take your eyes off that guy. Because you don’t know what he’s going to do. Is he going to cram a mouthful of lettuce in his mouth and run for the door? Is he going to pour Thousand Island dressing down his pants? Is he going to scream, “THE BEES, THE BEES” and then fling Baco-Bits in some old lady’s eyes before stabbing her with an olive fork? You can’t take your eyes off the guy because he’s unpredictable. So too with a storyteller and his story: the less a reader trusts the story, the more the reader is inclined to keep his gaze unswerving.
7. And Also, Predictability!
And yet, some measure of predictability will keep us hooked, too. We sometimes read to experience expected outcomes — in the romance genre, the audience remains with the story to see how the couple finally hooks up. The mechanics of the romance remain unpredictable (in theory — the romance genre is often quite rigid), but the aspect of the romantic culmination is entirely known. In certain horror films, we want to see how the victims are going to die, but that they die is not a fact we question. Unpredictability leads into predictability, walking a weird tightrope between the two. And over alligators. Because fuck yeah, alligators. Am I right? I’m totally right.
8. The Shifty-Eyed Serpent-Tongued Narrator
The unreliable narrator is a combination of the aspects of mystery and unpredictability I’m talking about — if I can’t be quite sure what he’s telling me is “true” in the context of the larger narrative, I’m compelled to follow along and try to suss out the truth, to sniff out the lie like it’s a great big game of Balderdash.
9. Of Pebbles And Boots
Psychologically, we humans crave safety and stability — really, we don’t like conflict. Sweeping blanket statement, I know, but I think most folks want to make it through their day without the shit hitting the fan. That’s something you can capitalize on as a storyteller because, of course, good storytellers are dicks. Engineering constant conflict in the story keeps the readers chugging along because they want to get to that point of safety and sanity — they want to make it through the bad stuff and discover an oasis of good (palm fronds, mojitos, Tastykakes). It’s like they’ll do anything to get that pebble out of their boot. Use that! Be a dick! Put a pebble in the reader’s boot and watch how he’ll dance to shake it out.
10. A Larger (And Also Unresolved) Struggle
Just as your book may contain many small questions and one large one, so too can it contain many small conflicts and — say it with me — one large one. Big, sweeping conflict — whether it’s a family falling apart or a galactic struggle between the forces of order and chaos — has a way of pulling us all into it the way a tornado eats barns and cows.
11. Prose Like The Hum Of Angel Wings
If you write in your own voice and the prose sings — meaning, it goes beyond utilitarian language (and I’ve nothing against utilitarian language) — then that is one way you’ll keep me entrenched in your fiction.
12. Hey, Doctor Jones, No Time For Love!
I like a story that moves. A story that has ice skates and a rocket up its poopchute and it has no interest in looking back to see if I’m playing catch-up. A story that moves swiftly doesn’t have to promise to me that things are going to happen because, ta-da, things are already happening. A book like The Hunger Games doesn’t waste much time before getting us into the action — yes, it takes time to get us to the actual games, but the interim is chock-a-block with event and movement and strong motivation. Time is at a premium for most adult human beings. A story that wastes our time is a story that gets wasted.
13. The Snap Crackle Pop Of Strong Dialogue
I also like dialogue that doesn’t waste time: I don’t mean to suggest that dialogue should be quippy and filled with constant “wit,” but it also shouldn’t take up massive real estate on the page. Dialogue that’s sharp and zips along like a coke-addled jackalope is the kind of dialogue that’s so easy to digest you find yourself sliding along the prose fast as a fat guy shooting down a zip-line.
14. The Big Bad
A great antagonist — a true villain, a genuine malefactor — is “conflict” but given a face and a name. If you need proof that a great antagonist will keep people reading, I need only mention: Hannibal Lecter.
15. The Hang-In-There Kitty
Aww. Poor widdle kitty cat dangling from the twee bwanch! Will he fall? Will he manifest the magical gyroscope cats reportedly possess and land on his feet? Will a hawk swoop in and carry him up into the clouds? Tune in next week to find out! Behold, the power of the cliffhanger: one of the great motivations for a reader to tell his loved ones, “Yes, yes, just five more pages. I need to see what happens! No, I know, I know, it’s Grandpa’s funeral, but Jiminy Christmas it’s not like he’s got anywhere to be. LET ME KEEP READING OR IMMA BLUDGEON YOU WITH THIS BOOK.”
16. Tap-Shuffle-Pivot-Shift
A story that becomes something other than it seems — that pivots hard and shows you a whole new face — is a powerful thing, and compelling enough to drag me into its turbulent waters. Fight Club is a great example of this: you think it’s about one thing (the titular club for fighting which nobody talks about) but it keeps zig-zagging and not only exceeding its premise but leaving it behind entirely.
