Keep us worried and anxious for
your character.

There’s a funny truth about most of the world’s great novels and stories: they don’t keep you feeling warm and fuzzy on every page. In fact, most of them are working very hard to keep you feeling decidedly uncomfortable all day. Good novels don’t want you reassured that the world is normal and everything is preceding swimmingly, that this rough patch will soon be replaced by a picnic by the lake. No, they want you feeling worried for the character’s welfare. They want you to be biting your nails. It’s a quick and easy way to make your reader feel more invested in the story, cheering for the character, and anxious to find out what happens next. Here are a few ways to keep your reader anxious.

The world is not perfect: small signs of decay.

Modern life is complicated; it’s just not the case that when one bad thing happens, all other things put themselves on hold and wait in line. No, bad things tend to happen in clusters rather than one by one. So while it’s important not to jam-pack your story with too much artificial drama, it’s a good idea to have small, annoying problems cropping up. The main problem might be a looming divorce, but maybe someone’s child is doing poorly in school, and the parents are getting old and infirm. Small things remind us that this is the real world, where our problems come at us whether we’re ready or not.

After the jump: more ways to keep your reader climbing the walls!

Use the real worries of modern life.

The other thing to remember is how we live in a uniquely anxious time. The national mood since September 11th, and probably before that too, has been one of paranoia, worry, fear, and concern over a growing list of problems that invade our daily lives, from global warming to cancer-causing plastic tupperware to increasing rates of heart disease. We are bombarded on a daily basis with reasons to feel afraid. Just as in real life, in stories the characters don’t exist in a vacuum: they live in a climate which has many worries and problems. Give yuor characters a few anxieties, whether it’s autism, carcinogens, or job layoffs. Add an extra problem to the main drama of the story, and it will often help draw out the problem that is at the core of the story. Stress will help your character speak his mind or push his actions to the limit.

Keep us waiting to find out what happens.

A common example of this “what happens next” device is the use of a medical problem. Nowadays, there are a host of medical problems that could end up being nothing — or could become devastating news. While it’s not the main action of the story, in “You’re Ugly, Too”, Lorrie Moore has her character feeling a mole on her neck and waiting for the results of the biopsy for it. It’s just one way to keep us turning the pages, waiting to see if this character we’ve come to care about is really sick. It’s not the story — but it’s a way to keep the reader as stressed as the character.

So as you can see, stress in reading is, oddly enough, a good thing! Stress makes us care; stress keeps us reading. Don’t be too eager to assure the reader that everything will turn out okay.