A common debating point in the writing community is whether to plan your writing, or to deliberately not plan your writing. Both approaches appear to have worked for different authors, and so the debate is never likely to end soon. But in this post, I'll argue that planning your writing has many great effects, all of which will make your job as a writer easier in the long run, producing work that is more sensible, resonant, and enjoyable for the reader - all priceless benefits.
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Jan 18 — 5 mins read
Keeping a reader’s attention means leading them down a path that looks interesting and unknown in some way. You have to entice them down this path by first getting their attention (the “hook” in any novel), making a lot of promises early on, and then delivering on those promises quickly. This sets a pattern of repeated promise-delivery that the reader gets used to.