17. Unanswered Arguments
I’ve said in the past that every story is an argument, and that’s useful in terms of gluing a reader’s eyeballs to your story. By putting your argument — really, your theme — on the chopping block, you’re telling me you’re going to prove to me in the narrative that This Thing Is True. You’re saying, “Love is doomed,” or “All people are shit” or “Chickens and cats are assholes,” and then with that thesis in mind you’re going to go about the tale and answer the charge you’ve made. But, like with all aspects of the fiction — mystery, conflict, theme — you don’t want to give away the ghost too soon. Storytellers string the reader along, and so it is with theme: you want them to be sure that somewhere along the way you’re going to botch it.
18. Open Promises
Similar, but different: a writer makes promises and then we keep reading to see if you’re going to fulfill those promises. Remember Bob Ross, the PBS painter? Big Afro? Happy trees, happy clouds? At the fore of the episode he’d tell you, “I’m going to paint a beautiful little meadow here,” and then for 25 of the 30 minutes in the episode, it looks like he’s painting with dog shit. You don’t see one happy fucking tree or cloud in sight. And you think, “He’s going to dick this up. Finally, I’m watching the episode where Bob Ross crashes and burns and cries into his own Afro and whips out a Tec-9 Skorpion and shoots up the studio.” But then in the last five minutes he whips that painting into shape and suddenly: the prophecy is proven true, nary a happy shrub or stone out of place. Stories can promise things — think about heist stories, for example — that the audience will hunger to see fulfilled.
19. The Push-And-Pull Of Tension And Release
Rising tension and releasing it over and over again is like fishing — you let the fish swim with the bait, then you yank on the rod (okay, no, not that kind of rod-yanking, settle down), and then you let the fish go again, and steadily you amp up the tension until you reel in whatever it is you’ve caught. If you’re like me, it’s probably a boot. Filled with electric eels. Stupid fishing. Point is, that ebb-and-flow of suspense is a prime mover to keep readers a-readin’.
20. Fun, Fun, Fun Till Daddy Takes The Typewriter Away
I like a little fun in my reading. Doesn’t need to be a laugh-a-minute cackle-riot, and fun doesn’t even need to be outright humorous. But a little bit of fun here and there keeps reader-peepers open.
21. That Sweet Sense Of Urgency
I want to feel like the very act of me reading the story matters — like, if I don’t read further, I’m somehow holding the whole thing up. I like a story with urgency, with a ticking clock and a chain of consequence and causality. I like a story that forces me to do the pee-pee dance as I can’t put the book down for 30 seconds to go and relieve myself on the houseplants. I want that feeling that the story is the boulder and I’m Indiana Jones. This kind of urgency lives in plot and character: a television show like 24 certainly has that kind of urgency (and the aforementioned cliffhangers) down pat.
22. Confidence
A confident author with clear vision and purposeful language will keep me reading. It’s the author’s way of grabbing me by the throat and dragging me up the stairs with her. Put the “author” in “authority.”
23. The Author On The Page
I’m fascinated by auteur theory, where the author lives on the pages of all his work: I like to catch glimpses of James Joyce or even Stephen King, and that’s one reason I’ll keep reading. When I know that the author is writing from a place of honesty and personal purpose, I’m compelled to keep digging deeper into the creator’s psyche. Like a trail of clues into the cave that is the writer’s mind.
24. Readers See Their Story In Your Story
The reverse is true, too — all readers are looking for a piece of themselves in the work. They want the work to be a mirror wherein they catch glimpses of their own stories. This may seem solipsistic or Narcissistic but look at it this way: the author writes to explain his world and the reader reads for the same purpose. We don’t want to see our stories reflected back because we’re like preening peacocks: we want answers. We want truth that relates to us, that speaks directly to who we are and what we want and all the things that block us from our path.
25. That Magical Blend That Adds Up To, “It’s Just A Damn Good Story, Thanks”
Sometimes, I don’t know what keeps me reading. I just don’t. It’s some magical combination, some bizarre narrative alchemy, all of which persists beyond the known scope of human thought. It’s got all the things that the reader thinks equates to a good story: great characters, sensible plot, a story with depth, cracking dialogue, spaceships, dragon-boats, steampunk llamas, puppies, kittens, scenes of bondage and discipline, vampire mummies, botanical tips, hummus recipes, cheerleaders, and whatever else it is that adds up to a compelling read. Because that’s the goal, of course: to compel readers. To hypnotize them into staying with the book. You’ve got to pay them back for the time they’re giving you, and the way you do that is — well, by giving good story, that’s how. The best story you can write. Because at the end of the day, that’s what keeps them reading: you giving the story (and by proxy, the reader) all you’ve got to give.
