Each week, I’ll offer a tip you can take and apply to your WIP to help improve it. They’ll be easy to do and shouldn’t take long, so they’ll be tips you can do without taking up your Sunday. Though I do reserve the right to offer a good tip now and then that will take longer—but only because it would apply to the entire manuscript.
This week, check every scene and make sure readers are learning something new about the story, world, or characters.
One way to keep hooking readers in a novel is to reveal something new about the story. Maybe it’s a bit of character history or a not-yet-seen aspect of their personalities, perhaps it’s something about the world, or even how the story mechanics work if it’s science fiction or fantasy. It could even be the revelation of a secret—either the answer to one or that one exists.
It doesn’t have to me a major book-shattering reveal, as long as something is learned that lets readers further immerse themselves in your story and world.
For more on revealing new things in your novel, try these articles:
- The Joy of Discovery: Keeping Readers Hooked Through Story Revelations
- Planting the Clues and Hints in Your Story
- What "Stranger Things"Can Teach Us About Flashbacks
- Tah-Dah! The Best Place to Reveal Your Story Secrets
- Get a Clue: We All Need a Little Mystery in Our Novels
- What Writers Need to Know About Hooks
- Revealing a Character's Past Without Falling Into Backstory
- We Have a History: Making Backstory Work for You
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