Promises and Payoffs in Fiction

Part 3: Character Promises

Hello! I’m back from Australia and getting back into a routine. This is why the Monday Muse didn’t happen this week. I got home on Sunday and jet lag has been making things a bit hairy because I’m still not sure what day it is. But next Monday I’ll do my big Australia wrap up.

Today, we’re returning to Promises and Payoffs in Fiction with some thoughts about making character promises early in your novel. This ongoing series will eventually be a book and all of my paid subscribers will receive a free copy when it’s published. Be sure to share this with your writer friends!

Now onto the good stuff…

As we’ve covered before, it’s crucial that the first act of your novel make a series of promises to the reader. Not only does this help hook them, it also creates tension and anticipation in the reader as they guess what sort of journey they’re taking in the story.

We’ve covered some genre promises in previous posts (Intro, Part 1 Genre Promises, Part 2 Genre Promises), and now we’re moving on to character promises. This may end up being a few posts since character is so fundamental to story. But today, we’re covering point of view, character voice, and internal conflict.