Ambiguity
I like books that place us in the thick of things, scrambling to keep up. However, if you leave your reader stumbling in the dark rather than intrigue, you’ll provoke merely apathy and annoyance. If you allow your readers enough tantalising scraps to patch together a hypothesis, their minds will whir away pleasurably—whilst you further hoodwink them, of course.
Your readers want you to demonstrate genre-savvy right off the bat so they can rest, secure in the knowledge they’re in good hands. Readers also want to know the who, what, and when before they decide to commit to your work, so perhaps it’s the “why” and “how” that can be left as the niggling mystery elements.
Just the right amount of ambiguity is a great tool to keep readers engrossed and invested, each subsequent reveal up until the ultimate resolution being all the sweeter to them for their efforts.
Detail
Research shows that three pieces of information are required for us to be able to visualise a scene. Provide enough detail to spark the imagination without overburdening it with purple prose.
Change
For survival reasons, detecting changes to our environment is of paramount importance. Therefore, a story where character and circumstance are ever-evolving, playing off one another, is sure to keep readers engaged.
Goals
We have a biological imperative to survive long enough to raise offspring who will do the same. To that end, finding food or a mate is rewarded by the release of dopamine, particularly in anticipation of consumption, or consummation, as the case may be. In short, we are goal-driven.
Your characters must actively pursue their goals throughout your story; otherwise, readers will find them unbearably passive—and unrealistic.
Status
Most of our goals involve amassing riches, knowledge, or influence to secure a better life. We are well-attuned to hierarchies, forever vying for a premium spot at the proverbial watering hole.
Research shows that the number one factor predicting whether a reader will feel a sense of ‘transportation’ into a fictional world is their ability to identify with the protagonist. While it’s hard to root for, or identify with, a fait accompli high-status character, there’s nothing we enjoy quite so much as a rags-to-riches story.
Start with David, and don’t jump the gun by introducing them as Goliath—unless you’re writing a tragedy or redemption story and need a paragon to tear down.
Crime and punishment
We have evolved to be highly social creatures; being excluded by members of our social group was once a death sentence. Thus, as tribal creatures, we have a powerful need for stories reinforcing that wrongdoing will be punished, while prosocial actions will be rewarded by gaining higher status.
This explains didactic folktales and fairytales. It also shines a light on why we once gathered in market squares to pelt criminals with rotten fruit or cheer with misdelight as they swung from the gallows. (The fruit, I mean.)
Buried under modern-day civility, are the sadistic and barbarous more common than we’d care to count among us? Or is it merely that neurologically-speaking empathy switches off when we feel wrongdoers are getting their just deserts? Our bloodthirstiness is then only a craving for justice by way of suffering. We do not revel in suffering in and of itself. This brings me to…
Moral outrage
Nothing quickens us quite as much, inflames us with fury and burning indignation, as the victimisation of the vulnerable and blameless. In particular, it stirs us greatly to witness the righteous and downtrod remain unavenged while vile villains continue to lead charmed lives even after transgressing against them. Where is the justice?
Exploiting your readers’ sense of moral outrage is one of the best ways of gaining their attention and sympathy. Let your story be as unfair as the life it imitates.
Layers
The events of the plot, the allies, enemies, and obstacles your protagonist encounters are just set dressing. This surface action must work on a deeper level at all times, causing your characters inner turmoil and precipitating their eventual psychic metamorphosis.
High stakes
For your story to be meaningful, the hero must experience consequences when they initially resist the call to action: yearning, guilt, and the prickling of their conscience. It’s only natural (and more satisfying) that your protagonist should lose the battle before their final sweet, sweet, sweet victory.
These consequences must be even more dire for characters who refuse to adapt and take the painful steps toward self-growth, clinging to their old and familiar ways—those pitiable but no less strong, compelling characters. As the saying goes, “a problem that a character can walk away from is a book a reader can walk away from”.
Further reading
Pemment, J. (2013). Psychopathy versus sociopathy: Why the distinction has become crucial. Aggression and Violent Behavior, 18(5), 458-461.
Storr, W. (2020). The Science of Storytelling: Why Stories Make Us Human and How to Tell Them Better. Abrams.
Thompson, J. M., Teasdale, B., Duncan, S., van Emde Boas, E., Budelmann, F., Maguire, L., & Dunbar, R. I. (2018). Individual differences in transportation into narrative drama. Review of General Psychology, 22(2), 210–219.
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Exploit the Psychology of Your Reader
Love this! Reminds me of this definition of a story: "something happens to someone." Meeting those criteria is harder than one might think.