Delayed gratification works so well for keeping readers hooked, but not if it contains a hitch. Then it creates impatience and that half-beat of distrust.

The good news to all of this is the more we write and invest in the feedback process, the more we see how to finesse situations to achieve true tension and need-to-know and avoid the hitches. 🙂

Hi Barbara, you’ve hit upon something key, I suspect. Being quick to get to the name of whoever the character is referring to is likely very helpful for avoiding that reader frustration. Of course, it’s also important to remember that readers will have varying levels of tolerance for this sort of thing. I work mainly with middle-grade and young-adult fiction, and the younger reader largely isn’t as patient for this sort of thing. I am, admittedly, impatient for anything that feels like unnecessary withholding simply because I find I get distracted wondering who the person is when I’d rather focus on the story. I love that you’ve got a great example to draw on that worked for you as a reader because that’s helpful to then emulate in our own writing. There are always instances where what we might notice in one book as a concern is then totally fine in another. Great perspective! Thanks so much for the discussion.

Yes! I couldn’t agree more, Becca. As a reader, it always conjures up frustration for me when I can see those strings being pulled to try and hook me. The only exception I can think of when it comes to the viewpoint character holding out on us is when they’ve suffered massive trauma that they themselves are not ready to face, let alone to share. Without the logic of that giving sense to the withholding, it almost always feels like a sad trick to hold things back. Thank you for having me on today!

Hi Jennifer, we’ve all been there! I think it helps to pin down the nature of the decision being made off-page. If it drives the character’s actions toward their goal, it’s almost always better to include the decision point. Sometimes, I suspect the character might do things like prepare for the push toward the next scene goal off-page. So if we know the character has made the choice to take their dad’s truck first thing in the morning, we don’t need to see them set an alarm or get dressed with the lights off and to move about quietly as to not wake Dad up. We are okay to jump from decision to more important actions. But the decision point should be shown so the reader doesn’t feel left out of the process. I hope this helps! Thank you for chiming in!