TECH: Keeping the Reader Hooked

[mbarker.livejournal.com]

Original Posting 4 May 2012

The daily drama on TV here in Japan has just about convinced me that along with the "engine" -- the overall story question or problem -- you really need Velcro. Lots of little hooks to keep the reader or the audience intrigued and excited.

Let me explain. NHK, our public channel, has a daily drama that they run. It's just 15 minutes a day -- for six days each week, 6 months long. They run it twice in the morning -- one in the middle of the morning news! -- once at lunch time, just 12:45-1:00, and once in the evening, from 6:45-7:00. They also rerun the whole week on Saturday morning in case you missed something.

They're frequently launching pads for new actors and actresses, and are pretty well done, usually.

As you might expect, the ones in the past have typically had a daily "cliffhanger" right at the end of the 15 min episode. Whether it's someone picking up a ringing phone and saying "What?" or something more worrisome, such as the pregnant woman going into the delivery room, there's been a whole lot of "come back tomorrow to find out what happened!" Fairly often with a big cliffhanger on Saturday to get you to come back Monday.

However, the daily drama this time seems to have taken a different approach. It's about a young teenage woman in the shantytowns of Tokyo right after World War II who wants to become a doctor. The setting, her family, everything seems very realistic, but we're in the fifth or sixth week, and it's just not very interesting, despite all kinds of problems and difficulties.

When I started paying attention, I realized that they aren't doing a daily cliffhanger. In fact, most daily episodes end with today's problems being resolved. Boring! Today's episode started with her friend saying she couldn't marry the man she was interested in, and our heroine retaking the tests she had failed. Then the heroine runs out of the test she is taking to tell her friend to go ask him! And... the teacher says that she has failed, running out of the test like that. Her friends beg for the teacher to give her another chance! And... the teacher agrees, and says that she has good friends. Then the narrator tells us that the friend asked the man to be patient and he agreed, and the heroine passed her test. And end with a comic bit about a cow.

There's no reason to watch on Monday! And there were all kinds of chances there, to have us wondering whether the teacher would give her another chance, to show us the friend asking the man to be patient -- and leave us wondering whether he will or not, or even to have the heroine facing another test! Or bring up some other surprising challenge -- or even just a letter, telegram, or phone call to tease us.

Anyway, the contrast between the fairly obvious daily cliffhanger that most of the shows have had and this "no suspense" format has made me appreciate Velcro. The many tiny little hooks, in each scene, chapter ending, all throughout the book that keep me reading to find out what happened next. Even with a "engine" providing the pull or push for the overall story, it's the little hooks everywhere that keep the story going.

So take a look at your writing. Set those hooks, and keep your reader from slipping away.

[ for more about the "engine" see
http://madgeniusclub.com/2012/04/25/it-wont-go-by-itself/ ]