Promises and Payoffs

More Examples of Promises in Bestselling Novels

Today we’re continuing to explore some examples of the use of promises in best selling novels. Remember, close reading is a critical skill for all writers, and these excerpts show how great writers use power words, genre promises, character promises, story promises and a host of other techniques to hook the reader as well as hint at what’s to come.

Naturally, these authors will continue to lay out promises beyond the opening lines of the book, but there’s a reason that openings usually require so much revision. You have very few opportunities to hook a reader, and the opening line and paragraphs can make or break the opportunity to gain a new reader. But as we’ve discussed, you still have to see these promises through in your story.

Next week, we’ll be moving on to a new topic—using structure to make promises. And then we’ll move on to common ways that promises get broken and how to avoid doing it in your own writing.

Let’s dig in…

“I have a meanness inside me, real as an organ. Slit me at my belly and it might slide out, meaty and dark, drop on the floor so you could stomp on it. It’s the Day blood. Something’s wrong with it. I was never a good little girl, and I got worse after the murders.

I was not a lovable child, and I’d grown into a deeply unlovable adult. Draw a picture of my soul, and it’d be a scribble with fangs.”

- Dark Places by Gillian Flynn, Suspense

Note: The italicized words are my emphasis to highlight the power words used in this passage.