* * *
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Miguel says:
I’m sure this is already included in one of the 25 reasons above, but I usually keep reading in order to find “the scene” by which I mean that moment in a book I´ll keep remembering over and over long after I have finished it. Years later I might not even remember the whole plot but I will sure know how “the scene” went. Most books don’t have one. But I keep reading to find it.
November 16, 2011 — 4:20 AM
Ahimsa Kerp says:
On the whole, this is another great list. Llamas and hummus recipes? It’s like you’re in my head.
Anyway, I might be in a minority about this, but I kind of disagree about number 14. Bad guys in the 21st century are pretty boring. We’ve already had badass villians like the Kurgan, Vader, Lector, and Nurse Ratched.
On the other hand …. Antagonists with different goals to the protagonists, perhaps mutually exclusive goals, is far more interesting. Dark Lords are so 20th century.
November 16, 2011 — 8:55 AM
terribleminds says:
@Ahimsa —
I don’t know that we’re talking about different things? Bad guys and antagonists are the same thing, really — any great antagonist that opposes a protagonist is worth reading and worth hanging with, and I don’t know that I’m suggesting differently?
Maybe the question is in the difference between “bad guy” and “antagonist” in terms of connotation…
Hrm.
— c.
November 16, 2011 — 9:01 AM
Marie says:
Apologies if this is covered, but–the reader should walk the journey with the characters. Whether it be with the hero/heroine, the sidekick, even the antagonist…the reader should feel right there, being in the universe, in the moment, in the mind, feeling it familiar, even through its surreal and strangeness.
November 16, 2011 — 9:20 AM
Colin F. Barnes says:
Great list Chuck.
For me one thing that keeps me reading is originality. I like it when books show me a new truth, a new way of looking at the world. It’s rare to find it, but even in small doses it keeps me reading.
November 16, 2011 — 9:50 AM
Ahimsa says:
I think we do largely agree. It’s especially easy to agree with your distinction between “antagonist” (Jaime Lannister,maybe) and “bad guy.” (Moriarty, for instance). But I think that a great antagonist doesn’t necessarily have to be a true villain or a genuine malefactor. If we like our heroes with a couple of flaws, maybe we like our villains with a couple of virtues?
The best example I can think of is A House of Sand and Fog. There is great tragedy, but neither heroes nor villains. Instead, a group of characters whose goals and wants put them at odds with one another.
That might, however, be harder to pull off with genre fiction.
November 16, 2011 — 9:52 AM
Daniel Swensen (@surlymuse) says:
I recently read Stephen King’s Full Dark, No Stars, and I forgot how masterful King is at parting out little bits of information here and there, foreshadowing things just enough to get you tense, but not enough to let you figure out what the game is. I live for stories like that.
Thanks for the post. I might just print this out and put it up on my wall.
November 16, 2011 — 10:00 AM
Amy says:
All of the above. Yes.
I also love reading books that make me feel like an idiot. Books with language or characters or imagery that makes me say, “damn, I could never be that clever.” ‘Cause then I want to go out and try to be that clever. I get inspired. I love books that make me want to be a better writer.
November 16, 2011 — 10:10 AM
Casz Brewster says:
The Author on the Page. Word. I feel like I know Stephen King pretty fucking well. Since I was 12 I’ve been picking up pieces of him and gluing them together to create this magazine collage that is S.K. It is also the pieces of my writing that ALWAYS gets my readers goosefleshy, wobbly-kneed, mushy ol’ butter lumps in my sticky-from-spilled whiskey author hands. When I’m in edit mode, those are the pieces that stick out the most to me and keep me writing — as well as reading.
BTFO!
November 16, 2011 — 11:50 AM
Cecilia Tan says:
Terrific list! Chuck, if you ever want to really see all these elements in play in “real time” then write and post a web serial or serialized novel. The comments readers leave will reveal just how wonderfully manipulative an author oughtta be.
November 16, 2011 — 12:33 PM
Mark Dykeman says:
To me it comes back to who, why and how and my desire to know the answers to those three questions: who did it; why did they do it; and how did they do it?
November 16, 2011 — 2:40 PM
Theodore J. Rice says:
“…a good story: great characters, sensible plot, a story with depth, cracking dialogue, spaceships, dragon-boats, steampunk llamas, puppies, kittens, scenes of bondage and discipline, vampire mummies, botanical tips, hummus recipes, cheerleaders…”
Is this going to be this weeks challenge? 1000 words to make all of these apply in one coherent story lol.
