Focus On What Matters

Characters in stories tend to be single-minded. Either they’re driven by some internal need, or circumstances force them, but they rarely live a carefree existence going from one thing to the next as they please.

There’s a reason for this. Once a reader is interested in what a character’s doing, they want to know the outcome. Of that story.

If you go off in various tangents, even if you intentionally do it in an attempt to generate tension or suspense or mystery, there’s a good chance you’ll just annoy or frustrate those readers.

But there’s a problem here. In order to make a story dramatic and layered, you actually need to go off in different directions, to pull the reader off the main road every now and again.

The trick is to divert the reader’s attention by using even more pressing matters.

There’s no point having a character stop looking for her missing daughter to drop into an antiques store because she's into collecting old china plates.

But pausing in the search to rescue another child kidnapped by the same madman does make sense.

You have to put yourself in the mind of your character, make it clear to yourself what the main goal of that character is, and then only let them deviate from their target for things that merit it. Even if she really adores old china plates, now's not the time.

What's considered important enough to accept veering off is going to be different for different characters (and different genres), but it has to feel worth it. Both in the mind of the character and the reader. Rather than just going wherever your mind takes you and hoping the reader won’t mind too much. They will. 

There are also ways to integrate scenes so you don't have to stop one thing to do another. If, for example, the detective discovers where the killer's cabin is located then he's obviously going to head there straightaway. You can't decide to wait until morning because you have a great scene planned over dinner between the detective and his partner.

However, you can make the cabin a three hour drive away, and he can have the discussion planned for dinner in the car instead.

It’s not enough to change the character’s focus because it suits the story or if its importance is to be revealed later, you have to provide a fitting excuse for taking the reader away from the main storyline up front, or you have to find a way to do it at the same time.

As long as you do that, the reader will happily go off with you, maybe even enjoy the diversion. 

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