Answering Questions -- Mireyah Wolfe

The other day, my parents and I watched a movie called The Box. You might've heard of it--it's a film starring James Marsden and Cameron Diaz. They're a couple back in the 50's who receive a box on their doorstep one morning and a man comes and offers them a deal: If they press the red button on the box, they will be given a million dollars. Sounds awesome, right? But we all know there's always a catch. If they press the red button on the box...someone in the world will die. The general premise of this movie was really intriging. It's tension-filled, it makes you ask so many questions. But I absolutely hated this movie. Why? Because it never answered my questions. I have no idea who was behind it all. I didn't find out what the final outcome was. I didn't see the main characters beat the "bad" guy. I saw one of the many couples who were offered this deal go the same exact route that the others had gone. This was not different except that they asked questions. They tried to figure it out. And they failed. At the end of the movie, I knew what happened, but not because they told me. Not because they answered my questions. Because it was the only thing it could have been. Martians. (Yeah, I was shocked too: It's a total Sci-Fi movie.) (If you've seen the movie, you totally know what I'm talking about.) How does this relate to writing? One of the elements of writing a story is making your reader ask questions and want the answers. We want to know what will happen. Why it's happening. Who's doing it? Why are they doing it? How will the main characters win? Will they win? What will be sacrificed? What secret will be revealed? The trick is making them ask these questions, and answer them as the story progresses...but giving them more questions to ask. Interweave the questions and answers until the climax...where there are no more questions, and the reader knows everything. (This is discounting series stories, which is a both a bit more complicated and simpler.) The short of it is: Don't leave your reader hanging. It will make them hate you and the book. (I just finished The Iron Hunt by Marjorie M. Liu and I'm very glad someone told me that it was a good set-up book because if they hadn't, I'd have been very upset over the lack of answers in it. Instead, I was prepared to still be asking questions, and I'm wanting the second one like you wouldn't believe.) ~Mireyah Wolfe