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Let's talk about two reader rewards that are really useful for an author to consider: mystery and clarity.
This came up in our recent writing group. It also is on my mind as I dip my toes into Piranesi, which starts out with heavy doses of the mysterious.
These two things are opposites. Mystery is any time you're causing the reader to pause and think. Any time you force them to wonder about something unsaid on the page. It can be a missing name in a notebook, or a reaction from your MC that goes unexplained. Anything.
Clarity is any time we get solid answers. "Oh!" we say. "This is how the magic works!" We find out that so and so is actually the MCs mom. Or that only these kinds of spells ever work in this certain situation. Maybe we find out who blotted that missing name out of the notebook!
Both of these concepts are fairly vital to reader interest. Mystery keeps us turning the pages, out of a desire to find an answer to what we do not know. The more interesting the mysteries you present, the more likely we are to keep rolling along in the story.
On the other hand, too MUCH mystery, with almost no answers, can create fatigue. We, as the reader, do not feel any reward. That's where clarity comes in. Every time you give us solid information, we nod our heads, turning the page, armed with our NEW knowledge. How exciting.
In a similar way, though, too many answers, given too early in the plot, can be stifling. "Well, there's nothing left to figure out. Why keep reading?" There has to be incentive. Something left to unwind. Or else we feel like we already possess the ending, before the ending.
So keep these two tools in mind. In a given chapter, what questions does the reader leave with?! And what answers? And how are you balancing those two concepts to maintain reader interest.
Different genres obviously come with different ratios. So do different reading levels. But in almost every story, there's a functioning scale of QUESTIONS to ANSWERS. Maintaining that scale is vital.
This taps into another topic I'll talk about sometime: the reader's willingness to excuse their distastes in favor of finishing, and even praising, your book. Having a good clarity vs mystery scale is one aspect you can get RIGHT, that counters a reader's dislike of XYZ.
Maybe they really HATE that one trope you use. Or they're not a HUGE fan of that one POV. That is okay, as long as you're getting other aspects right. It's when this balance is thrown off... AND they hate that one element of your story, that you often see people discarding books.
