How to Make Your Book Impossible to Put Down

The teens in my life told me I just HAD to watch the Netflix series Outer Banks. Now in its 5th season, Outer Banks is about a group of teenagers living on an island off the coast of North Carolina who get sucked into a treasure hunt for gold from a sunken British merchant ship. These kids are poor on a rich island where poor kids have to work for all the rich country club jerks and their jerk kids, and this gold could turn their lives around. Of course, lots of nefarious characters are also after this gold, and soon this group of ride-or-die friends are on the run, trying to stay a step ahead - then a step behind, then a step ahead again - of whoever has the gold at any particular moment.

It’s high-stakes, fast-paced, full of everything people turn to YA storytelling for – friends who are more family than your real family, who are the only ones who know the truth while the adults are either oblivious or actively thwarting them. There’s danger, young love, rebellion, defiance. And lots and lots and lots of running.

It’s also a master class in cause and effect storytelling.

Because of That, Now This

There are many things that can hook a reader into a story – a compelling plot, relatable characters, engaging setting. Keeping them hooked requires narrative drive, that forward-driving momentum that makes your book impossible to put down (or makes it impossible to hit ‘pause’ on Outer Banks)

How do you build narrative drive?

You need a cause-and-effect trajectory.

Cause-and-effect trajectory is the fancy writing term for the logical progression of events in a story, where each event triggers the next event, which triggers the next event, and so on.

A less-of-a-mouthful way to say this is Because of That storytelling. Because of that, now this is happening. Every scene builds on what came before it. This gives your story a sense of cohesion, makes it feel knit together. And because each thing that happens is triggering the next thing that happens, every event in the story matters.

The opposite of this is And Then That storytelling. This happened, and then happened, and then this happened. Rather than a chain of linked events, you’ve got series of events that are unconnected, making the story feel like it’s jumping around and not adding up to anything. Scenes don’t seems to matter, because they has no bearing on what comes next.

And Then That stories fail to create narrative drive, because they fail to build a cause-and-effect trajectory that makes the story cohesive.

Which means there’s no reason for a reader to keep on reading.

Not Just for Plot

Because of That storytelling needs to be layered into every level of your story. The outer plot needs it, and so does the internal arc of change. It, too, needs to follow a logical progression, where each shift in worldview triggers a new insight, which triggers the next new insight, and so on until the story’s resolution.

Emotions, too, need to follow a logical, cause-and-effect progression. Something I see often in the manuscripts I work on are characters whose emotions are all over the place. In one chapter, they’re mad. In the next chapter, they’re happy. In the next, they’re dejected. These characters are reacting to the immediate situation. It’s And Then That storytelling. They’re mad. And then they’re happy. And then they’re dejected.

But emotions need to carry over from scene to scene, and affect how the character reacts next. For example: Jane’s boyfriend hasn’t responded to her texts in days, and she’s mad and upset and not sure what it’s supposed to mean. Then she goes to lunch with her friend Sue, who’s super excited about a new guy who just asked her out. Because Jane is mad and upset about her relationship, Sue’s happiness is irritating her. Because of that, she lashes out at her, telling her the guy will just ghost her. Hurt, Sue walks out on their lunch, and because of that, Jane is now dejected. Jane’s emotions carried over from one scene to the next, triggering the next reaction, which then triggered the next reaction.

What’s the Trigger?

Take a look at this progression of events from a scene early in season 1 of Outer Banks: (Spoiler alert – but trust me, this is just the beginning)

Because John B got his hands on an original map of the island before it was developed, he knows where original finder of the gold hid it long ago. But now there’s a house built on that site. Because of that, they have to sneak into the house’s basement to look for clues. Kie gets stung by a mosquito, which is weird – why would there be mosquitoes in a basement? Because of that, Pope starts looking for water in the basement, which leads him to discover a false floor under which is a deep well – the perfect place to hide gold. So they lower John B via a rope down to the bottom of the well, but there’s no gold there. As they start to pull him back up, the owner of the house shows up with a shotgun, thinking her house has been invaded by thieves. She starts shooting. Because of that, the friends lose hold of the rope, and John B starts to fall back down the well. But then his hand catches on a ledge halfway and stops his fall. Turns out, the ledge is actually a small carve-out in the side of the well – a potentially perfect place to hide gold. John B can hear his friends panicking upstairs and wants to help, but he needs this gold to prove his failed treasure hunter of a dad, who’s mysteriously missing at the moment, wasn’t crazy. Because of that, he crawls into the carve-out, and finds the gold (!). But without his friends to pull him back up, he’s stuck. Because of that, all he can grab is one bar of gold to shove in his pocket so his hands are free to climb out of the well on his own, leaving the rest of the gold just sitting there…

And so on. The whole show goes on like this. Every scene is almost pure cause-and-effect. (Yes, this is ONE scene.) Everything thing that happens – from scene level action to the developing global story – has a trigger. Everything builds on what came before it.

The so-obvious-it’s-hitting-you-in-the-face cause-and-effect trajectory of this show makes it a great study in Because of That storytelling. Cause-and-effect trajectory is one of those easily-missed, submerged-in-the-layers aspects of storytelling. The better you get at spotting it in TV shows where it’s obvious and out there for everyone to see, the better you’ll get at seeing it at work in books where the cause-and-effect might more subtle. It’s there. It’s always there. If it weren’t, the story would feel disconnected and random.

Train yourself to look for the cause-and-effect trajectory next time you sit down to binge Netflix. What links one scene to the next? What triggers the scene after that? And not just the plot – how are the characters’ emotions triggering their next reaction?

Cause-and-Effect in Your Story

Then asses your own story for cause-and-effect. Ask yourself:

· What is happening?

· Why is this happening now? What is the trigger?

· How does this lead to what happens next?

You can also grab a piece of paper and start listing your scenes with a Because of That in between each scene. If you can’t identify a Because of That between two scenes or a find a trigger for what’s happening next, you’ve likely got a broken link in your cause-and-effect trajectory.

Get It On The Page!

Sometimes the cause-and-effect trajectory is missing because you didn’t think to put it there in the first place. You know your story, and you know why what’s happening next is happening. But you didn’t put it on the page for the readers to know.

You’ve GOT to get the triggers on the page!

Always remember: the readers are not in your head. They don’t know what you know. If you aren’t putting the triggers on the page, then, to your readers, your story will feel disconnected and random. Sometimes writers resist this, worried that they’re being too obvious. But readers don’t need cleverness – they need clarity. Give them what they need, and they’ll follow you anywhere.

Till next time…

Happy writing,

Erin