10 Reasons Readers DROP Your Stories (Writing Advice)

get ready cuz today we're going to talk about 10 reasons why audiences drop your stories and this is something I wanted to discuss because lately I've been reading a lot of novels and watching a lot of movies and I noticed that I keep dropping them Midway through now part of the reason for this is because well let's face it I'm an old man now I don't have much time left on this Earth and I have to be selective about the media I consume but that being said a lot of these stories are not giving me

enough reason to finish them and I thought today we would talk about 10 specific reasons why audiences give up on your stories I'll explain what each reason is why it's a problem and then finally I'll give you a solution for fixing the problem first reason is cliches in the opening chapter and I can't tell you how many times I've dropped a book because the opening chapter or the opening scene delivered something that I have seen a million times before and the problem here is that your opening scene is supposed to Signal what the rest of

the book will offer and if you're offering things like predictability and cliches chances are audiences are going to pass on the book and move on to something else now the solution here is to make a good first impression by delivering a unique opener you can work with familiar tropes there's nothing wrong with that but deliver them in a way that is fresh and imaginative signal to your audience that the rest of the story has something exciting to offer second reason assembly line introductions this is when you introduce one character after another after another after another

after another after another after another you get the idea and it's a problem early on in your story because if you have all this repetition and predictability it's going to suck the energy right out of the narrative you don't want that and the solution here let's say you have to introduce six characters six major characters at the beginning of your story now instead of just introducing them 1 2 3 4 5 6 introduce two or three characters then put them in some sort of plot situation some sort of event where they have to solve a

problem or overcome obstacles get them involved let's see them in action then introduce the remaining characters a little drama goes a long way toward keeping your story fresh and accessible third reason loss of emotional Stakes this is when we get invested in a character and their goals early on but over time we lose interest it might be because the story fails to explore the characters in more detail or it fails to remind us why they're going on this journey or it might be a situation where the story fails to raise the stakes by threatening to

take away what the character wants most and it's a problem because without emotional investment a story is nothing more than a series of lifeless events the solution is to remind us of what's at stake for the character remind us what it is why they want it so badly and then show us why they can't have it just yet fourth reason is an underwhelming threat and this is when the villain or the conflict is weak silly or cliched and it's a problem because a hero's struggles are only as engaging as the obstacles they face and if

the obstacles are underwhelming then the story tends to be underwhelming the solution here is to leave room for mystery and fear keep us in suspense about what we're dealing with and make sure that the character struggles as they try to achieve their goals fifth reason safety zones these are sections of the story where nothing meaningful is at stake you might have characters driving somewhere or maybe they're just hanging out or they're waiting for something to happen and the problem with this is that if you don't have any tension it's very hard to engage with the

story now the solution is to either cut these scenes or find a way to inject tension and something you might do for instance if you have a situation where two characters are driving to a destination have them get into a disagreement have them argue about where they're going or what they're going to do once they get there or some future plan or you might also want to create a situation where there's romantic tension between two characters or have a character keep a secret from another those kind of things keep us engaged cuz they build tension

and keep us glued to the screen or the page reason number six flabby conversations these are dialogue exchanges that are loaded with filler and as a result they go on for far too long and it's a problem because dialogue should be revealing character or pushing the story forward but in this case we have dialogue that is just aimless banter aimless back and forth and it's often the case when you have writers who are in love with the sound of their character's voices or the writer is afraid to push the story forward with meaningful action the

solution here is to ensure that conversations have purpose and direction I've done a number of videos on dialogue in the past I'll link one up here as well as in the description below but when you're constructing a conversation make sure that each character involved has a goal and then have them take verbal action as they try to achieve that goal reason number seven is repetitive plot scenarios and this is when a story drags us through the same plot events and outcomes again and again now most recently I was reading a book it was similar to

squid game like you had the this death game scenario where characters had to survive a series of contests one after another and I enjoyed it for a while but I got burned out in the middle because it was just one contest after another there was no room to breathe between them there was no variations along the way it was just the same stuff again and again now the solution is to throw in a surprising plot event or you might want to mix in some subplots to keep things fresh last week I talked about how to

write unpredictable stories I talked about squid game and how in the first season that the first episode throws you right into that scenario where you have the death game the contest and then in the second episode it surprises Us by sending all the characters back to their daily lives so mixing things up with something like that that can take your story in a fresh and exciting Direction reason number eight self-indulgent flashbacks these are flashbacks that are excessive or useless instead of adding necessary backstory or context to the narrative these flashbacks explore the past for far

too too long these pop up a lot in TV shows often times you'll have a ful length flashback episode and it just goes on and on we don't need all this information it's not relevant to the present day story and it sucks because it kills the pacing when we're being dragged through the past when we should be returning to the present the solution here deliver what's necessary and don't overstay your welcome a great recent example of this is episode four of the penguin I won't spoil anything I'll just say that the flashback here fits well

within the overall narrative it contains information we want it doesn't overstay its welcome and it juices up the present day story reason number nine is disrespectful Cliffhangers I've talked about this on the channel before and the thing is it's okay to end a chapter on a cliffhanger it's fine to create a dangerous scenario and keep your audience in suspense and make them wait for the outcome that's fine but if you completely and shamelessly manipulate your audience like in the season 6 finale of The Walking Dead you should have your keyboard taken away from you if

you remember this was when the show hyped up negan's big reveal and the season finale ended with him murdering a member of the main cast which member well the show doesn't tell us instead it squanders what should have been negan's big moment and lets the emotion go to waste now the solution here is to play fair with your audience it's okay to keep them guessing about what will happen next but you don't want to cheat them out of what happened just now finally the 10th reason why audiences drop your story is because they have a

busy life and I wanted to bring this up because sometimes it's not the writer's fault the reality is audiences have a lot on their plate they have a lot of things competing for their attention not just books and movies but also things like their job and exercising some people even have these things called families and friends and that can be hard to compete with it could be a major problem that us writers have to find a way to overcome and the solution is to write the best possible story that you can and to respect your

audience is time so study the craft keep your ego in check and deliver stories that engage us from start to finish so I hope this helps question of the day What story did you most recently drop and why did you drop it let us know in the comments section below thank you for watching if you want to support the Channel please pick up a copy of any one of my books and be sure to leave reviews on Amazon if you like horror stories you'll love the half murders it's about a woman and her daughter who

go into a haunted house and they get chopped in half and for that the nightmare is only beginning also be sure to check out my other videos like share and subscribe and as always remember to keep on writing