Hi Reader,

Last week, I read a book I could not put down.

I lost so much sleep to it (hello, 3 am). I finished it in six days, and then restarted it from the beginning (and finished it again in three days). I listened to it on Libby, but I’m currently debating whether to buy it as an audiobook or paperback. (Both? Both. Both is good.)

In short, this book is a page-turner.

This book has achieved what so many writers aspire to. Every writer I know wants their readers to love their books like this. (And I’m sure you wouldn’t mind if every reader just had to buy multiple copies of your book!)

So how do you do it? How do you write a page-turner that keeps your readers up until 3 am?

Here’s the secret:

Create the kind of tension your reader wants to read.

Make that tension the driving force behind the entire plot.

Make it palpable on every page.

Because if your reader feels tension in your story, and that tension is the kind of tension that they find irresistible, they’ll be unable to put your book down.

When I work with clients to nail down the big picture of their story, we identify what that tension is.

In other words, what emotion do you want your readers to feel when they read your story?

And when we dig into scenes in Scene Mastery, we make that tension palpable on every page. We study, practice, and apply dozens of micro-strategies to make the reader feel that emotion scene by scene.

Here’s the secret behind every page-turning novel, though:

Different readers like different kinds of tension.

On the one hand, this sounds obvious.

We know that some readers like the adrenaline-laced thrill of an action story. Others like the intriguing, mind-bending mystery of a crime story. Some like the swoony romance of a love story, and some like the unsettling fright of a horror story.

But somehow, when we think about page-turning books, we tend to forget that.

We treat “page-turning” as though it means that every reader must love a book. As though “page-turning” means a book has universal appeal, and that every single reader who walks into Barnes and Noble will be compelled to walk out with a copy.

The truth is, different readers like different kinds of tension.

The readers looking for the fright of a horror story might find the adrenaline of an action story too tame.

The readers looking for the mystery of a crime story might find the swoony romance of a character-driven love story grating (not to mention they’ll be bored by the lack of puzzles to solve).

Page-turner =/= universal appeal.

Page-turner = irresistible appeal for the right reader.

Here’s what I didn’t mention earlier about that book I couldn’t put down:

That book is a page-turner for me.

Right off the top of my head, I can think of five readers who would be bored to tears by it. Forget page-turner—they wouldn’t make it past page two.

I am so glad that the author of this book didn’t aim for universal appeal. If she’d tried to please those five other readers, she would have created a book I would enjoy so much less. It would probably cease to be a page-turner for anyone at all.

So don’t worry about whether every reader will love your story. I can solve that worry for you right now, for free: they won’t.

But you’re not writing for every reader.

You’re writing for one reader, the reader who will love the specific tension you create in your story.

Figure out what that reader wants, and write that tension. Or figure out what tension you’ll create, and find that reader.

Either way, narrow your focus. And then go all-in.

Happy editing,

Alice

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