Writing a Page Turner

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Kevin Hart
6 years ago
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1 Writing a Page Turner What makes a page-turner? Is there a trick to keeping your reader so stuck in your story that they don t want to put it down? Let s take a minute here to list some things that keep us reading a book. This list has a lot to do with my personal preferences in a book, but yours should look pretty similar. Characters: If you don t like the people who populate a book, chances are good you won t keep reading it. Questions: Does the story keep you asking questions you just have to find the answers to? Emotions: Are you laughing when the characters laugh, crying when they cry? Conflict: Is the conflict believable and clearly laid out? Now, let s break down these elements. Characters The single most effective way of creating suspense is to give us a character we can care about. By making us care, you give us a reason to go on with the story. We want to find out what happens to this person you ve created, and the wanting is going to keep us reading. We ve talked a little bit about characters already, but we ll touch on a few more basics here. The first- and only- cardinal rule of building characters is: make them real. Easier said than done, I know. If you use a character trait sheet (like the one provided in the lesson on characters) you're part of the way there. Those lists will help you think about the character s motivation, or why they do the things they do. It will also help you set up their weaknesses and strengths, because we all have them and a writer has to learn how to use them. If you aren t the type to fill out a form on a character, just try doing an interview with your character. Think up questions to ask them and write down the

answers in the first person POV. Think of yourself as Barbara Walters, or, if you prefer, Dr. Phil. I know you re thinking, Why do I have to go to all this trouble? Good question.

Any good story will take a character to places they ve never been before, not just physically but emotionally as well, and we have to know how those characters will respond in those situations.

2 answers in the first person POV. Think of yourself as Barbara Walters, or, if you prefer, Dr. Phil. I know you re thinking, Why do I have to go to all this trouble? Good question. And the answer is: because it will make a better story. Any good story will take a character to places they ve never been before, not just physically but emotionally as well, and we have to know how those characters will respond in those situations. If we re not sure how the character handles everyday life, how are we going to know how they ll handle being held at gunpoint or chased by demon dogs? We won t. We not only have to know how they would react, we have to know how they wouldn t react, as well. I know, that sounds redundant, but it s a common mistake that writers of all skill levels make. They take a character and force them into being something they are not to fit the plot or to fit what the writer thinks should happen. Confused yet? Let me explain what I mean. Have you ever seen a horror movie? Even if you haven t, chances are you know about those famous horror movie scenes where the heroine hears a noise out in the deep, dark woods and is compelled to go out there and see what it is......even though she was warned that a serial killer recently escaped from a mental institution and is believed to be hunting down victims in the woods. Now, on the surface this heroine seems to be reasonably intelligent, but she still goes out into those woods (usually in her night gown and bare feet) with no weapon and no flashlight. That, in my book, is stupid.

3 Yet, almost every cheesy horror movie has a scene like this. Why do you think that is? Because the writer of that movie NEEDED the heroine to act like a complete moron in order to put her in a situation where the bad guy can scare the pants off her. Starting to get my point? If you have a smart, self-assured heroine, don t try to insult her intelligence--or your readers'--by sending her into those woods without so much as a frying pan to defend herself. Better yet, let her lock all the doors and try to call the police. The bad guy can still come to her, the effect is still the same, but she doesn t look stupid in the process. This problem crops up in other types of stories too. Characters who are unemotional and stoic start bawling like babies. Squires too afraid to pick up a sword in battle suddenly find a backbone with no apparent motivation. All of these things will make your characters unbelievable. That doesn t mean you can t make them do unpredictable things. The trick is to make the unpredictable believable. If the unemotional character wants to grieve for a recently lost friend, show that grief in other ways besides shedding tears. If the coward needs a reason to fight, give him one. Don t expect the reader to buy a dramatic change in the character without some kind of notice or logic. A catalyst for change can be the situation they find themselves in. Learning how to balance a character, plot, and setting come with practice, as well as reading other authors who are good at it. I want to give you an example from the book Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck. Steinbeck, in my opinion, reached the pinnacle of characterization and change due to situation in this book. If you haven t already read it in your English classes, chances are you will eventually have to. The passage I am about to quote comes from the end of the book where one of the characters, George, must make a decision concerning his friend Lennie, a man with severe mental disabilities, who has gotten himself into a whole lot of trouble. I want you to pay attention to the clues that this is not something George wants to do, but feels he must. I m not going to give the ending away here, for those of you who haven t read it, so don t worry about that. In this scene, Lennie and George are talking as George comes to a decision about what has to be done.

