Unputdownable stories keep readers off balance, as one scene tips into another, and another, and the next. Each scene’s challenge demands a response, and each response spirals into fresh complications.
But compelling stories don’t pile on problems in random fashion. Complications flow organically from one scene to the next in a chain of action and reaction. The upshot for your novel? This chain of progressively escalating complications transforms a mere assemblage of scenes into an unstoppable narrative.
- Why complications matter
- Technique 1: Fortunately/unfortunately
- Technique 2: Consequences over continuations
- Technique 3: “Yes/but” and “no/so”
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