3 Ways to Keep the Reader Guessing

September 3, 2015 Michelle Griep

There's a fine line between trust and mistrust. It's the author's job to keep the reader teetering on that line. Force their little readerly arms to flail about like windmills. Never -- ever -- hand them the entire story on a platter, all served up with au jus pooling about. Keep them guessing if the author will be able to pull off tying up all the ends of the story by the finish. How do you do that?

Keep the story on shaky ground. This is done in several ways.

How To Keep a Reader Guessing

1. Raise questions.

Make your reader ask who was responsible for a particular event. Or maybe cause a reader to wonder what did a particular character did on such-and-such a night. Raising questions causes your reader to turn the page. Just make sure to answer them all by the end, because this technique can also make a reader want to punch you in the head.

2. Provide possibilities.

Life rarely presents one option. Neither should your story. Open up a can of worms in your reader's mind (I know . . . eww, right?) and create plausible alternatives for a plot turn. They won't know which one you'll choose, and then to really up the tension, write something that you didn't hint at in the first place (but that is totally logical, or again, you'll get punched).

3. Use backstory like salt.

A little backstory goes a long way. Drop unsettling clues about skeletons in a character's closet, but just a bone at a time. Keep the reader wondering if they really can trust the character or not.

A great story is built on shaky ground -- but connected to a rock solid foundation. Think earthquake resistant housing. Keep the story rattling around but with an ultimate unveiling of the foundation beneath.