3 Tips To Keep Your Story Moving Forward

Readers don’t have a rearview mirror. It’s your job to steer them in a straight line.

If I could put a sign on every writer’s forehead, it would be this:

Keep your story moving forward.

Sounds simple, but I’m going to give you three examples of the types of goblins that can pull you and your readers off course.

Don’t Use Flashbacks Too Soon

Writers of fiction often struggle with the question of where to begin their story. Instead of nailing down the beginning of the action, they try to kill one bird with two stones. They begin their tale in the present and then immediately shift into the past.

What’s the problem?

A reader needs to get anchored in a story. You have to introduce her to the conflict, the characters. She has to settle down, get to know a place, much the way a hostess introduces a guest to a party. You wouldn’t welcome a friend to a party, and instead of telling him who the other attendees were, start describing an event that happened in your childhood, as if all the other people in the room froze like statues.

You’d wait until an appropriate moment opened up to tell your anecdote about your childhood.

The same thing is true for fiction.

Your reader has to care about the story in present time before she cares about the past.

Your reader has to care about the story in present time before she cares about the past.

Start with a scene or narration in the story’s current time. Introduce the important elements. The characters, the place, the conflicts. Allow the reader to get to know the story, to develop a curiosity about the world. To start to wonder about why the characters are in this predicament. This is true for both humorous stories and tense dramas.

The more you can lead the reader along into the story, the more you develop their eagerness to know what happened earlier in the character’s lives.

If you give too much information too soon, you can overwhelm the reader. You create an info dump that can tempt the reader to move on to another story with a more engaging opening that allows them to get lost in the world of the story.

Take a look at stories you love. Gauge how long it takes the author to switch from moving the story forward to pausing and taking a backward look. Generally speaking, it’s not something that happens quickly.

If you feel anxiety about letting your reader know your character’s back story, chances are, you’re experiencing your own anxiety about how to tell your story, not anticipating your readers’ unease with the pace of the story.

ING Verbs At The Beginning Of A Paragraph Or Sentence

I see a tendency in inexperienced writers to begin many sentences with “ing” verbs. “Walking down the street, she…”

I discourage writers from this convention for several reasons. You can write yourself into illogical situations. “Walking down the street, the car turned a corner.”

Yes, I’ve seen that type of sentence (not a direct quote but close), even though it makes no sense. The author wanted to show the character walking down the street and seeing a car and, well. . .

Ing verbs can create a type of shorthand and that’s why beginning writers use them, but they don’t serve them very well.

Even if you say, “Walking down the street, she saw the car turn the corner,” the reader has to pause and think, “who was walking down the street?”

If you’re writing suspense of any kind, this blip, which the reader may not consciously register, slows down the action. It’s just sloppy writing.

I see this usage sometimes several times on a page. If you want to use it, I say limit it to once or twice in a story, even if it’s book length. Seriously. Try these options instead.

She spotted the car as soon as she started down the street.

The car appeared when she began walking down the street.

She darted behind the hedge when the car turned the corner.

Our language is rich. You are a writer. Use a variety of words to communicate your thoughts and images.

Don’t use shorthand.

Don’t Ask The Reader To Juggle Two Thoughts At The Same Time

“As she walked down the street, the car turned the corner.”

This structure is almost as bad, maybe even worse than starting with an ING verb.

The reader is humming along, grooving on your characters, and all of sudden, you split his brain in two.

He has to remember that something’s going to happen when she’s walking down the street. Will he remember when he gets to the second clause?

Okay, so maybe I’m making a big deal out of a simple, two-clause sentence. But you don’t know the stresses on your reader. You don’t know the number of times your reader has had to look up from the page.

Why can’t you say, “She walked down the street, and the car turned the corner.”

Did the two actions happen simultaneously? It’s not clear at the beginning of the sentence. Something was happening when she walked down the street. We know that because, “As she walked...” tells us that.

But what? Is this where you want the suspense? Should the reader be trying to figure out the next plot point from this phrase?

Or would, “She walked down the street as the car turned the corner,” be a better way of telegraphing that perhaps she had put herself in danger. Or, her lover was about to appear. Or, an important person was driving away.

The action between the two events is now clear.

“As” is a simple word, but only if you place it carefully so it makes sense of the action.

Here’s a good rule of thumb for writing fiction or non-fiction. When a sentence does not need to create tension, suspense, or deliver complicated ideas, make it simple. Don’t over-complicate.

You can deliver a deft, complex story or article in simple language that won’t talk down to a sophisticated reader and won’t confuse a novice reader.

Write clear sentences. It’s your most important mission.

I’m an editor and writer on Medium with Top Writer status in several categories. I’m also an editor for the publication, Rogues Gallery. I’ve published 55 titles on Amazon and edit for private clients. If you’d like to hire me as your editor for fiction, non-fiction, or business writing, please contact me here. If you’d like to read more of my work on Medium, click here to sign up for my newsletter. I’ll make sure you don’t miss a word. Thank you for reading.