4 ~~ The little evening breeze blew over the clearing and the leaves rustled and the wind waves flowed up the green pool. And the shouts of men sounded again, this time much closer than before. George took off his hat. He said shakily, Take off your hat, Lennie. The air feels fine. Lennie removed his hat dutifully and laid it on the ground in front of him. The shadow in the valley was bluer, and the evening came fast. On the wind the sound of crashing in the brush came to them. Lennie said, Tell how it s gonna be. George had been listening to the distant sounds. For a moment he was business-like. Look across the river Lennie, an I ll tell you so you can almost see it. Lennie turned his head and looked off across the pool and up the darkening slopes of the Gabilans. We gonna get a little place, George began. He reached in his side pocket and brought out Carlson s Luger; he snapped the safety, and the hand and gun lay on the ground behind Lennie s back. He looked at the back of Lennie s head, at the place where the spine and skull were joined. A man s voice called from up the river, and another man s answered. Go on, said Lennie. George raised the gun and his hand shook, and he dropped his hand to the ground again.

If you ve never read this book you re probably wondering what drove George to the point where he is now, and what Lennie did to make shooting him preferable to whatever punishment he is going to

5 If you ve never read this book you re probably wondering what drove George to the point where he is now, and what Lennie did to make shooting him preferable to whatever punishment he is going to receive at the hands of the men crashing through the bush. All I can say is, read it for yourself and find out. There is a lot of conflict in this book, conflict between migrant farm hands and the landowners, between George s wants out of life and his loyalties to Lennie, between dreams and harsh reality. The point of showing you this small passage is that it is a prime example of a character reacting to the circumstances they find themselves in. George doesn t want to shoot Lennie, you can see that by the way his hand shakes and the way he says shakily. You also get a sense of the danger Lennie is in as George notices the sound of the men coming after him. If you were to read the entire book, you would also see how Steinbeck gives hints or foreshadows what is to come. Steinbeck is also an expert at drawing out the relationship between man and his environment. The time and place of this story, mid 1930s, has a huge effect on these men and their reactions. Let s look at how Steinbeck used description to set the mood of this piece too. George and Lennie stand in a protected little area, where the breeze is gentle and there is a serene pool of water. Yet danger is coming, rummaging through the woods, looming closer. By describing the approaching evening, the blue of the shadows, there is a certain symbolism there. No matter how secure you think you are, something is always coming after you. There are always wolves at the door. Now, there are tons of things in this book that could be picked apart. In fact, for a volume a little over one hundred pages, there is a lot to be learned from the way Steinbeck constructs this story. Symbolisms, first class description, and excellent characterization ooze off every page. I would highly recommend reading and studying the techniques Steinbeck uses.

6 But for our purposes today I hope you see the balancing act between a character's emotional reactions and their environment. I think many writers forget that suspense, at its most basic, is simply wanting to find out what happens next to the characters. The well-being of the entire world doesn t have to be in danger, their lives don t have to be on the line. Suspense can be as simple as wanting to know if the main character gets to go to the dance with the girl of his dreams, or if he will get shot down. Some of the best stories I ve ever read had relatively small stakes like this. It s all in how you tell the story and portray your characters. I think a lot of beginning writers also forget about a little something called conflict. Even if you create memorable characters, you have to have those characters fighting against or for something. They have to need something, want, desire. Give your characters something to need, and then make it nearly impossible to get. And presto, you have suspense. Everything from horror to love needs to be played up. The excerpt above from the book Of Mice and Men is a prime example. By the time you get to this passage in the book you are drawn into the characters' world and you truly feel for George because of the decision he has to make. Giving you small examples like this out of context is a hard way to learn because a good book is the sum of its parts. So many different techniques go into a good book. So, the best thing you can do is read, and read a lot. Pay attention to those areas in the story that really hold your attention. Go back and reread those passages several times and pay attention to the different techniques the author used. Try to see if you can incorporate those techniques into your own writing. Think About This: Can you think of the last book you read that deeply affected you? Perhaps you shed a few tears right along with the characters, or laughed where they did? Can you remember what exactly caused this effect in you? The characters, obviously, as we ve already discussed, but what else? In all honesty, it s a combination of many things; characters, timing, plot, believability.

( /75) = TOTAL SCORE. Of Mice and Men. Name: ( /35) = completion. English I CP ( /15) = Page #s. Due: Date of the Test!

( /75) = TOTAL SCORE. Of Mice and Men. Name: ( /35) = completion. English I CP ( /15) = Page #s. Due: Date of the Test! 1 Name: ( /35) = completion Ms. Mauro ( /25) = **scoring** English I CP ( /15) = Page #s Due: Date of the Test! ( /75) = TOTAL SCORE Of Mice and Men Character George Milton Description as discovered throughout