Keeping Your Reader’s Attention Is About More Than Your Novel’s Beginning

Let’s talk structure

So, keeping your readers attention is obviously about:

1. Stakes and dread — what they are afraid might happen to the character
2. Sexy beginnings — starting things off interestingly
3. Character wants — the characters have to want things so the readers can want them too
4. Connection — the reader needs to care about the character and those wants

Honestly, all the elements of a book are connected to keeping your reader actually reading the book. I want to focus for a hot second on just one of those.

Gasp! I know! Me focus? Yes, yes it is possible.

So, keeping your readers’ attention has a lot to do with the entirety of the story and its pacing.

As Susan Stewart writes on The Writing Cooperative,

“Many novels are written like a three-act play. Each act must end with something exciting, either action of some kind, or a big revelation, or a huge setback. The point is to get the reader there and then make them so surprised that they just have to read the next chapter. Some writers refer to this structure as “three disasters and an ending.”