Let me preface this with the fact that I luuuurve my book idea. Love it love it love it.
But here’s the question I keep coming back to: why will someone care? What will cause them to turn the page? Other than falling in love with the protagonist and wondering how things turn out, why will they push forward?
My first instinct, when faced with this question, is to kill off a character and turn it into a mystery. But that’s not the tone of this book. This one is about a junior in college, she’s figuring sh*t out. There’s enough of a journey there already and it’s supposed to be light and fun – while there’s plenty of death, I don’t want it to be a murder mystery (I know, that doesn’t make sense but it would if you knew the premise… I’m just… supersicious about posting it.)
So my question for all of you out there who aren’t reading my blog – how do you make people turn pages? And more than that, if you’re a reader, what makes you turn the page?
For me it isn’t always about finding out who-dun-it, it’s about making sure the protagonist makes it through ok. But even then, what makes us care in the first part?
I care about the characters and what happens to them. If the characters are done well and they are people that make me care about them, then I want to know what happens next. If they are a personality type I don’t like, I won’t care to turn the pages. I can read a book where not a lot happens as long as the characters are strong. In my own writing that’s what I focus on. Strong characters, which follows with strong dialogue. Then I focus next on the plot. The rest is just filling to me. 🙂