I’m not a writer, but I enjoy the hell out of reading your tips because I feel it applies to things outside of writing as well. Super nerd DM status over here uses all of these tips to create interactive narrative and more compelling encounters for my players. Pathfinder RPG for the win 🙂
Keep it up sir!
November 16, 2011 — 3:47 PM
BJ Kerry says:
Love the list. Love the idea that just by applying your tips and logic I can make readers want to read my stuff. Have a sinking feeling that there is much more to it than that. I really like checking out how much of what you recommend I have already in my head without realising and how much is a ‘Wow so that’s how its done’ moment.
November 16, 2011 — 4:18 PM
Samuel says:
Well, I definitely got the scenes of bondage and discipline down. Really, what the hell else do you need?
haha
oh, and bellydancing. Got that too.
yum.
great list pal, this stuff helps me a ton.
November 16, 2011 — 4:20 PM
Ryan says:
Wonderful list. Kinda puts me back into the readers’ shoes and reminds me of all the things that get me ticking while I read.
I live for the lie of the story, which is why I stick to fantasy and the likes whenever I read or play video games. Cuz I mean, come on, who wants to play a game about normal day to day stuff right?
The characters, on the other hand, need to be real. They need to have flaws and fears and feelings. I can’t stand flat characters. I want to be able laugh and cry and yell with them
November 16, 2011 — 6:52 PM
EC Sheedy says:
Chuck, as always a great list. Thanks.
(But am I the only one has Chuck’s list show up as paragraphs with no numbers? Sometimes they flash on the screen, but they always disappear. Is it something I said?)
November 17, 2011 — 2:46 AM
Philip Robinson says:
Number 4 is definitely, for me, the main one here. A great character will bring everything else around him/her to life. I’ve read books where absolutely nothing happens, and I love it. King, of course, is the master of the 100-page-ramble. Larry McMurtry does it brilliantly too. Everything on this list is great, but a compelling character is everything.
November 17, 2011 — 6:01 AM
Ellie Ann says:
When I think about it, almost every great classic (the very definition of bestseller) possesses these elements. I thought of Watership Down by Richard Adams when you wrote: “It’s some magical combination, some bizarre narrative alchemy, all of which persists beyond the known scope of human thought.”
Great post. And congrats on your new books!
November 17, 2011 — 9:08 PM
Angela Quarles says:
“Give me a great character and I am like Yoda on Luke Skywalker’s back” – love all your analogies, some of them made me snort, but loved this the best. Great list!
November 18, 2011 — 8:45 PM
Kyla says:
One thing I notice I tend to gravitate toward (and a lot of books have this so many people must) is the type of book where the character is horribly mistreated early on or even during the novel and I’m angered enough to wait through the rest of the books to a moment when they triumph and have revenge against those who tormented them.
Even when the tormenters don’t witness their triumph, I’m satisfied if they overcome the mistreatment and make something of themselves despite all. I’ve always thought of it as my own revenge obsession, but all people have this problem, if you think on it. Or, at least, most people do. We are so often mistreated in our own lives, and powerless to do anything about it. Reading about someone else suffering similar or worse mistreatment, and triumphing anyway, is extremely encouraging and gives us a sense of justice in the world.
Maybe that’s exactly what you meant with some of the things you said in your list. I would call what I’m talking about a need for intense emotional connection with the characters’ plight and story arc.
Anyway, great list, and I’ll be keeping all of these things in mind in my writing. Have a great day, and happy writing!
November 19, 2011 — 4:29 PM
Todd Moody says:
I posted my 5 things today. You beat me to the punch of course. Great psot as always Chuck!
http://the-verge-trm.blogspot.com/2011/11/5-things-that-will-make-me-drop-your.html
November 22, 2011 — 11:49 AM
Jemma says:
You know what, Chuck? I’m more than 11,000 words behind on NaNoWriMo with my nights of lost sleep trying desperately to catch up, are building until the inevitable day I collapse into a jelly of tears and hallucinations or die. This very night will now be a contributor thanks to these articles, but I have zero regret. Without this, my story would have done the Whoopi cushion.
Also you introduced to me the phrase, ‘steampunk llamas’. I’m grateful, sir.
November 22, 2011 — 7:26 PM
Maggie says:
Three words.
MAKE. ME. CARE.
December 31, 2011 — 2:30 PM
Monabookgirl says:
I love it when the good guy is really a bad guy stuck being the good guy. Richard Kadrey is really good at writing this kind of story. And a plus to this kind of story is that the bad guy is up against an even bader guy, and he doesn’t even have to play nice the the regular good guys do. A down and dirty kinda story is always fun.
January 15, 2012 — 5:08 PM