Concept
Dramatic question
You might say: central question, story question, will she or won’t she
The question the story raises early and answers late. Here: will Maya prove who wrote the list before 06:00?
- What it does
- Pulls the reader to the end: they keep reading to get the answer.
- Ask
- What question does chapter one plant, and where exactly is it answered?
- Trouble
- Readers drift away in the middle: the question was answered too soon, or never asked.
What to look for
- A question planted early
- An answer arriving late
Connections
- See also: Climax
Sources
- Lee Child, “A Simple Way to Create Suspense”, pp. 1–3
As novelists, we should ask or imply a question at the beginning of the story, and then we should delay the answer.
- Story Grid, “The Five Commandments of Storytelling”, Five Commandments
The climax is the active answer to the question raised by the crisis.
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