Today’s guest post is brought to you by Tuesday Serial’s very own, Carrie Ann Golden.
5 Tips On How To Keep Your Readers Coming Back For More
by
Carrie Ann Golden
How do you write a serial fiction that will have readers coming back for more? Here are some ideas:
1. Post new chapters/sections in a timely fashion.
Don’t wait several weeks or months to post a new entry to your story. Readers don’t like to wait very long to see what happens next.
Pick a schedule that works best for you whether it’s daily, weekly, or even bi-monthly.
Once you choose a schedule that you can work with, keep it! Your readers are counting on you!
2. Show, don’t tell.
Make your story come to life in a reader’s mind by showing what happen. Allow the reader to lose her or himself in the world you’ve created.
Example:
Telling: She is angry.
Showing: “She kicked open the screen door; letting it slam against the wall as she dashed outside. Down the steps and into the yard she flew. Grabbing the first rock in her path, she hurled it back toward the house. It crashed through the living room window with an explosion of shattered glass.” (from Marion Dane Bauer’s What’s Your Story).
3. Try to end each section or chapter with a cliffhanger.
Give your readers no choice but to come back! Make them hungry for more!
Bradford Wendel explores this topic in his article, Using the Cliffhanger in Serial Fiction: A Primer.
4. Make sure each entry is as free of grammatical errors as possible.
This should be pretty self-explanatory, but sadly many choose to ignore. Take an extra five minutes to proof-read your work before hitting that “post” or “submit” button.
5. Find ways to make your story original.
Try something that few have dared to do. Avoid the typical cliches that come with each genre. Add more layers to the story, mix it up! There are so many ways to do this, and I have two articles to help you decide which ways to choose for your story:
The 4 Tweaks To Writing Truly Original Stories and Characters
Story Plots: 7 Tips To Be More Original
Can you add other ways that would help increase the success of a serial fiction?
About the author…
Carrie Ann Golden lives on a farmstead in the Red River Valley of North Dakota with hubby, and teen-age son. She writes short stories and poetry mainly, and is also a citizen journalist. Her works have been published with Piker Press, Doll Hospital Journal, The Hungry Chimera, GFT Press, Asylum Ink, Kids For Literature and Zombie Poetry.
