In a post on Writer Unboxed, Donald Maass examines how writers can create a sense of anticipation for their readers, which keeps them invested in your story even if they think they know what’s going to happen. “Readers are not passive recipients of story,” Maass writes. “They leap ahead of the plot. They guess what will happen. This is clearly the case with readers of mystery fiction but it’s true of readers of all fiction.”
In mystery novels, readers try to guess the identify of the wrong-doer. In other fiction, they anticipate plot points, emotional moments, and climaxes. “We hope to be surprised, terrified or delighted. Maybe all three,” Maass says. “If we’re not anticipating, then it means that we don’t care and that’s not good.”
But what causes the reader to anticipate…anything? Foreshadowing and delay, Maass says. Drop clues to backstory or foreshadow future events, but delay the full revelation, and the reader will keep turning pages to discover when what they expect will finally happen. You can build this with background details – see: Chekhov’s gun – or through character desires. In a romance, two characters may dislike each other while simultaneously showing the reader how good they would be together. The more the writer says these characters don’t work as a couple, the more the reader hopes they will.
Another method is moral anticipation, “playing on our belief that wrongs need to be set right, or that fate should be a balancing force, or that virtue should be rewarded,” Maass writes. Hope and fear also create anticipation. “In a story founded on fear, we worry that the worst possible thing will happen,” Maass adds. “In a story rooted in hope, we hope for the impossible to come true.”
