Zen…

If you’re a good reader, there’s a possibility you’d make a better writer. You can’t be a good writer, if you don’t read.

Reading opens the windows of your mind. It expands your thoughts, your imaginations and enhances creativity in general. For someone who has read compelling stories, articles and books, I was able to pick up a few spicy ingredients most stories have in common.

These ingredients will keep your readers bent on finishing a page and even pushing bed times. You don’t have to do everything to make your story come out great, you can only take a few right but tactical steps.

Your readers may be heartbroken, pissed or find themselves in whatever heated or uncomfortable situations, but they will never forget your story.

Messing with the readers’ sense of fulfillment: If your character deserves love, give him hatred.

Let your character not necessarily the main character, it could be a supporting character who is very significant to the story – die before he gets what he wants or at a moment of big victory or happiness.

If you decide to use your main character, great. I warn you, it’ll hit your readers in their guts but that’s the whole point of hooking your readers right?

Kill off the significant character when he’s not expected to die. Your readers should not see it coming. They’ll stick to the story praying somehow a miracle happens in the end.

If you decide to let a miracle happen, bring him back to life. Pending on how you want to the story to flow – but let it be worth it.

Mess with the readers’ sense of justice.

Let the bad guy win or make him look like he’s winning. It’ll piss your readers, but they won’t stop reading.

They’ll probably close the page and sigh, muttering how it’s so unfair the bastard is getting his way but they’ll return to the page the next day, with a glass of wine in their hands or a duvet over their knees, in a dark untidy room to find out the villain is outsmarted by the protagonist.

If you set a plan for your main character to outfight or outthink a notorious opponent, let the plan fail. Woefully.

Do not always give your characters a closure: Until you get towards the end of the story.

Don’t let a beloved friend who died in a war or unjustly be mourned. Let there be no time for mourning. Your readers are already attached to this particular character and seeing there’s a strong conflict still going on with little or no time for other characters to grief properly for his death – it will hit your readers hard. The remaining characters should grieve later, especially because they couldn’t mourn him when they should.

The remaining characters may have to find a truth which could have kept the dead character alive. The readers should know something the dead character should have discovered before he’s dead.

A random fling or one night stand between two characters who had just met or who have been flirting with each other, don’t always have to end in a serious relationship or marriage.

Your readers want a closure, don’t give it to them.

Give your readers an imperfect main character: perfect is boring, fault him sometimes.

If he makes a mistake, let the repercussion be stronger than the deed. Let him burn the wrong joint out of personal grievances or bad temper, and regret his actions later.

Your main character should not have everything: he should face rejections in love and relationships. Your romance readers will empathize.

Or let him be a failure in school. But then he has another ability which sets him apart from everyone else. He just should never be perfect.

If he chooses to pick up a task or decide to move to a new city to follow his dreams, his partner should not accept the change hence a heart crushing break up.

If he doesn’t believe in love then finally tries to fall in love and settle with someone, let him discover a past or a condition (could be a hidden lie from the partner or he becomes terribly ill) that’d be tough for him to handle in the relationship.

Whatever approach you choose, let things not always work out for him.

Your main character must be tenacious: let him go to lengths to get whatever it is he wants. His passion, drive or guts should push him past his fears.

He should be a rebel, the black sheep of the family but also the one that can’t stand for injustice and goes after his goals. He should never take no for an answer.

If you decide to make your main character quiet or calm, make sure he craves something so deep he’d have to get out of his comfort zone to get the results.

It could be a nerd who is always bullied in school. He should have to make a personal decision to stand up to the opponent and never be bullied again. Or meet someone who will help him get out of his situation.

He just have to do something no one would have imagined a quiet, naive person would do and this sets up the entire story.

In conclusion, you don’t have to follow the rules but it’s important to think “readers first”. Find out what works for you, whatever pattern you decide to follow, it should get your readers on the edge of their seats and up all night until they can get some satisfaction. It’s better to begin your story with conflicts and create tension on every single page.

Don’t give your readers contentment at the beginning of a story, otherwise they’ll think they’ve figured the entire story and decide it’s certainly not for them.

Apply Murphy’s law every now and then – “anything that can go wrong should go wrong.”

Conflicts, tension, Resolution. These are the ingredients every beginner writer must understand how to use, when and just how much. Too little might not be interesting or significant enough, too much might actually bore your readers or make them hate the story entirely.

Follow your instincts and see where it leads you.