You don’t make readers want to know what happens next by not
telling them what’s happening now.
There’s a guy, he’s being chased by someone. We don’t know
who, we don’t know why. Clearly he doesn’t want to be caught, but other than
that everything is a mystery. So as the reader you’re going to keep reading to
find out what’s going on, right?
Well, maybe if you have absolutely nothing else better to
do. But for most of us, that implication that everything will become clear if
we keep reading, and that it’ll be totally worth it, just doesn’t pay-off in
most cases.
Because it’s easy to make it seem like there’s something
amazing around the next corner. It’s much harder to actually have something
amazing waiting there.
So how do you make it clear that the journey will be
worthwhile, and at the same time not reveal too much and ruin the surprise?
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