Raising story questions: a little writing fun

The following is an excerpt from my upcoming book, Jump-start Your Novel with Kitty-cats in Action. I’m going to rest my flogging arm today and for the holidays, and will return to that cruel practice next Monday. Meanwhile, maybe this will be a little bit of writing fun for you.

What follows is an example I created to illustrate building tension through story questions from the very beginning of a story. But I’m going to leave off part of the last line and. . .well, you’ll see. Here’s the excerpt:

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Perhaps my list (of 6 vital story ingredients) should have started with story questions, for without them there would be no tension. You create story questions with information that forces a reader to wonder what will happen next (by information I mean action or dialogue in a scene). For example, how about this for the very first sentence you encounter in a novel?

The spider crept onto Judy's bare neck.

Your knowledge of spiders raises instant questions: Will it bite Judy? Is it poisonous? Is it deadly? What will happen if she's bitten? Will she feel the spider and avoid the bite? What's going to happen next?!

Let's add a little more information and see what happens to the story questions.

The black widow spider crept onto Judy's bare neck.

Uh-oh. Now you know it's poisonous, and its bite has more serious consequences—the stakes have been raised, the story question is intensified, and the tension mounts. And now you “see” the spider more clearly—it’s black! Is that enough tension? Enough story questions? Maybe, but we can do better.

The black widow spider crept onto Judy's bare neck. She stirred in her sleep.

She's asleep? Ohmygod! New story question: will she wake up in time to deal with the spider? Once more:

The black widow spider crept onto Judy's bare neck. She stirred in her sleep. A second black widow crawled onto her naked skin.

New story questions (and tension): How many black widows are there? Where is she that there are so many? What will happen next?! And we did this with only three sentences. Just for fun, what if this comes next?

Judy opened her eyes just as the first spider crawled onto her cheek. She looked down to see what tickled, and . . . (snip)

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Okay, your turn. How would you end that last sentence in a way that adds yet another story question? Tell me with a Comment. When I return on Monday, I’ll show you how I finished the sentence with a twist that I think multiplied the tension and “compel factor” already created.

Have fun. And have a great Thanksgiving.

For what it's worth,

Ray

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Donations go to the cost of hosting FtQ.

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Public floggings available. If I can post it here,

1. send 1st chapter or prologue plus 1st chapter as an attachment (cutting and pasting and reformatting from an email is a time-consuming pain) and I'll critique the first couple of pages.
2. Please format your submission as specified at the front of this post.
3. Please include in your email permission to post it on FtQ.
4. And, optionally, permission to use it as an example in a book if that's okay.
5. If you’re in a hurry, I’ve done “private floggings,” $50 for a first chapter.
6. If you rewrite while you wait you turn, it’s okay with me to update the submission.

ARCHIVES

© 2008 Ray Rhamey

Comments

[Sheila]

Thanks, guys. Coincidentally I have a character in my WIP who has pet spiders.

This was a fun exercise, Ray, thanks!

[Tony DiMeo]

Here's a question, Ray. How long can you/should you go before answering the story questions you raise?

I realize it's probably somewhat dependant on your story and the narrative, but is there a point of diminishing returns where you need to answer some story questions or risk losing the reader?

[Ray Rhamey]

Tony, I think the process is one of continually answering some story questions and raising others, making them stronger as you go. You can't leave everything suspended because you need to keep feeding the reader just enough story nourishment to keep them interested and involved, but not enough to stop their hunger.