Hello! Welcome back to the next installment of the Promises and Payoffs in Fiction series.
In the series so far, I’ve spent a long time setting up all the ways we make promises to our readers. How we bait our hooks, hint at things to come. The importance of being intentional with these choices so that we don’t mislead readers and ultimately disappoint them.
If you haven’t already read the rest of the Promises and Payoffs posts, please start here with part 1.
But today, I want to talk about some ways we can mess up the payoffs in our stories. I call these “Payoff Pitfalls.” Ignore them at your own peril.