If you missed the previous Promises and Payoffs entries, check out part 1 and part 2 first.
So last week we discussed the main tools we use as writers to make promises to our readers. This week, our focus is on the ways we fail to payoff promises we made earlier in the story (usually in Act 1).
Payoff Pitfalls
Misfires: This happens when we create unintentional promises by misusing the tools I mentioned in last week’s entry: description, rule of three, etc. This is when you give the reader gets a false sense of what’s coming and then deliver something else.
Pulling Punches: This is when we deliver a payoff but we don’t give it the weight it deserves. The higher the stakes of the promise the bigger the scene. For example, you’ve set up an epic adversarial relationship between a driven detective and a devious serial killer. It’s a life or death conflict. Then, at the climax, you get the two in the room and things are wrapped up too easily. They talk it out or the killer is caught too easily or there’s no worry from the reader about who will actually win (even if the hero winning is part of requirements of the genre).
Flatlining: None of your characters arc and/or your plot lacks conflict. Characters must change as they come up against big stakes that force them out of their comfort zones. If the story promises you set up in Act One don’t go anywhere or a bunch of stuff just happens without any tension then you’re flatlining.
Singing Off-Key: You violate the tone and/or pace you established in your opening scenes. If you start out writing a humorous cozy, you can’t have a bloody, violent murder scene in the middle. Or if you’ve got a dark, moody mystery, you can’t suddenly throw in slapstick comedy halfway through.
Cheating, Rule Breaking and Thievery:
Cheating: Violating the conventions or world laws established in Act One. If you’ve said magic can only be used by wizards in your world, the damned farm boy can’t suddenly start using magic in Act 3 unless somewhere along the way we find out he’s secretly a wizard.
But Jaye, I hear you shout, what about PLOT TWISTS?!?!?
Hemingway (I’ve also seen this attributed to Aristotle) said: Endings should be surprising yet inevitable.
You can and should use plot twists, but they should feel inevitable because you’ve planted the seeds for them earlier in the story. However, a curveball is different from a plot twist. A curveball is the tool of an author who’s goal is to shock. A twist is the tool of an author who knows how to use storytelling tools. Shocks are melodrama. Twists are good dramatic writing. This rule also applies to forcing plot points in a direction that is not natural for the world and characters you established in Act 1.
Robbing Readers of Catharsis: This is related to Pulling Punches, but it’s more than that
Catharsis is an emotional release through which one can achieve a state of moral or spiritual renewal or achieve a state of liberation from anxiety and stress. —Literary Devices
In a story, your characters usually achieve catharsis during the climax of your story. We see their post-catharsis reality in the resolution stage of the story.
But readers also require catharsis. The more tension you create in the story the more your readers will need a big emotional payoff. This is the reason readers get so angry about cliffhangers. Sometimes they’re inevitable, but often they are simply manipulative ways for the author to ensure the reader needs to buy the next book in the series to get that payoff.
This is why so many readers get mad about cliff hangers. Many of them rob readers of catharsis in the hopes they’ll buy the next book. This is a terrible idea because you risk losing as many readers as you hook.
Instead, make sure you give catharsis on one major story line so the reader feels that payoff. You can string another thread over to the next book, but something big needs to pay off emotionally so the reader doesn’t feel duped.
That’s all for today! Next time I’ll share some ways you can apply these tools to your writing practice.
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