I love it when I’m reading a book and I look over at the clock and see 2 am. Because clearly I haven’t been able to put down the book.  why?

The chapters won’t let me! The author has effectively raised new stakes, a new dilemma and left in the middle of the scene, so the reader is compelled to turn the page.  And stay up reading all night.

The Key to keeping the reader turning the pages is to…
L- Leave them Hanging.

In other words…don’t finish the scene.  One of the biggest mistakes I did in the early days of writing my suspense novel, In Sheep’s Clothing, is that I wrapped up every scene neatly before I moved to the next. My characters completed their tasks and went to sleep, happy that they made it through another scene.  Only problem was that when my characters went to sleep, my readers did, too! As long as there was no tension for the characters, there will be no tension for the reader. And no turning pages.

Think about it…The character is slowing opening the door…and she sees a form diving for her and –

That’s when you want to leave a scene.

If we see who’s there, then the tension has died.  Even if it is someone scary!  Or, perhaps your scene length demands that the characters confronts the person behind the door. Perhaps the heroine fights her assailant and gets away.  Or maybe he locks her the trunk of the car and you close the scene with the lid closing and the car taking off. The point is to leave the scene with the tension high.

Again, don’t leave the scene with all the threads tied up. Leave just when they’re about to hear some truth, or at the point of victory, or right before an attack or defeat, at the height of action or tension so that the reader will turn the page.

And here’s another trick – don’t take up that same scene again in the next POV. Jump to another POV if you can, and then pick it up with yet another POV in the next scene.  Or, jump ahead in time, and show the aftermath, and then flashback to the scene.

Your pacing in a story is the key here. If you are in a high action scene followed by another high action scene, it gets tiring for the reader. It’s important to layer in response scenes.  Let the characters and reader breathe, assess, figure out what is going on and what is at stake. You know those scenes where the hero and heroine hide behind something and reload their guns and say something deep and poignant ?  Cutting off the action to a slower scene helps the reader and the characters prepare for the next high action scene.

However…(and we’ll talk about the next trick next week!)

Have a great writing week!

Susie May