Make
it Hard for Your Readers
to
Put Down Your Novel
Have you ever
watched a Mexican soap opera - known to the Latino world as a
Novela or Telenovela? Each scene is a short, but emotion-filled
episode ending with a crisis. The greater the crisis, the more
you want to keep watching. You simply have to find out how they
will resolve their problem. Something must change for the better
or the worse. Up to a point it changes for the worse.
You know how
you want the characters to resolve their problem. You feel
frustrated that things aren’t going the way you want. Why can’t
they do it your way? Why don’t they behave in a different way?
It’s obvious what they must do to get out of their impossible
situation. Why don’t they do it? They just keep making bad
decisions, leading to more urgency to solve the problem. You
can’t stand to see them ruin their lives this way.
You sit on
the edge of your seat, frustrated with the way things are going.
Every scene builds in intensity, each ending with its own
terrible crisis. The story flits from one set of characters to
another, each interwoven into the total fabric of the story. It
is a constant struggle between the forces of good and evil, with
evil often winning. It seems that nothing the main character does
allows him to come out on top. The evil characters seem to live
charmed lives.
When it seems
that all is doomed to destruction, good begins to prevail. The
evil characters begin to be exposed for what they are. Things
start to go right for the main character. You feel great
anticipation, waiting for things to work out the way you want.
You can’t wait for the evil characters to receive their deserved
punishment. You feel triumphant when justice prevails, and your
hero is exonerated. In the end, everything comes out the way you
want. How satisfied you feel.
Your
satisfaction didn’t happen until the very end. Up until that
point, evil prevailed. Everything the hero did ended in
frustration. The evil characters thwarted his every move. You had
to find out how your hero was going to get out of every mess and
straighten things out. Wanting to know, anticipation is what kept
you watching. Not only did it keep you watching, but it also
involved you in the lives of the characters. You were living
their lives. You chose sides. You suffered with them. You
triumphed with them.
This is what
will make your readers not want to put down your novel. You place
your characters into situations where they have to struggle to
get out, where they have to overcome odds to win. Ending each
episode with a crisis will make your readers hang on, wanting to
find out how your character will overcome the impossible and end
up triumphant.
In my novel,
The Search, I try to incorporate these ideas by using short
segments instead of chapters. By ending each segment on a crisis
or with a problem or unanswered question, and then going to
another scene with other characters, I hope to keep the reader
wanting to find out what happens.
