Many readers have no trouble ditching stories that fail to draw them in.
This is the worst-case scenario for writers. A reader meets our characters but doesn’t care enough about them to stick around? Ouch.
Aspire to the opposite: a book that readers can’t put down.
Addictive fiction doesn’t happen by chance. It’s the result of meticulous editing and attention to detail.
To hook and keep your readers, try these ten tips:
1. Create complex, flawed characters.
Don’t worry — this doesn’t mean you need to write likable characters.
Think about what makes you want to see and hear more from real-life acquaintances.
Let that inform your writing.
Place an obstacle between your central characters and the thing they most want or need.
Present tough choices, give them complicated relationships and let them make mistakes.
Even without a strong plot driving the action, readers will want to see how everything works out.
2. Use Character-Driven Plot Strategies
Let your characters dictate the plot.
Character choices and attitudes can shape and drive the narrative, creating a dynamic and captivating storyline.
Readers need to feel like characters have real choices, even — or perhaps especially — if those choices are unpleasant or difficult. That’s what makes life, and your story, interesting!
Your characters’ choices and attitudes will drive plot events, just like some plot events will spark changes in your characters.
This unpredictability and humanity will draw readers into your story and leave them eager to see how things get resolved in future chapters.
A great example of this is White Teeth by Zadie Smith.
3. Create Pivotal Moments.
Include some ‘oh sh-t’ moments moments in your story when the bottom drops out.
The triggering event might be a big mistake or moral lapse, a character death, a big reveal, a car accident, or even the birth of a child. Anything that will force a paradigm shift for your characters.
After the moment that stops your readers’ hearts, they cross a threshold with your characters. They’ve now endured a life-changing event together.
How they find their way out of that upheaval is up to you.
A good example of this is the frustratingly dark and hilarious A Suspension of Mercy by Patricia Highsmith.
4. Trust your readers.
Most writers fear people will miss our carefully crafted nuance, but stories suffer when writers don’t trust readers.
Build reader trust by avoiding unnecessary explanations and redundant details, basically, anything the reader already knows or can figure out on their own.
For instance, avoid stuffing the first chapter with establishing information readers can either infer or find out later in the book.
Spelling everything out strips readers of their opportunity to think and use their imagination.
A great example of this is The Tin Drum by Günter Grass. This is a wonderful novel, but its primary weakness is periodically recapping the events of the entire book.
This choice by the author is more than a little distracting, and it makes the book a real chore at times.
One of the most important editing skills is the ability to trim away what readers don’t need. ‘Murder your darlings’ may be cliche, but it has persisted for a reason.
5. Work on Your Prose.
It’s not just what you say but how you say it.
A big part of keeping readers hooked is not your characters or plot but the prose itself.
Every time you draw attention to how you put the words on the page, you slow the pace and risk pulling the reader out of the story.
Focus on crafting high-quality prose to enhance reader engagement.
This could be concise and minimalist, like Sally Rooney or Chuck Palahniuk, or flowery, descriptive prose, like Cormac McCarthy or Angela Carter.
Either way, the use of language should draw the reader in rather than distract them.
Consider the examples below. Which book would you rather read?
Example 1:
On the porch of an old farmhouse, Sarah and Silas sat. The night was quiet. The moon was low. There was a lantern. The air smelled like earth.
Example 2:
In the dim glow of a weathered lantern, Sarah sat on the porch of the old farmhouse, her silhouette outlined against the vast expanse of the night. The moon hung low, casting long shadows across the rugged landscape. The air was thick with the scent of the earth, a fragrance that seemed to permeate the quiet moments between them.
These examples contain the same information, but one invests a lot more in the way the information is conveyed than the other.
6. Create Narrative Unpredictability
Delve into unpredictable narratives. Unexpected twists and turns can add excitement, preventing your story from becoming formulaic and ensuring readers stay hooked.
This can be achieved through:
Twists and turns: Major plot twists that change everything. See Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn.
Unreliable narrators: A story told from the perspective of someone who may not be telling the truth or know the whole story. See Poor Things by Alasdair Gray.
Foreshadowing: Employ foreshadowing to hint at events without giving away too much. See The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie.
Subverting tropes: Identify common genre tropes and subvert them to defy reader expectations. See The Bloody Chamber by Angela Carter.
Ambiguous endings: Conclude your story with an ambiguous ending that leaves some questions unanswered. See Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison.
Multiple perspectives: Switch between multiple perspectives or timelines to offer diverse viewpoints on events. See My Sister’s Keeper by Jodi Picoult.
Contradictions and irony: Introduce contradictions or ironic situations that challenge the characters and create unexpected outcomes. See The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester.
Surprising character developments: Allow your characters to evolve in unexpected ways. See In Transit by Brigid Brophy.
Unconventional story structures: Experiment with unconventional story structures, such as non-linear timelines or fragmented narratives. See House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski.
Red herrings: Incorporate red herrings—misleading clues or information—to divert attention from the true direction of the plot (e.g., Professor Snape or Syrius Black in Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling).
Moral ambiguity: Present morally ambiguous situations where characters must make difficult choices. See Perdido Street Station by China Mievelle.
In media res (in the midst of things): Begin your story in the middle of action to create immediate engagement. See The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova.
7. Foster Emotional Connections
Foster emotional connections between characters and readers. Make readers deeply care about your characters and their journeys.
This is simultaneously simple and tricky to do. You’re never going to write a book that resonates with everyone, so don’t try to do that.
Write a book that resonates with you. Chances are it will find an audience of like-minded people.
That said, a good example of a book that really reaches out to tug at the reader’s heartstrings is Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro.
8. Maintain Narrative Tension
Keep tension alive throughout your story through unresolved conflicts, unanswered questions, or looming challenges.
Franz Kafka’s The Trial is perhaps one of the best examples of inexorable, nail-biting tension.
9. Craft Compelling Story Openings.
Hook your readers with your very first sentence to immediately capture their attention. Pique curiosity and encourage readers to invest in your characters and plot.
Consider this opening line from Terry Pratchett’s Going Postal:
They say that the prospect of being hanged in the morning concentrates a man’s mind wonderfully; unfortunately, what the mind inevitably concentrates on is that, in the morning, it will be in a body that is going to be hanged.
Love it or hate it, you immediately want to know where this is going.
10. Write a Satisfying Conclusion.
Stick the landing. Close your story with a satisfying conclusion. Provide closure to character arcs and leave a lasting impression on readers.
This is hard to do. Many a good story has come undone at the end. The important thing is to make sure that the ending and the resolution of the character arcs make sense.
This is called logical consistency or narrative cohesion.
If the ending is ambiguous or you pull the rug out from the reader in the final chapter, everything in the story should still support that.
Gotcha moments are fine as long as the reader can look back and say, ‘Oh yeah. I can see that.’
Your Turn
While by no means a complete list, this should give you some ideas.
Tell us your story! Your audience is waiting!
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