Concept
Reader experience
You might say: page-turner, engagement, suspense
What happens in the reader’s head: questions, worry, surprise and relief. Maass: put tension on every page, so readers read every word.
- What it does
- Is the real product: the book exists to create this experience.
- Ask
- Where would a reader put the book down?
- Trouble
- Readers skim, or put the book down and never come back.
Parts
- Immersion: The feeling of living inside the story.
- Question loop: Lee Child’s method: ask a question, then delay the answer.
- Hooks: Lines that pull the reader on.
- Tension and release: Scenes raise tension; sequels let the character and the reader recover before the next push.
- Information gap: The gap between what the reader knows and what the characters know.
- Pacing: How fast the story seems to move.
Connections
- Measured by: Beta readers
Sources
- Donald Maass, interview with Michael A. Ventrella, micro-tension interview exchange
When tension exists in the mind of the reader there’s only one way to relieve it: Read the next thing on the page.
Use it on your project
teardown-apply: hold "Reader experience" (reader-experience) from the teardown at https://teardownatlas.com/fiction-writing/ against my project
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