no one wants to read it.

Conflict my friends.

Rising conflict.  Stakes…then higher stakes.

Dilemmas, paradoxes, no escape from the dangers.

Go see a thriller or read one.  If you’re breathlessly gripping your seat or turning the pages it’s because the author has raised the stakes.  He or she has given someone you care about and thrown them to the wolves.

Your story is a moving train, the speed of it is up to you…in my mind the faster that train is headed for the precipice the more I want to read.

Keep asking yourself as you develop the plot: “Okay, what’s the worst thing that could happen now?”

Then… ask it again.

Write it out, then ask it again.

Pursue this until you…the writer…are breathlessly writing those pages.  This is what your reader is asking of you.

Give it to ’em.

J