Making Story Promises

How to show your readers a good time

Have you ever reached the end of a story and felt compelled to hurl the book across the room? I think we’ve all been there at least once as readers.

But does anyone think that authors set out to disappoint their readers?

Hopefully none of us believes that. Every author I know works tirelessly to tell a good story that will delight, amaze, and enthrall their readers. And every reader I knows wants to love the book in their hands.

So, where’s the disconnect?

The problem is that sometimes authors break promises to their readers and they don’t even realize they’re doing it.

The Promise-Making Process

For novels, promises begin before the reader even opens the book. Book covers make promises about the genre. Lots of authors get upset when covers don’t reflect specifics of their story, but the main job is to alert readers that this book falls into the same category of other books they’ve enjoyed. The back cover makes some plot promises and delivers some sort of story hook. However, most readers still read the first page or a preview to see if a story is worth their emotional and time investments. Why? Because the opening pages of a story set out a series of promises to the reader about the kind of experience they’re about to have. If those promises are inadvertent or made incorrectly, the reader will feel cheated by The End. 

Sometimes authors make unconscious promises or they’re so close to their work that they think they’re promising one thing but delivering something else. When those promises don’t pay off by the third act, the reader feels cheated. These promises can be made by accident, by being unfamiliar with the conventions of their genres, by being too close to their stories, or by not seeking out the right kind of feedback before they publish their books.

Types of Promises

-Genre: We establish whether we will follow our genre’s conventions, subvert them or blend them with another genre/s. This is important because if you’re going to subvert the conventions later one with no warning readers will feel duped. 

-Character: Establish point of view, voice, internal conflicts for your character-Note: Internal conflicts help create an expectation of what sort of character arc they’ll have

-Story: Establish external conflicts by introducing antagonists and situations that should pay off by Act Three.

-Tone: Communicates to the reader whether this is a formal or informal style, dark and gritty or light and funny, is this a hopeful or pessimistic tone (indicative of the type of ending), etc. Tone should be consistent throughout book.

-World Building: All genres require some sort of world building. The type of world or microcosm the story occurs in can establish expectations about the story and characters. You also use it to establish the rules of your world, which set up expectations for how the story will play out. A well-drawn world is dynamic: it should effect characters and characters should impact it.

-Pace: This can be a function of your genre--a thriller will be more fast-paced than a cozy mystery. Also impacts tone and authorial voice. If you use a fast-paced tone readers will expect a plot-driven, action-filled story in most cases. Slower pace may indicate a more character-driven story.

Stay tuned for Part 2 of the Promises and Payoffs series: How We Make Promises