Don’t Leave Readers Hanging

Here's what happens when you don't let readers know, up high, why they should read your story

Over the past week, I edited three drafts from different nonfiction writers that all had the same fatal flaw. On each one, I got several graphs in and I did not know who the story was aimed at, why I should keep reading, why I should care. My reaction to each story top, as a reader and editor: So what?

Image: DC Studio/Shutterstock. Used under the writer’s license.

As I continued editing, I found the goods were all there: compelling heds, strong ledes, interesting facts, good writing on a word-for-word basis. But the stories made so many points, without a clearly stated reason for making them, that the threads meandered aimlessly. As a reader, I was left hanging—or at least I suspected I would be.

If the writer were explaining these same concepts in conversation, a reasonable listener would stop them and say: So what? What’s your point? Why are you telling me all this? I’ve got things to do, a life to live!

Same logic applies to a nonfiction story: What am I supposed to think about this? What does the writer want me to take from the piece? What does this list of facts add up to. What’s the point?

So what?

In all three stories, the writers presented societal problems that had affected them, and about which they had personal experience or professional expertise, or both. But they either didn’t tell readers what was to be done about it, or hid that part in the middle or stuffed it at the bottom, with no hint at the top that solutions were coming. Instead, they went on and on about the problems and the implications. Not knowing where the stories were going, the reader in me just wanted to hop out.

Not every story is about problems and solutions, but the same problem crops up in stories of any sort, whatever the theme. Several graphs in, the reader is left hanging, wondering where the story is going. I’m prone to the mistake in my own writing (which is why we all need editors!). It’s natural to get lost in our thought trains and fail to spot the engine that’ll pull the story along.

The fix is often easy, as it was for each of these stories. Lemme explain how…